Hey,

Has anyone ever used one of these hair colour removers you can get from Boots?

I've been dying my hair black for the past year and now want something lighter for the summer - I've got an appointment at the hairdressers on Saturday but they are gonna charge me £25 to remove the colour then obviously the normal cut and colour on top of that!

I just wondered if the "do it yourself" ones where anygood or is it better to get a professional to do it?!

Thanks

I'd say go to the professionals every time.

Years ago, I used Poly Dye remover to get rid of a dark brown colour I'd used with disastrous results - Jaffa orange!
To say I wept is putting it mildly.

Hi OP, I have been putting an almost black perm colour on my hair for a couple of years and now want to dye it red. After much pulling faces from me, I have to wait until the dye grows out before dying it red. My hair dresser was adamant that nothing will work to remove the dark and make the new dye take evenly. He told me I would end up with blotchy hair, especially where the roots were virgin hair and the rest old colour, the lines between the 2 would show and getting red to take on the dark would also end up blotchy. In fact my hairdresser refused to do it and put his name to a bad colour.

You can carry on with what you want, but you will not ever have one tone, even coloured hair unless you play the waiting game. I have to wait till September now as well!

I dyed my naturally medium brown/red hair permanent black for approx 6-7 years. My hairdresser got rid of it over 3 sessions using liquid peroxide (but not powder bleach) followed by a semi colour to even it out as it went along. I am not 100% sure of what she did but considering the amount of time I spent in there my hair was still in pretty good condition afterwards.

I had, prior to this, tried home bleaching the underneath so I could add bright red (remember Mel C.....blush!) and that hair just literally broke off.

Colour stripper may not work with black dye, I am not sure it is worth risking doing this yourself. And I have done all sorts of weird and wonderful things with my hair at home...I am/was positively fearless about it. But I wouldn't do that.

Good luck xx

Just to add to Mooncake - its the black dye and you adding layer on layer of it over the years to your hair. It´s the dark pigments that wont shift with any remover. Any lighter colour and you stand a chance, just not with black. Putting super bleach on will give you the blotchy effect I mentioned before and the roots will come out a different colour, as well as achieving the straw effect.

Hmm - I don't think I'll risk trying it myself!! Will just go for my appointment on Saturday - she's got me down for a colour remover and then cut, colour and highlights!!

Will be a tad expensive but hopefully worth it!! Thing is I do like my hair black - but it would be nice to have something a little lighter for the summer!!!

I also used to dye my hair black. When I decided I wanted a change I spent a good few moths just using a semi permanent dye in a mid/dark brown to try to disguise the root growth. I then used permanent dye in a light brown to try to lift the colour a bit. In the end impatience got the better of me and I bleached my hair. It took 2 attempts to get an even (ish) colour. The ends are still slightly darker than the rest, but all in all it turned out pretty well, and my hair is in pretty good condition too.
I do think I was lucky that it went as well as it did, and certainly would not recommend doing what I did, however there is no way I could afford to get it done at a salon. I will never dye my hair permanently black again, it's just too hard to change!