Hi,

My hair is naturally really light golden strawberry blond, and for years despite protests from my mother and believe it or not hair stylist, I've dyed my hair to cover the blond. I've done various shades of red and auburn, even light and dark browns. And managed to strip them all out with store bought dye remover back to the natural color.

About 3 years ago I went black and then tried to strip the hair dye out with a store bought dye remover. When it failed, I bravely shaved my head and started over.

Stupidly enough about 6 months back I dyed it black again (apparently didn't learn my lesson the first time around) Once again used the same store bought hair dye remover and turned into a calico. Bleach blond on top that faded somewhat into my natural color, into a orange-ish red color, that faded to a lighter brown, to dark brown and the very ends still black. Despite constant ridicule from my mother of my newest color(s) on my head, I stuck with it like that for a few months to let my hair build back up to it's soft healthy state with deep conditioning and the likes.

I then used the dye stripper again which resulted in the rest of the orange and brown colors coming out to the bleach blond, with the ends still black. It now looks like I purposely two toned my hair and I've decided I can live with this as a look for now.

But my question remains as I am still in the scheming process of removing the black dye completely. I've heard a lot of little things from different sources, and I'm trying to figure out which are fact and which are fiction.

Does naturally blond hair absorb certain shades of hair color more than other natural colors do, to the point where it really becomes permanent or impossible to remove or change?

I've also heard that some black dyes contain henna, that won't come out no matter what you do to it, that it will always remain black?

Because to date I've cut a good 10 inches off my hair of the black dye that fails to leave even with the 2 applications of dye remover thus far. Should I just continue to cut it off inch by inch as it grows or are the above statement/questions false and the black can be removed at some point?

Any thoughts, opinions or insight would be welcomed :cool:

Blonde hair doesn't contain as many color layers as darker hair.
Blonde hair only has a few layers of basic color whereas darker hair has a blonde base then a build up of varying shades, when stripping the color out of hair that has been dyed you have to remove each layer of color.
For example, when you bleach your hair it goes through about 10 color changes before it actually goes blonde, that is each layer being bleached down one by one.

It is hard to remove black dye from blonde hair but it shouldn't be impossible (so sad that you had to shave your head!), if you are having a lot of trouble go to a salon or if you have gotten it to a fairly light shade you could try putting tips into your hair or bleaching back to your natural color?

Does naturally blond hair absorb certain shades of hair color more than other natural colors do, to the point where it really becomes permanent or impossible to remove or change?

I've also heard that some black dyes contain henna, that won't come out no matter what you do to it, that it will always remain black?


Blonde hair doesn't absorb certain shades more than others. The problem is that black is... black. It's difficult to get out. Also, it is not true that some black dyes contain henna. Only henna dyes contain henna. Natural henna is a reddish color.l

To answer your question better, I'd have to know the brand you actually colored your hair with. Most hair dyes are oxidative dyes, meaning that the dye reacts with the developer (hydrogen peroxide) to form the insoluble, polymerized pigment. A very few dyes are direct dyes. Feria dyes use a lot of direct dyes. It makes the color richer.

There are two classes of color removers: Oxidative and reductive. Bleach is an oxidizer and some color removers are simply glorified bleaches. Effasol is the classic brand of oxidative color remover. The reductive type of color remove ris the one I prefer. It "un-oxidizes" or reduces the artificial pigment molecules. They can then be washed away. This is exemplified by ColorFix. Oxidative color removers really have to beat on the hair in order to get it light enough. Reductive type color removers are not as hard on the hair (you have to wash it like @#$%, but it's still a lot easier on the hair). Neither of these color removers will get out henna. Also, if you used an oxidative color, and then tried to bleach it (and that failed), the reducing type will no longer work because you've over-oxidized the color.

If you used a direct dye, only a bleach (or a bleach-based color remover) will get it out. If it's an oxidative color (like the majority of hair coloring), it will come out with reducing-type removers.

The bottom line as to why you can't get it out is probably the type of dye you used and possibly the type of color remover you used.

Ah thanks good to know. I shall have to start reading the boxes more in that case :) For now I'll just keep triming it off it's only about 5 more inches of black left, the rest is dyed the same as the root color so for future reference, your advice is most appreciated :)