Black Hair Dye - How To get It Out

[Courtney <3]

i've been dying my hair black for about two years now, box color, professional color, you name it, its been on my hair.
i went to walgreens and bought about 4 boxes of the loreal hair color remover. make sure to only use it on your colored hair! i got some on my roots and it turned them blonde in a matter of seconds! i washed it out, and did it again. i put the stuff on my hair a total of 3 times and it went to a red, orange, yellow color, which was ok since i was going to color my hair red anyway.
it says on the box your supposed to re-color your hair after you use the hair color remover. it worked for me. id recomend it to everyone!
im currently with dye on my hair, waiting. i've been taking pictures of the whole process, and when its complete, i think im going to post a tutorial on how i did it, for anyone who needs some help, or the curious people out there!

 

[SarahSceneKids]

Lo Real hair dye removal kits on black hair suck, it made my hair orange, try mixing cinnoman powder with your conditioner, and leave it in ove night, and wash it out in the morning, shampoo as usual. The dandruff shampoo does work, i use it like twice a day, it turns the black into a rusty brown, and my black hair was a permanent hair dye kit. So, keep using the dandruff shampoo! it will give you results.
Do not use the Lo real hair dye removal kits, it does the same thing bleach does, turns it ginger orange.
i havent tried color oops yet, but try that.

 

[Aweeba13]

Hey guys , over the summer I convinced my dad to , the let me "dye" my hair , I ended up putting Sun-in in my hair which didn't work at first, but when i went on a family vacation to Aruba , my hair got really blonde. My hair is naturally a fawn brown, with goldish tones.. If that makes any sense. as my hair grew out , i tried dying my hair a new color, which was suppozed to be chocolate brown but came out a deep red , which everyone mistaked for black. As it faded , my hair was almost pink. I then wanted my normal hair color back, so i bought Nice n Easy hair color and on the box the color said medium brown , but i got it alittle darker because my hair was so light I just Sort of figured it would turn out normal, but obviously i was wrong. My hair came out a dark dark brown. almost 3 weeks later, my friend called me and told me her aunt ( who was a hair dresser) would fix my hair. She wanted to strip the color , but i said no because that sounded kind of horrible.. when she put the color that looked like mine on my hair, towards the top it turned a brassy , rusty brown color almost and the rest of my hair is still.. almost as dark as it was to begin with since 2 bottles of the previous dye i did myself wasn't enough. Can someone PLEASE! help me! because God knows I really need it!

Sorry for the novel i just wrote, I just don't want the rest of my hair breaking off ! D:

 

[Mac-Guy]

Sorry for the novel i just wrote, I just don't want the rest of my hair breaking off ! D:

Sounds like you need an ashy color corrector. Are you prepared to cut your hair shorter? It's can get very expensive to do constant color correction as the brassy tones are likely to come back. Damaged hair is usually too porous and it will soak up any color you put on - hence, the too dark result you experience, while at the same time, this new color will literally fall out - depending on the level of damage - and turn back to it's original brassiness. I recommend a shorter cut and a color correcting done by a salon that specializes in color correction. Good luck.

 

[Jessical0984]

This thread brings back such fond memories of my high school years. I went black and then back to platinum blonde about a total of 6 times. Each time except for one that I went back blonde I had the black stripped out of my hair. I must have had really strong hair considering it didn't break off until the last and final time. That time instead of stripping my hair, my stylist went ahead and highlighted over the black and my hair melted. I have never had any kind of color remover work on my dyed black hair, the only way I got it out was either stripping or highlighting. My hair does hold color like a sponge though. The best rule of thumb that someone has mentioned already is that color will not lift color, you have to bleach it up then fill and then redeposit the color on to the lightened hair. Hope this helps!

 

[coachdiva]

Very interesting. I think at some point I'll have to give some of these ideas a go. Thanks!

 

[cat5214]

What about this...use one of the semi permanent hair colors that are the same black color and then keep doing this as it grows until you get it all grown out and then just let the semi perm color wash out regularly????? Any comments on this? That is what I am doing.

 

[remzieboo17]

hey ive just looked at what you put about hair colour remover called eraser and i was just wondering as im quite very ginger atm from using a rubbish stripper called colour b4 and 2 hair dyes which were blonde where can i get the peroxide for the eraser as i would properly need to do it and could you explain to me how it works and what it would do to my hair i would much appreciate it can you get back to him as soon as possible and i was just wondering because i am ginger would the eraser send me dark blonde or a light brown thanks x

 

[jemma fosta]

i have died my hair with a permanent black hair dye and i was thinking about stripping it untill i read this. so if i scrub it with washing up liquid will it come out straight away and if not how long will it take?

 

[Jessical0984]

Scrubbing with anything, dish detergent, clarifying shampoo etc...will not get black off your hair. It may lighten it a bit but it will not remove it completely.

 

[thomas111]

whatever you do , do not go and buy a box of blonde hair colour because what that is doing it trying to bleach without high levels of a developer or bleach , when you buy a box of colour you are probably getting a 10-20 volume developer and what you need to bleach your hair is 30-40 developer. your best bet is to go to a beauty supply or a salon expert !

 

[juicyLOVE2]

Actually, even though I am not a hair dresser, I know for a fact that color does lift color. My whole family comes from a line of hair dressing. The only fact about color lifting color is that in order for it to lift the color it has to be a lighter color. Bleaching and stripping your hair is the worse thing you could do to your hair. If you can help it then don't do it.

 

[sammyrenee93]

Actually if you mix the bleach with your shampoo, it is less damaging & works very quick. I did it and only had it on for about 15 minutes and my hair went from black to brown.

 

[Merula]

Last year I had dyed my hair with a cheap black hair dye that dried my scalp and made it bleed every so often. Not fun. I wasn't looking forward to keeping up with the black dying process so after searching everywhere for days I found Zoetica's blogpost about stripping the color. My hair is long - to the middle of my back so I had a few boxes of ColorFix. I spent the next two weeks washing my hair almost daily and rinsing it out. It actually did not feel horrible or brassy, tho it was a bit red in color. When I went to re-dye my hair to my natural color I went a shade lighter, since I was told the dye would darken due to the process of it being stripped. That was a few months ago and you can't tell where the natural hair root begins and the stripped, re-dyed part begins.

 

[dyingforyou]

oh the story of my hair.

my hair is naturally blonde though as i got older it got a little darker so now it's like a dark blonde [i don't really know tbh, i haven't seen more than a couple inches of it in roots since i was about 13]. i've been dying my hair since middle school but only up to about five or six years ago did i start using a black dye because i liked the way the brown looked the first couple weeks after dying. so i switched to black.

august of 2010 i bleached my bangs because i wanted to put blue in my hair. it didn't take out all the black, really only the underside but that was alright since i wanted it to be hidden anyways. but the more i bleached it/touched up, the more the bleach went through the black until allllll of my bangs were blue haha. then i had to bleach the blue out for work during thanksgiving/christmas breaks and later after that i added just a bit of blue to it again so my hair was blue/black/blonde. i loved it but unfortunately, spring break i had to bleach the blue out. now also this same spring break [march 2011] i got the idea to get highlights in my hair. my hairdresser told me to dye my roots and the blonde because it would still come out pretty fast since there was only one layer of black. so she puts in the highlights all over, i sit with it in my hair for about an hour and she takes it out... and nothing. my roots bleached but nothing else did. she asked what i wanted to do and i told her to just put black over it all and the only way for me to get highlights or bleach my hair again [i went fully blonde once before i started using the black] was to let it grow out. it was going to kill me but i was going to do it. in august i ended up dying it black all over again because i wanted to test out a strip in my bangs and it went horribly orange and i had a wedding to go to the next day so yeah.

but from august 2011 to march 2012 i didn't dye my hair and it sucked haha. then my friend was telling me that she always uses color oops from walmart to strip her hair because she goes between brown and red a lot. so i tried it and i did as it said and when i went to wash it out, absolutely nothing happened again. my hair was maybe a little redder but that was it. so i tried to bleach a strip to see what would happen and still nothing. so i gave up and went black. again. and i gave up on the whole wanting to go blonde thing because i just don't have the patience and i despise seeing roots for months on end.

so yeah, even professionals have hard times getting black out of hair but partially that was my fault because i had SO MANY layers of black in my hair to begin with. really the best advice i have from my experience is to just grow it out if you've the patience. or a soap cap but still it's less damaging than bleach but still damaging. when i wanted to fade the blue i used ajax dish soap every time i washed my hair, only on the blue though. i'd wash the blue with ajax, rinse, then wash my entire head with my shampoo and it did fade it considerably. i don't know how it would work with black though. but yeah that's the thing with black, it's so permanent and nearly impossible to get out [not just dye, black anything because its so pigmented]. dying over it won't do anything and yes, i have tried the clairol/l'oreal feria bleach blonde kits [i actually used the feria when my hair was brown to get it blonde and it worked well- same when it was brownish and i went red] but just one kit isn't going to work and it IS going to damage your hair. coconut/moroccan/macadamia nut oils are good for your hair and the aussie 3 minute miracle saved my hair too. any kind of mask at sallys is great too, i personally like the ion strengthening. it smells like dog shampoo lol but it works wonderfully. but yeah from my experience now that i've written what seems to be a novel, if you ever want to go a lighter color easily- just don't dye it black.

 

[Jessical0984]

Actually, even though I am not a hair dresser, I know for a fact that color does lift color. My whole family comes from a line of hair dressing. The only fact about color lifting color is that in order for it to lift the color it has to be a lighter color. Bleaching and stripping your hair is the worse thing you could do to your hair. If you can help it then don't do it.

I come from a long line of hairdressing as well and color does not lift color. It can alter/tweak the apperance making it look warmer or cooler. It will not take you to a lighter shade if it has been previously colored.

 

[Hair4aliving]

First thing first
DO NOT EVER use permanent hair color on your hair unless you are covering a significant amount of grey. Semi permanent color last justs as long, except it slowly fades away instead of giving you that amazing skunk line as your natural color grows. All hair colors start to fade and lose intensity and vibrancy after 6-8 weeks, and considering you have outgrowth by then anyways, stick to the semi permanent. There is no need to constantly blow out that cuticle and refilling it with whats already in there. The peroxide is designed to do that and eventually it will trash your ends making you feel like straw.
Second, Im laughing while reading this, COLOR WILL NOT LIFT COLOR. Color is deposit only, unless it is on NATURAL hair, then it can lighten. Trust me, I do deal with this for a living.
Third, most permanent box colors contain trace amounts of henna, allowing them to last as long as they do, well look at it this way, think about how long a henna tattoo lasts on your skin compared to markers, pen ect. now think about if it was added to your hair color, its stubborn and doesnt like to move, so that said, stay away from it. Your hair wil be better in the long run if you leave it to the professionals. We have all gone through several hundred hours of schooling. Yes it may cost you more, but then you wouldnt end up trashing your hair or searching online for how to get rid of that nasty mistake you made.
The more color you have applied and reapplied to the hair the longer it will take, and the harder it will be to remove and get off of your hair.
Yes , dish soap is a clarifier, but as people have stated above, its not going to take it all out, maybe lighten it if its freshly done and it was your first application, but trust me, its not a miracle worker. same goes as all the color removers, yes they will help, but it will leave you with all the amazing red and orange brassy undertones that are in that color. The darker you go, the more nasty the harsh undertones get.
You also have to remember that aftr you have gone through the stripping process, it has not taken all the natural oils and proteins that belong in your hair to give it strength, shine and flexability. Your hair is probaby going to feel like crap and be very overporus, picking up every undertone of the new color you wish to put over it, which can end up leaving your hair a different color than the one you picked out.

 

[shellygrrl]

Your hair wil be better in the long run if you leave it to the professionals. We have all gone through several hundred hours of schooling. Yes it may cost you more, but then you wouldnt end up trashing your hair or searching online for how to get rid of that nasty mistake you made.

This is why I always recommend going to the salon in regards to hair colouring issues. If you can't afford to go straight away, save your money until you can. It is not worth trying to fix it yourself when you may end up just making it worse.

 

[Adriana MLP]

No, mine didn't (I was going from red, which I explained a few posts back) it went golden blonde immediately after then oxidised to a light red-brown. Subsequant removals got me to a pale golden brown. It could have been for a number of reasons, maybe I didn't have as much dye to remove from my hair so there were less of the colour molecules to re-oxidise. The hair returning to the colour it was before is not a result of the colour remover not working, it is normally because of the amount of pigment in the hair that needs to be removed. The remover causes the colour molecules to shrink, not to be stripped like with bleach, so they are small enough to be washed from the hair. If there is a lot of pigment, and thus molecules, in the hair the rinsing process may not reach all of them and the cannot be removed. So once the remover is rinsed the hair may look lighter because the molecules have not returned to their normal size, but one re-oxidisation takes place they swell and the pigment returns, there is just less of it than last time so repeated removals eventually clear the hair of colour. That is my understanding of it anyway. This YouTube video kind of explains what I mean about the colour molecules shrinking. See how the water turns clear? YouTube - Color Vanish - Hair Color Removal And what she says about it being "magic", it's really not, it's chemistry. Haha.

 

[Adriana MLP]

Hy! I have a verry long hair and one year and a half ago I de ided to dye it black. Now I want my nattural colour back which is a light chocolate. I used colour b4 colour remover and it turned my roots brownish red which I didn't like but the rest of my hair is still black. It is no difference. After that I decided to ad a dark blond on it and my roots became brown (at least they are not red any more) but the lengh of my hair is still black. Do you think the affinage eraser will work better than colour b4? And will the eareser remove the dark blonde I just put or the black as well? The thing is that I do not want anything red in my hair... Any ideas?