Removing Indigo, need urgent advice!!

[kmmkatey]

**UPDATE**
Hey guys! First I want to start this update by saying thank you to everyone who offered advice. Sadly, that lightening and removal is not going to work for my hair. I did end the conversation by saying I put a demi on which worked at first, but the color turned dark green after a day so I once again bought Color Oops back to that lovely lighter army green shade I was. I found a hair dresser who was as sweet as can be and she gave me a lot of advice and tried to help me out the best she could. We didn't actually do anything to the hair on my head but she conducted different strand tests to see if anything could work with the indigo and it did not. She tried a bleach/coconut oil product without an activator which she usually uses to pulls out direct dyes (it did nothing), she tried effasol (nothing), tried a low volume bleach (nothing), and then finally... a 40 volume bleach application... and that also did nothing... for an hour! At the hour mark it turned blue, which I actually think is a very lovely blue I would really enjoy having on my hair, but also as you could expect that hair strand was mush and so I cannot turn my green hair into that same blue because it will no longer be hair. I honestly found this experience hilarious because I cannot believe all that this indigo has withstood. Even with 40 developer bleach for an hour it still doesn't even come off it just turns blue and the hair is destroyed. Indigo is really something. I have decided to keep the green for now because I would rather have it than an incredibly short haircut so when my not green hair grows shoulder length I will cut it. I hope someone gets a kick out of my story at least lol. Thank you guys! Definitely have learned a big lesson through this process! Strand tests, research, and TLC for my hair from this point forward https://ibb.co/etGh9S (the test strand)

***

Hi! this is my first post to the forum

So basically as the title says I am trying to remove my indigo and need some advice. I have used chemical dyes for the past several years and last year in October I experimented with henndigo over bleached hair... horrible idea!! I don't know what I was thinking, didn't research, didn't strand test, just ended up in total sadness and swampy green hair. I had covered it in red manic panic for awhile to cover the mess but as of two weeks ago decided it needed to go because I hate red hair and I hate the green hair too of course

The first thing I tried in my removal attempt was a bleach/clarifying shampoo/oil cap and it did lift a lot of the green! I had some light green strands but mostly a light brown coppery color and I was excited about this but my hair felt very damaged so I decided to not do that again and go get Color Oops since I read people had success removing indigo with that. Oh no, that made it a million times worse. I think the Color Oops reoxidized the indigo, my hair became very very dark green even worse than when it was first on my head. I tried it a second time and it looked exactly the same so then I waited two days and tried the shampoo cap again which once again did nothing.

It has been a week since then and I am considering using the Color Oops a third time but am not sure if this is the best option? Basically, when I applied the Color Oops on my hair it instantly turned way darker... but in the shower my hot water turned cold at the 15 minute mark so I stayed under the cold water for an additional 15 but I know the hot water was necessary in the process. I shampooed at least 10 times during each Color Oops application so it should have been out of my hair. I also only left the Color Oops on for 20 minutes. Does anyone know if that would be the reason it didn't work, despite it already having turned dark green within the first 5 minutes on my head? My hair is very very damaged so I do not want to try bleach, effasol, shampoo caps, or any other damaging method. If I try the Color Oops again I am going to my parents house so that I know the hot water will stay on long enough instead of 15 minutes but I just do not want to waste more money or deal with that horrible smell again for nothing! I really need advice, the color on my head is so embarrassing it has really affected my confidence and mood I never thought green would be one of the colors on my head!

[Shorty89]

I don't have much experience removing henna or indigo, but I know it's not too easy. Do you want to keep the henna and just get rid of the indigo? If you only used it once, it might fade. I know some people have had it fade. I might just do more henna on top if you like the red. I think it would help with the green colour.

Here are a couple threads of people in similar boats. They might help. If not, I'm sure others on the forum are more knowledgeable than I am. Good luck and welcome to the forum.


http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ad.php?t=95825

http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...ad.php?t=77298

[kmmkatey]

Thank you for the links! Honestly, I don't think the henna even stuck to my hair? I was and still am not that knowledgeable about henna/indigo it was just something I impulsively did (with the mahoganny from hennacolorlab) and the result was JUST green hair no orange, red or coppery coloring so I feel like the henna didn't even stick and is not currently in my hair.. the green is very dark too, I didn't expect to be able to completely remove it I just hoped I could lighten it and cover it with a strawberry blonde maybe? I would rather not put henna in my hair, if I did I feel like it would just maintain the darkness in my hair

[lapushka]

OMG my first thought was NOOO she didn't try and bleach out the indigo, did she?

Yeah, you're stuck with that green, unless you (maybe) freshly henna over it (then grow that out). Chemical dye is not going to get rid of it - NOT a thing can get rid of indigo green (but maybe henna), it can only maybe lighten it further with more "attempts" you do, but it might end up more on the blue side.

I think growing it out might be the only option.

In any case, strand test anything you do from now on!

[kmmkatey]

I didn't try to bleach it out, I just put it over my very damaged porous bleached hair. I did a one step henndigo application for the first time and it instantly turned my hair green (no orange henna-like coloring) I don't think there was any henna that stuck to my hair. I used a bleach powder and shampoo mix recently to try pulling that green since I read some had success with that and it did help like there was barely any green in my hair but then it was the Color Oops that made my hair way more green and now very difficult to make the green budge. I read that it is the peroxide in developer that causes indigo to turn green, not the bleach itself? Last night and this morning I washed with a coconut oil/shea butter shampoo I bought from walgreens and it suprisingly enough seemed to make my hair look more brown than entirely green... so it is like dark brown with a green hue. I am very confused about my hair right now and what the indigo is doing I was slightly considering trying Effasol because I have read that has helped remove indigo and I feel like it would help in my case too but I am pretty sure my hair is so damaged that doing anything like that will make me have to cut a lot of hair off and right now it is BSL so I would rather not have to cut it.

[Obsidian]

I don't know if this will help with indigo but it does pull out temporary colors and some box dye. Crush up 4 or 5 vitamin C tablets, mix with 1/4 cup head and shoulders, (might need more if you have long hair) apply/lather to hair and leave on for at least 1/2 hour, I try to go for 1 hour. After rising, do a nice deep conditioning.

Its important to use head and shoulders, I found it barely works with other shampoos. I like the refresh formula, its a bit minty and feels really good on the scalp. Whatever H&S you go for, make sure its the one with zinc. Not sure if it really matter but that's what mine contains and it works really well.

[lapushka]

I didn't try to bleach it out, I just put it over my very damaged porous bleached hair. I did a one step henndigo application for the first time and it instantly turned my hair green (no orange henna-like coloring) I don't think there was any henna that stuck to my hair. I used a bleach powder and shampoo mix recently to try pulling that green since I read some had success with that and it did help like there was barely any green in my hair but then it was the Color Oops that made my hair way more green and now very difficult to make the green budge. I read that it is the peroxide in developer that causes indigo to turn green, not the bleach itself? Last night and this morning I washed with a coconut oil/shea butter shampoo I bought from walgreens and it suprisingly enough seemed to make my hair look more brown than entirely green... so it is like dark brown with a green hue. I am very confused about my hair right now and what the indigo is doing I was slightly considering trying Effasol because I have read that has helped remove indigo and I feel like it would help in my case too but I am pretty sure my hair is so damaged that doing anything like that will make me have to cut a lot of hair off and right now it is BSL so I would rather not have to cut it.

But you stated you did a bleach shampoo / bleach cap - that is the exact same thing as putting bleach on over the indigo. Same.

[lapushka]

Can I ask what your natural color is? Do you want to go back to that?

Otherwise try and dye it a brown color (a tad darker, as that has more warmth/red in it), and let that grow out from then on. That might be the easiest solution yet. The green will most likely still be there but will be muted due to the darkness of the color.

It's better than this.

[kmmkatey]

I don't know if this will help with indigo but it does pull out temporary colors and some box dye. Crush up 4 or 5 vitamin C tablets, mix with 1/4 cup head and shoulders, (might need more if you have long hair) apply/lather to hair and leave on for at least 1/2 hour, I try to go for 1 hour. After rising, do a nice deep conditioning.

Its important to use head and shoulders, I found it barely works with other shampoos. I like the refresh formula, its a bit minty and feels really good on the scalp. Whatever H&S you go for, make sure its the one with zinc. Not sure if it really matter but that's what mine contains and it works really well.

I was going to try that method but is it really damaging? I have been afraid to try many things because of how bad my hair is right now and it is thin so I am afraid of shedding too

[kmmkatey]

Can I ask what your natural color is? Do you want to go back to that?

Otherwise try and dye it a brown color (a tad darker, as that has more warmth/red in it), and let that grow out from then on. That might be the easiest solution yet. The green will most likely still be there but will be muted due to the darkness of the color.

It's better than this.

But the bleach cap removed a majority of the green, versus the Color Oops brought it all back that is why I am confused. My natural color is a medium brown, I wouldn't mind going back to it but I really wanted a lighter color.. My hair is just SO dark right now because of the indigo. I have about five inches of this light brown color near my roots and then it transitions to a straight dark green murky brown. If I could just lighten it down I wouldn't mind coloring over to have a brown. When I covered it before with a semi from MP I had to use an extremely dark red to cover the green because the green was so dark and within a week the red was still dark but just the slightest bit of fading showed the green again so I really want to at least lighten the color down