twilight
February 8th, 2009, 09:24 AM
disclaimer: this post is for educational and/or inspirational purposes only; attempt to rereate results at your own risk. please use common sense and *think critically about what you are going to do* before you put any chemicals on your long, presumably healthy hair!
a bit of background: i have been growing out my hair from a "long-pixie cut" since october 2004 (with regular, styled trims for the first 2.5 years). between now and october 2004 my hair has been bleach blonde to darkest brown and back again several times using conventional 2 part semi/demi-permanent dyes with 10-vol or lower peroxide (no box color). since 2006 i have been using henna, indigo, and amla, occasionally interspersed with chemical dye, to acheive a medium- to dark-brown. i switched to henna-only about 1 year ago and ever since have been living with a stiff demarcation line between dark reddish brown and henna-red about 8-inches down the length (my natural color is a darkish blonde with some strawberry tones, so i get a very coppery red color from henna). i thought i would just try to grow out the indigo, since much of my length will need trimming eventually, but i got impatient... however i know quite a bit about hair dye chemistry and did NOT jump into this experiment blindly! also my hair has proven itself to be tough in the past; e.g., i have never experienced "falling out" from bleach, even on multiple applications.
the setup: i've been debating using natural methods to lighten the indigo from my length and was preparing to try Nightshade's "sun-in" method to see what happens when i realized that most of my problem (ie, darker hairs) is probably a result of lingering chemical dyes, and not necessarily indigo, despite the fact that 'they' say indigo doesn't really fade. so i decided to try a more conventional color removal procedure before anything else and see what that would leave me with. if i needed further treatments to mitigate the indigo, i was prepared to go there.
the method: purchased one package of l'oreal effasol from sally's (note: this is sold "to professionals only," but from past experience both uncolor and colorfix work about as well and can be purchased by anyone--i prefer effasol because i have used it more than the others. note #2: i probably should've bought two packages but i have a hard time spending money on evil chemicals so i was being cheap). this is nasty stuff! it smells awful and feels a lot like bleach when you're mixing and applying it, but from my experience it does not trash hair the way bleach does... anyway 1 package of effasol was mixed with 1oz water and 1oz 20vol cream peroxide, on 2-days-past-washing dry hair. since i only needed the length to be treated, i sat in the bathtub with my hair split in half down the middle, and worked each side from the bottom up in sections of three (as if making pigtail braids), applying the effasol with a brush. as each side was finished, i twisted it up and clipped it to keep it off my skin. effasol bleaches fabric and burns skin!! timed for 20 minutes from the start of application, then rinsed well, shampoo, and CONDITION.
results: amazing! my hair is all the same shade! granted there is a spot that went a bit too light and a few small spots i seem to have missed, but they are nothing compared to having dark brown hair with very long red roots. there doesn't seem to be any additional damage, though my hair is a bit dry today, but i will be giving it extra attention in the weeks to come to ensure it recuperates well. i'm planning on doing a gloss with my new punjabi prime+cassia later today.
you can see the difference clearly in the pics below. the first is two weeks ago; note the dark brown braided sections. the second is this morning in the same light as before; no brown! :)
before
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j3nV_1OKNOI/SY8Ct7fdIfI/AAAAAAAAAIo/lFWpeJa3J1I/s1600-h/cropped2tone.jpghttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e382/twilight39/hair/cropped2tone.jpg
after!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j3nV_1OKNOI/SY8Ct4qs56I/AAAAAAAAAIw/oYH4Gn5VZqQ/s1600-h/croppedred.jpghttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e382/twilight39/hair/croppedred.jpg
conclusion: i can't say for sure whether the effasol removed the indigo or whether it had already faded away on its own and the effasol just lifted the chemicals, but my suspicion is that it MUST have removed it--i had a whole lot of built-up indigo on there and my waist-length hair is literally all red now. (and i thought i would have to wait 5 years for that day to come!)
i'm very happy with my results, but please keep in mind i was prepared to be forced into a trim if my (already old-damaged) ends got fried.
...special thanks to Nightshade for inspiring me to even attempt a removal in the first place with her Sun-In post.:flower:
a bit of background: i have been growing out my hair from a "long-pixie cut" since october 2004 (with regular, styled trims for the first 2.5 years). between now and october 2004 my hair has been bleach blonde to darkest brown and back again several times using conventional 2 part semi/demi-permanent dyes with 10-vol or lower peroxide (no box color). since 2006 i have been using henna, indigo, and amla, occasionally interspersed with chemical dye, to acheive a medium- to dark-brown. i switched to henna-only about 1 year ago and ever since have been living with a stiff demarcation line between dark reddish brown and henna-red about 8-inches down the length (my natural color is a darkish blonde with some strawberry tones, so i get a very coppery red color from henna). i thought i would just try to grow out the indigo, since much of my length will need trimming eventually, but i got impatient... however i know quite a bit about hair dye chemistry and did NOT jump into this experiment blindly! also my hair has proven itself to be tough in the past; e.g., i have never experienced "falling out" from bleach, even on multiple applications.
the setup: i've been debating using natural methods to lighten the indigo from my length and was preparing to try Nightshade's "sun-in" method to see what happens when i realized that most of my problem (ie, darker hairs) is probably a result of lingering chemical dyes, and not necessarily indigo, despite the fact that 'they' say indigo doesn't really fade. so i decided to try a more conventional color removal procedure before anything else and see what that would leave me with. if i needed further treatments to mitigate the indigo, i was prepared to go there.
the method: purchased one package of l'oreal effasol from sally's (note: this is sold "to professionals only," but from past experience both uncolor and colorfix work about as well and can be purchased by anyone--i prefer effasol because i have used it more than the others. note #2: i probably should've bought two packages but i have a hard time spending money on evil chemicals so i was being cheap). this is nasty stuff! it smells awful and feels a lot like bleach when you're mixing and applying it, but from my experience it does not trash hair the way bleach does... anyway 1 package of effasol was mixed with 1oz water and 1oz 20vol cream peroxide, on 2-days-past-washing dry hair. since i only needed the length to be treated, i sat in the bathtub with my hair split in half down the middle, and worked each side from the bottom up in sections of three (as if making pigtail braids), applying the effasol with a brush. as each side was finished, i twisted it up and clipped it to keep it off my skin. effasol bleaches fabric and burns skin!! timed for 20 minutes from the start of application, then rinsed well, shampoo, and CONDITION.
results: amazing! my hair is all the same shade! granted there is a spot that went a bit too light and a few small spots i seem to have missed, but they are nothing compared to having dark brown hair with very long red roots. there doesn't seem to be any additional damage, though my hair is a bit dry today, but i will be giving it extra attention in the weeks to come to ensure it recuperates well. i'm planning on doing a gloss with my new punjabi prime+cassia later today.
you can see the difference clearly in the pics below. the first is two weeks ago; note the dark brown braided sections. the second is this morning in the same light as before; no brown! :)
before
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_j3nV_1OKNOI/SY8Ct7fdIfI/AAAAAAAAAIo/lFWpeJa3J1I/s1600-h/cropped2tone.jpghttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e382/twilight39/hair/cropped2tone.jpg
after!
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_j3nV_1OKNOI/SY8Ct4qs56I/AAAAAAAAAIw/oYH4Gn5VZqQ/s1600-h/croppedred.jpghttp://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e382/twilight39/hair/croppedred.jpg
conclusion: i can't say for sure whether the effasol removed the indigo or whether it had already faded away on its own and the effasol just lifted the chemicals, but my suspicion is that it MUST have removed it--i had a whole lot of built-up indigo on there and my waist-length hair is literally all red now. (and i thought i would have to wait 5 years for that day to come!)
i'm very happy with my results, but please keep in mind i was prepared to be forced into a trim if my (already old-damaged) ends got fried.
...special thanks to Nightshade for inspiring me to even attempt a removal in the first place with her Sun-In post.:flower: