Has anyone ever had a hairstylist strip the dye out of their hair...

[TealDolphin]

I am considering going to a salon and asking the stylist to strip the hair dye out of my hair...I've heard that this will give you back your natural color. Is it true, or is it better to just wait and let your natural color grow back? (My natural color has grown in up to about my ears I'm guessing, and it will probably take a long time for it to grow out).

[pinkbunny]

I don't think there's a way to strip out just the dye only - if the dye is darker than your natural color, they would probably bleach it lighter. If the dye is lighter than your natural color, then your color is already stripped and would have to be dyed darker to match. Unless it just really really bothers you, leaving it alone and letting it grow would be the least damaging way to go...

[babybabycat]

Two years ago, I had a bad experience at a salon getting some "lowlights". I went to a (really expensive) 2nd salon to get an opinion on "what to do to get my original color back" and they did a technique in which they put "clear" haircolor on my hair and it "lightened" the color. I didn't go back to my "original" color, but at least it got my hair lighter so that people stopped saying "WHAT did you do to your hair!!

[feralnature]

In your avatar it looks like the ends are bleached out. I do not think that stripping is meant for lighter hair but dark rather. I would just leave it alone. It looks like the sun did it and looks just fine :)

[Harriet]

I haven't had this done at a salon, but have successfully removed really dark red dye with a product called colour b4, if your in the US a similar product would be color oops I think.

[radiofreejenn]

Stripping color out can mean different things to different stylist. Sometimes they use bleach to get it back to a certain color and then RECOLOR it match. They also have color strippers like "Color Oops" that you can buy in stores, but it's really hard because with that much regrowth, you would most likely have to recolor whatever you strip out. Those tend to work best when someone has dyed their hair too dark and want to lighten it back up. I'm not sure anything can really take you back to your natural color without some sort of recolor being done.

Personally, stripping it either way takes a lot of your hair and I honestly want to say that growing it out might be the healthiest route for your hair.

[ellen732]

Removing permanent color from hair will not give you your natural color back. The peroxide in the permanent color lightened your natural color so it will be brassy/orange after the color removal. It would be better to put a semipermanent (no ammonia, low peroxide) on the colored ends to blend your regrowth, or just be patient and leave it the way it is.

[ddiana1979]

I had my hair dye stripped once. It was a HORRIBLE experience.

I normally have medium-dark brown hair. I had it dyed black, and decided it looked a little too gothic (I have extremely pale skin). Oddly, now I like black hair with my deathly pallor, but I digress. . . The salon stripped the color in an attempt to get it back to my natural color. They left the bleach/stripper on too long. I ended up with Sally Jesse Raphael colored hair. . . that horrid mustard mixed with ketchup fake-looking shade. I was so mortified I kept my hair tucked up in a baseball cap for days. Then I had to go back to the salon a third time to get it dyed back to brown. All these various treatments in such a short period of time were extremely damaging to my hair. It was a good six months before it started looking healthy & normal again.

[little_cherry]

I've had black hair dye stripped out my then BSL hair, It did not turn out like my natural hair colour..it was dry and straw-like, too.

The hair in your avatar looks lighter in the ends...I don't think that stripping the colour out will help much...however, they can apply a semi permanent dye to match the length to the roots.

[podo]

I had black removed to return to my natural medium brown/auburn - it worked great except for one small patch that got a little blond (heheh). It did return me to my original color. I don't know the name of the product.

BUT!!!!

1) I had a really really good stylist who was also a good friend at the time do it (she had waist-length hair too).
2) She monitored it constantly...which is actually how the blondish patch appeared.
3) I had simply dyed my hair darker - no bleach at all.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this unless you really trust whoever is doing it. Trust them to be familiar with your hair, the product, and the whole color thing in general. If you're concerned about damage, just let it grow out because chances are this will add damage, and if it gets messed up and goes too blond (which is definitely damage) it will have to be colored again (more damage).

[pennyroyal]

I have a friend with blond hair who had dyed it black. She got it "stripped" to get her natural color back & it ruined her hair. :( It was an awful color & her hair was dry & broken. She was devastated, obviously. (her hair was down to her bottom & very curly)

[UltraBella]

TealDolphin, it depends on what was used on your hair in the first place. Is your natural color lighter or darker than your dyed hair ? Was the color semi, demi, or permanent ?

[Caldonia Sun]

Had mine stripped when I decided to stop coloring light brown and go silver. It left my hair a weird yellow color.

[StephanieB]

TealDolphin, it depends on what was used on your hair in the first place. Is your natural color lighter or darker than your dyed hair ? Was the color semi, demi, or permanent ?
TealDolphin, I am pretty sure that if your hair was lightened (as it appears in your avvy), then there is none - or very little - of color left.

Also, stripping hair of color means taking one's natural color out of it, if I'm not very much mistaken. If your hair was permanently colored, especially if it was lightened, then it was stripped already of color and you can't get that color back, except for more color. All permanent coloring processes are damaging to one degree or another. (going lighter than your natural color being worse than going darker that your natural color)

UltraBella is a professional, so she can correct me if I've said anything inaccurate.

I know that when I was a bottle-blonde for a few years, since my natural color is very dark brunette, the hairdresser/colorist (1) stripped the color out of my naturally dark hair, then she (2) bleached it to dead white, and then she (3) dyed it a very pale light golden yellow that was nearly platinum - just yellowish of platinum white, and then (4) added highlights of gold to brighten it even further. This was over perming, she also was perming my hair every three months, on top of all the coloring. She did this to me every three weeks to cover the dark roots. And we all know what happened to my hair ..... she eventually chemically burned it all off, and my scalp, one day when she was distracted by her ex-husband showing up at the salon to argue with her. But before she burned me so badly, my hair was already mushy and 'shot', anyway... and it was only pixie length too! My hair did, eventually, grow back - some - but it has never grown very fast ever since then. It took me almost ten years to get it to it's current 22 1/2 inches of healthy un-split-ended hair. (with a few trims of dryed-out split ends along the way, but no major cuts)

I would suggest that you leave your hair alone, if at all possible. Otherwise, just have the ends darkened a little to closer match your roots and upper parts.

[TealDolphin]

I didn't bleach my hair. It's permenant (I think, if I remember right) dye from Wal Mart.

[StephanieB]

I didn't bleach my hair. It's permenant (I think, if I remember right) dye from Wal Mart.
Soo... your box/bottle color isn't lighter than our own natural color, then?

Your avvy pic makes it look like you have darker roots and much lighter ends.

If it's permanent dye that is darker than your own natural color, then yu may be able to strip out the box color without stripping out (or without stripping too much of) your natural hair color. But I suspect you will still accur\e more damage if you do this, rather than leaving it alone to grow in.

I don't think it looks sufficiently different of color (meaning worth risking more damage by color-'fixing'), but you might want to post better pix that actually reflect what your hair really looks like, if you want accurate opinions. In the avvy, it looks like the ends are lighter than the roots, but not enough to not possibly just be old sun damage rather than dyed. BUT if your ends are not lighter (you say the dye is darker than your natural color), then better pix are necessary for accuracy of opinion. :)

[TealDolphin]

I think the dye is lighter. I can't see my roots that well yet, but from what I can see, it does seem darker than the dye.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[little_cherry]

I think the dye is lighter. I can't see my roots that well yet, but from what I can see, it does seem darker than the dye.

Thanks for the help everyone!
Do you remember the brand and the name of the colour? :)

[Carolyn]

I was using Natural Instincts (semi or demi) and they changed their formula and I ended up strawberry blonde. I'm a natural ashy blonde and do not want any hint of red in my hair. I went to an Aveda salon and she took out the color and dyed my hair a medium ashy blonde. If I remember right it took something like 6 hours. The results were quite good. The red was gone. It was hard on my hair and I had more breakage than usual for the next 3 years. I kept it at waist or past the whole time. It wasn't bad enough to make me chop a lot off. I've trimmed and trimmed and treated my hair to lots of oils and moisture. It was a very expensive process but worth it to me because I got my ashy blonde color back and I didn't have to do something drastic like chop to mid back. I have no skills with color and would never have attempted this at home.

[KittyLost]

I haven't personally but two of my friends have.

The stripped hair was not there natural colour at all, it was a gingery brown and then dyed a light brown on top for one and red on top for the other friend. It caused some damage and now whenever one of my friend dyes her hair it is not all one colour it is like she has permanent highlights that come out a little lighter than the rest of her hair :s her hair is APL btw.
My other friend chopped her Waist length hair into a POB so it wasn't a problem for her.

[Maddy25]

I have had my hair stripped several times. It is pretty much stripping ALL colour out of your hair, even your natural, it's similar to just bleaching it. It is one of the harshest things you can do to your hair and cant put it in pretty aful condition :(

[jenjen10]

Way back in high school I had an awful at home coloring incident and had to have the color stripped from my hair (professionally)... as others already said, it does not take you back to your natural hair color but bleaches it out which you then have to apply dye over to get a decent color. It is VERY hard on your hair and is a very long process (I think it took 5-6 hours) overall.

A few years ago I then used the stuff at Walmart to strip color out of my hair and it ended up frying my hair... in fact, that led to the "great cut of 2007" where I cut my hair from BSL to chin length to get rid of all of the damage. :(