I have brown blonde hair and I have been dying it black for a little over a year now.
I want to go back to my natural hair color then go a lightish blonde. I know that is pretty much impossible to dye my black hair and turn it blonde... and I heard stripping makes your hair very rough and straw like.. Is there anything I can do to get my hair back to its natural color and then lighter blonde.. I might add that I don't have the money to get it professionally done :(

Hey. Wow funny I read this because I am stripping my hair right now.
I have been dyin my hair black for 2 years. I normally have light dirty blondish brown and surprisingly the kit I bought is working really good, I mean its not going to be as healthy as it was before. I have 2 days off work and that's why I'm doing it now . My roots are BRIGHT blonde and it fades out the darkest part is like red, ima do it one more time tomorrow and then going to the salon to get it died and high lighted. Maybe I'm crazy but it hasn't ruined my hair like I thought it would.

Just takes time.
I got the kit at sallys beauty supply. Its amazing:):)

There are strippers, and then there are strippers!

There are basically two types of color strippers. The type (strippers) I do not recommend is exemplified by Effasol (L'Oreal). It's basically a glorified bleach. People who use this usually end up with straw-like hair. It's almost as bad as simply trying to bleach the color and it does it "to death". Unfortunately, this is the color remover used by many salons.

The other type of color stripper is exemplified by ColorFix (others include Color Zap, Color Oops, and Igora Phantom (modulat)). This type is, chemically, a reducing agent (opposite of an oxidizing agent or bleach). It "undevelops" the color and allows the artificial pigment to be washed out. If used correctly, it doesn't do a huge amount of damage to the hair. It can take more than one treatment with ColorFix to get all of the artificial color out. I've seen a number of salons switch to ColorFix. Maybe there's hope out there!

Using either color stripper will leave the hair an unpleasing color -- usually a brassy color. The color is the result of the natural pigments that remain in the hair. Remember that most of the natural pigment was removed when the hair was originally dyed. Therefore, you have to re-dye the hair.

Here's a to instructions for ColorFix. Other reducing products are similar.

Hair Color and Hair Care by Robert Craig Salon Products, Ltd.

Well I used the perfessional kit from sallys beauty. Right now it is a horrible color! But ALL the black is out, its not perfect but I have a hair appointment today to get it died and highlighted now. It is still soft and not nearly as fried as I thought it would be. :D