Vitamin C

[summerstarlet]

Has anyone who has dyed their hair used vitamin C to fade it? There are lots of articles and videos that show some people using it. I want to fade some of my dark brown hair dye to my closer light brown/ dark blonde color. If anyone has a suggestion besides vitamin C then that would be great! TIA!

[sunshine-locks]

How would Vitamin C work to lighten hair? n.n just wondering

[cheetahfast]

I tried using the vitamin c tablets and mixed it with head and shoulders. I let it sit in my wet-lathered up hair for maybe a half hour. I saw no change. Lemon juice and conditioner left on for a few hours yielded great results---I oiled and babied my hair after, I do not think I hurt my hair from it.

[summerstarlet]

I tried using the vitamin c tablets and mixed it with head and shoulders. I let it sit in my wet-lathered up hair for maybe a half hour. I saw no change. Lemon juice and conditioner left on for a few hours yielded great results---I oiled and babied my hair after, I do not think I hurt my hair from it.

When you used the lemon juice did it turn your hair brassy? I don't want to bleach my hair really or get it blonde, I would just like to fade the color if at all possible. What color was your hair before you put the lemon juice in?

[cheetahfast]

My hair was originally blonde. Then I had it dyed brown with a semi-permanent dye at the salon. The color was a bit too dark at first so I did the lemon juice treatment. It didn't make it brassy or blonde at all. My hair became a more natural looking brown. If you only leave it in for a few hours and keep your hair under a towel, it shouldn't lighten to blonde as far as I know.

ETA: I dont have any pictures of this. My siggy hair is from a buxus gloss after a henna mishap.

[sbhonda]

I actually did try this. And I definitely saw noticeable results. But I don't know if that was a result of the vitamin c, or just a result of the shampoo. I didn't want to put the shampoo on again to find out.

I had been dyeing my hair for 4 months with natural instincts demi-permanent dye and had permanent dye a few times before that. I washed my hair every 3-5 days with sulfate free shampoo, and that allowed the color to really lock in. I saw no noticeable fading after several weeks of just shampooing with SLS shampoo.

This was my hair before.


And this was my hair after using a mixture of suave shampoo and vitamin c tablets 3 times for ~30 min-1hr each time.


It definitely dried out my hair. You can see how much less shiny it is in the second picture (though that was right after washing and the first was probably 3 days after), but it's nothing it couldn't recover from. I deep conditioned every time. The results weren't astonishing, but it was enough to make the line between my roots and the dye less noticeable, and that's what I wanted (I'm growing out my natural color now).

I did not want to try a chemical color remover because I did not want my hair to become porous. I have actually used one before and it worked great, but bleached my hair a day or two later, so I have no idea how it affected the porosity of my hair. I know how the bleach did, and I never want to do anything that could potentially increase my hair's porosity again.

[GlennaGirl]

I had to go back in time to find this... I used Vitamin C and it significantly lightened my hendigo.

It lightened better than honey, but honey did lighten. There were drawbacks for sure, so be careful if you want to try this.

1. I was using this on hendigo that was/is as much as about a year and a half old (toward the ends). This included several length re-applications. I had previously lightened this somewhat with honey (again, honey did work, but was a loooooong process time-wise and took repetition...however, honey did NOT harm my hair at all). The vitamin C lightening I am discussing here was after the honey treatments and also after one Color Oops.

2. My method: I crushed about 25 vitamin C tablets in a baggie by pounding on the bag with the back of a spoon. There were larger gritty bits in there, plus the powder. AFAIK, you're supposed to try to get all of it into a powder. I was impatient. Next time, I would use my coffee grinder. Just a suggestion.

3. I put the powdered/crumbled vitamin C in about 3 tbsp. no-cone, cheap shampoo. I mixed this well. If your mixture bubbles/froths, that's normal. I used plenty of shampoo so I could coat my hair completely.

4. I applied the mixture to dry hair, covered in a heat-holding cap (there's no actual heat attachment, it's just thermal), covered all that in a towel and allowed the mixture to do its thing for 30 minutes.

5. I rinsed thoroughly, being VERY gentle/careful at first because of the grit. I didn't want to tear my hair to pieces. There were loads of suds.

6. I used a restructuring (protein) conditioner afterward, leaving it on for 5 minutes, and then rinsed well.

7. I air-dried.

So here's the recipe:

2-3 tbsp. cheap, no-cone shampoo
20-25 vitamin C tablets, crushed as finely as possible, to a powder is ideal

Saturate dry hair with mixture. Allow to sit for 30 minutes well-wrapped in a cap and towel. Rinse thoroughly. Apply after-conditioner of your choice. Rinse well.


Now. Here you go with the pros:

* It DID lighten. And I'm talking a lot. It probably lightened about 2 color chart shades. The fading was less on the bottom, where I had had the most hendigo application buildup, and which already was a tad darker.

* It was very time-friendly. A person who has used henna knows that 30 minutes is a walk in the park.

The cons:

* My hair was very very very dry after this treatment. I am talking like lemon-juice dry. The after-treatment was seriously heavy duty for me and I still needed to spritz a li'l detangler (for the moisture) in my hair after it had dried to get a silky feel. If you are prone to dryness you must know this. Use at your own risk.


* Fading hendigo with *any* method could *eventually* give you a bluish or greenish (usually greenish) tint. Mine did not. I have lightened my hendigo considerably using three different methods and still have not gone green. I am probably lucky. USE WITH CAUTION.

So that's my experience. Hope this helps somebody.

[Shatam1]

Glennagirl, what if I added the vitamin C to conditioner instead of shampoo, do u think it would work???

[GlennaGirl]

Glennagirl, what if I added the vitamin C to conditioner instead of shampoo, do u think it would work???

From everything I've read, it really does need to be shampoo. You're fading and (ouch) stripping, to an extent. I'm sorry. I know...ow. (I usually CO. Feel your pain.)

[JLeighs]

I'm pretty sure it can lighten chemically colored hair because I accidentally lightened mine on Saturday. I did a Cassia treatment, and I used Rainwash Mineral Treatment beforehand (I had never used it before). When I rinsed it out, some of my color came out, too. One of the ingredients in the treatment is ascorbic acid, which is Vitamin C. I'm not upset about it because the color is pretty, but it's definitely lighter!