Ask Me Help Desk - HOW do I take hair dye out of my hair!

OK so I have been dying my hair for about a hair and I REALLY want to get the dye out and have my natural color!!
My hair has been
Brown to
Black
To
Brown
To
Blonde ! :eek:

I have heard of some products that have helped to remove permant hair color like :

Color Fix by Jheri Redding
Loreal Color Zap
Loreal Effasol Color Remover
And even
Tea tree shampoo
But will any of these leave my hair back with its natural color :confused:

What works the best?

what works best ? Having it all cut off and starting from scratch !

No, seriously. If you hair is overworked- and I hate to be a broken record, what do you think is going to happen to your hair when you are 50?? I am sure you have seen some senior citizens with very bad hair, and probability is that they over worked their poor hair to distraction.

Get a cut, start conditioning with deep conditioners and you will have lovely hair again.

Does that sound healthy ? I am absolutely all for healthy!

A lot of times when dyeing your hair from darker to lighter it can strip out your natural hair color. I used to dye my hair blonde all of the time... for years, and I naturally have dark brown hair. I tried all types of stuff to get my hair back to brown and my hair wouldn't hold the color. I finally decided to get it dyed dark professionally, and my hair has held the color very well. I would suggest you going to a salon and having it done. It's better than continuing to strip your hair. Believe me after too much dyeing it causes your hair to be frail and very dry and thin. I won't ever dye it again... well unless grays start coming in (maybe). Good luck to you!

If your current hair color is blonde, you don't need to strip your hair. To go from blonde to brown, you can re-color your hair. Remember that bleached blonde hair can turn green or an unwanted shade when you apply a darker color over it. So, you will need to do a two-step coloring process. Use a reddish brown color first and then apply your desired color. But if your hair is dark and you use a hair color removal product, it will leave your hair in an orange or brassy state, and you will have to re-color your hair in order for it to look natural. If possible, go to the salon and have a corrective color done.

I am in the same problem right now. I wanted to do something different to my hair and it wound up coming out like a orange color. I now look like an irish leprechaun (no offense). :( I have dirty blond hair and want it back to that. If anything has worked for you, please let me know. I'm in dire need of help.

Quote:

I have heard of some products that have helped to remove permanent hair color like:

Color Fix by Jheri Redding
Loreal Color Zap
Loreal Effasol Color Remover
And even
Tea tree shampoo
But will any of these leave my hair back with its natural color :confused:

None of the products will leave your hair back at its natural hair color. That color is long gone. The only way to get back to your natural color is to let your hair grow out. You might be able to dye it close to your natural color, but that's not quite the same thing.

Dyes and bleaches do two things: 1) they lighten the natural pigment in the hair, 2) they deposit artificial pigment in the hair.

You'll find ColorFix, Color Zap, Color Oops, and Igora Phantom (you didn't mention those last two) to be quite comparable in what they do. One isn't necessarily better than the other. They are reducing agents, chemically. They undevelop the pigment (do the opposite of what the developer did) so the artificial pigment can be washed out. The hair remains with what is left of its natural undertones (usually fairly brassy and not attractive). You have to re-dye the hair afterwards.

L'Oreal Effasol is a bleach with some stuff in it to try to get the remainder of the artificial pigment out. It is very hard on the hair. Usually people who use Effasol are left with pretty dull, lifeless hair. You also have to dye the hair again after using Effasol.

I seriously doubt that Tea Tree Shampoo will do very much, if anything, to your haircolor.

All chemical processes damage the hair, and the hair can't be repaired until it grows out. Effasol will damage the hair more than the reducing-agents mentioned. The idea is to minimize the number and intensity of chemical processes so the hair won't be too damaged. If the hair becomes too damaged, the protein backbone of the hair fails and the hair breaks off. In spite of claims to the contrary, you cannot repair damaged hair -- you can lessen its consequences using conditioners, but you cannot repair it.

Color removers are there because you can't lighten dyed hair with another dye. You have to remove the original dye, first. You can darken dyed hair. Haircoloring doesn't work like paint; it works more like varnish on stained wood. The color of the wood comes through the varnish and the color of the varnish adds to the overall color.

Hope this helps a bit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cecismooch

I am in the exact same problem right now. i wanted to do something different to my hair and it wound up comming out like a orange color. I now look like an irish leprechaun (no offense). :( i have dirty blond hair and want it back to that. If anything has worked for you, please let me know. I'm in dire need of help.

If your hair came out orange, and (presumably) you were trying for a natural blonde color, you must have used a single-process haircoloring. These dyes use hydrogen peroxide as the lightening agent and hydrogen peroxide is limited in its ability to lighten hair. Hair goes through a number of colors as it lightens: Black, Brown with red tones, Dark Red, Red, Orange, Yellow, Pale yellow (and colors inbetween). You start in the spectrum at the natural color of your hair. Hydrogen peroxide can lift two or three "levels" (black is 0, light blonde is 10; darkest dishwater blonde is 7). In your case, you lightened into the orange stage. This is pretty common for brown hair. If you wish to go lighter, you should use hair bleach (many people panic at this point -- bleach has an undeserved bad reputation). This will allow you to lighten past the orange stage.

The rule of thumb is that you need to lighten to the yellow stage for a dark blonde shade and to a pale yellow shade for a light blonde shade. In truth, you need a toner with a lot of violet and blue in it to counteract the yellow if you only bleach to yellow. This is more of an art than a science. I'll refer you to this discussion board for more information:

Bottle Blondes Board

I think you should use colorfix! I'm actually about to use that product too, but I just posted a question about it on my page. Check it out!

Let it grow out is the only option if you want to do it properly but Head & Shoulders and any type of purple shampoo's and conditioners do the job as well. Hope this helps!