HELP! Hair dye won't come out!

[Amber_Maiden]

Hi everyone!
Long time no post :p

Sadly, I'm not posting with terrific news or anything. I actually need some help.

I've been either hennaing or dying my hair for years, and I'm thinking about stopping- or at leafs dying my hair a medium brown (I'm naturally a dirty blonde). Except, at the end of March a hairdresser messed up with my requested "dark brown" colour, and it's stayed black. Black black.
Wont' come out and hasn't faded.
I tried doing my roots with hennidgo- but it won't stick. SO I now have to dye my roots, but it's becoming a pain, with such a noticeable difference between the blonde and the black.
I've tried fading the black with the following:
Head and shoulders shampoo
Dawn Dish soap
Sunlight Laundry Detergent (I was getting desperate).

Nothing has worked. AT ALL. Not even a little bit. No dye has come out at all at all.

So.... I either now have to:
1) live with this.
2) live with this and dye my roots with semi-permannent hair colour until one day it's long enough that I can just cut and strip the semi-perm off, and have my natural colour....
3) go to a salon and try again.

Except going to salon, or trying anything, takes so much money.... Like $150 + for how long and thick my hair is.

So, I'd dye my roots myself... but nothing else I've done in fading has worked.

So, my question is... can I strip at home and will my hair turn green, fall out, etc... or not work?

My hair is currently dry- but not badly so....

I also would be content if it just faded a bit- to dark brown... if I knew whether it looked better than my natural colour.

I just feel like my hair is never going to be nice ever again at this point. I've cut of a ton of length... just feel sad.

[LadyStrange]

Keep your chin up, lady! Have you tried contacting the hairdresser that messed your hair up? Maybe they'd have some tips. I'm sorry I'm no help, as I know virtually nothing about stripping hair of dyes, but I can offer moral support! lol

[MINAKO]

That sounds problematic (although black is my favorite haircolor :P ). In general, if nothing works with fading the color, peroxide will... it's jsut a question of how much it takes and if your hair can handle it or the damage is worth the result. A hint of green would be your least problem in this case, because any shade has its complementary. But if you really go to meaures aof bleaching it out some damage is to be expected, i would rather go with the touch ups of deposit dye until its grown out or eventually fades if you are lucky. You could try the honey method as well, but i doubt it would do much.

[jacqueline101]

I was going to suggest color oops or something to correct the dye. I'm no expert I don't color my hair when I did I used temporary colors.

[Hopeful65]

I have heard that using olive oil will pull hair dye out (as a warning for those who do not want their dye to fade).
I have no experience with this myself. It certainly can not hurt.

[butterfly_dream]

Another vote for color oops. I guess it can strip off every chemical dye and also henna.

[rohirrrims]

A colour remover will work; ColourB4, Color Oops or something similar. They work by shrinking the colour molecules to remove the dye when you rinse them out and don't involve bleach and therefore don't cause lots of damage. This will probably leave you a gingery colour which you can dye over. Make sure to check it's a colour remover and not a colour stripper/pre lightener which is just bleach.
I've used them many times in the past to remove permanent black or too dark dye jobs! The dish soap/dandruff shampoos just don't work on permanent dye. Only colour removers or bleach will, but the latter is hopefully avoidable.

[spidermom]

Yup, I jumped in to remind you about color remover but see others have already been there, done that.

Good luck!

[lapushka]

Seconding, thirding the color remover (if that won't make it green). Other than that bleach would be your only option, but if you poured indigo on there, that would be out of the question (that will turn it green).

[Amber_Maiden]

I'll look into the colour opps guys!

Do you think the indigo would have been removed with all the detergent I used??

[Amber_Maiden]

Would you guys recommend going back to salon to get it removed? OR colour oops it myself? Is there a huge difference in the products used or methods? I really don't want to fry my hair.

[lapushka]

I'll look into the colour opps guys!

Do you think the indigo would have been removed with all the detergent I used??

Nothing gets indigo out. Bleach it, and see (nooo, don't! ;))

[Amber_Maiden]

Does this (http://www.sallybeauty.com/color-remover/SBS-342350,default,pd.html#start=7) look ok to use?

[Amber_Maiden]

Nothing gets indigo out. Bleach it, and see (nooo, don't! ;))

ack. Think it may have not stuck to the rest of my hair if it didn't stick to my roots?

[lapushka]

ack. Think it may have not stuck to the rest of my hair if it didn't stick to my roots?

It might have stuck to the black dye, yes! It just might! You can't take that chance, though! I think, at least. :)

[Freija]

I'd try the Colour Oops/ColourB4 first, because that doesn't bleach - so it shouldn't cause problems with any henna/indigo that may still be on your hair. It'll get out any chemical dye, though, which in turn will let you see if any indigo has taken over the top. A salon will probably just shove bleach on top of the black to get it out, and depending on whether or not you do have indigo on your hair, that might be the last thing you want.

Also, Colour Oops/ColourB4 are about as non-damaging as dye-removing gets, and you might find that actually, after a couple of applications of that, you're already back to a shade and colour you can work with, without having had to go through any more salon processing.

Other than that, I've had some very good results with Vitamin C soaks in the past (just a handful of plain, ultra-cheap tablets bashed up in a plastic bag and then dissolved in filtered water) to get rid of dye that even Colour Oops/B4 wasn't budging. Most chemical dyes are *meant* to work by lifting the cuticle and depositing colour inside the hair shaft, of course, but sometimes they actually stain the outside of the cuticle, too. Colour B4-type kits won't touch that, but vitamin C can.

Best of luck! : )

[Firefox7275]

Most salons will persulphate bleach out overly dark dye, they won't use a peroxide-free colour remover. Always practise on shed plughole hair, don't use your whole head as a laboratory.

[Mya]

If you don't mind the ombre effect, you may dye your roots with gradually lighter colors until you reach your natural color with no harsh demarcation line.