Growing out black dye

[sarelis]

Hi, I'm new here but have been browsing the forums for a while. I would like some advice as to how I can grow out my dyed black hair without a hideous & very obvious demarcation line between the black & my natural dark blonde. I was thinking of perhaps using a dark brown non-permanent dye over my regrowth while I gradually trim off the black, also maybe trying to lighten the black with honey. Any suggestions for a brown dye that is not too damaging & will be fairly easy to remove once I have finished trimming off the black? Also do you think honey will lift the black at all? Thanks in advance :)

[Roscata]

I believe someone had success in removing black dye with colorfix. You can combine something like that with the overnight coconut oil soak and the application of colorfix or color zap or something simmilar, over the still oiled hair to minimize damage. Luckily you don't have fine hair so your hair should be able to take the damage pretty well. I've tried removing black dye before and had little to no success with repeated bleaching, I do believe honey lightening might be too mild to remove black dye completely or even visibly.
You might want to check out this thread: Any way to lighten chemically dyed black hair without bleach...? (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=59699&highlight=removing+black+hair)

[sarelis]

Thanks, i may give the colourfix a go, though to be honest I'm not going to hold out a lot of hope, I have been using permanent black dye for about 7 years now so it will probably take some shifting! Also will check out that thread x

[Roscata]

No problem, hope it work out for you. I also hope you'll take before and after pics. :D
Good luck! :)

[sarelis]

Thanks, I will take pics but I don't think I'm able to post them yet, it will be amazing if colour zap works, the only reason I have kept dying it black for so long is because I thought I had no choice! x

[jojo]

Try Scott Cornwall's colour B4 its available on Boots online, get the stronger one, my daughter used this on dyed black hair and it removed it, she had dyed on dye. The secret with colour B4 is to make sure you rinse it properly and you will need a good deep conditioner after as it made my daughters hair a little dry but it does work well.

Good luck! x

heres some reviews http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=150.0
http://www.hairdyeforum.com/index.php?topic=150.0
http://www.boots.com/en/Colour-B4.-Hair-colour-remover-extra-strength-by-Scott-Cornwall-hair-expert._1000976/#customerReviews

[kwaniesiam]

Use Colorfix from Sally's. I used it to pull out black dye that had been building up for years. It brought my hair to a bright orange color, which I hennaed over top of. You may have to do a bit of bleaching once it turns orange to lighten it enough but then you'll be able to tone it close to your natural color.

[KittyLost]

If the dye wasn't XXL, many people have reported succes with Scott Cornwall's Colour B4. You can get it in superdrug or boots.

ETA: Jojo beat me to it! To the same review from hairdyeforum too haha. That'll teach me to post before reading.

[liagibba]

This is something I attempted to do about 4 years ago. It was frustrating and took a long time, but I eventually got through it. First, I did 2 consecutive treatments of colorfix. My hair turned a gorgeous red color the next day, but was back to black 2 days later. I ended up going to a beauty school and having them attempt to lift the color with their professional techniques and products. It sorta worked, but my hair ended up dark brown, not my natural dark blond. Finally, I just started getting highlights all over. I ended up just having to grow grow grow it all out until it was all gone. I think the beauty school student did a pretty decent job and got way closer than the colorfix did. I know that color lifting treatments can be expensive, so I definitely suggest going to a beauty school for they're cheapness, plus you get to help a student learn :)

Good luck!!

[StormVixen]

I grew out Black dye, I just let it do its own thing, my (award-winning) hairdresser aunty strand tested various things to see if any thing would strip the colour but they all turned to different shades of orange straw... I decided that two tone "badger hair" was a better look than orange straw hair... But i do own alot of hats :D

[sarelis]

Thanks for all your replies, I think I will have a go at colour b4 or something similar ( but will wait till after xmas & new year, don't fancy all those photos with bad hair if it doesn't work! ) Will keep you posted on my progress, or lack of it! Thanks again x

[MandaMom2Three]

I used ColorFix (or ColorOops, I can't recall) to get rid of black dye. Worked fantastic!

[kitten1986]

Wow this thread could have been written by me!!!
I had been dying my hair with permanent black for around 10 years so it has COPIOUS layers of black over black over black. When I decided to grow all that damage out I left it to grow for as long as I could stand the regrowth then just started using a gentle semi dark brown whenever the regrowth got too much, It blended it nicely and made it easier to deal with.

In the Past I have tried using products like colour oops... but dont expect to go back to your natural colour with these products. Permanent dye contains small levels of bleach to make the colour take properly, so every time you use a permanent dye, you are bleaching out abit of your natural colour, so with your history, you will end up with orange hair is you use colour oops. So If you go down that route buy a semi brown to put over the top once you have used the colour oops, or you will have an embarrassing trip back to the drugstore with orange hair (speaking from experience here!)
haha

So nowdays I still have black in my ends and I still do a semi brown when I cant stand the colour difference, If I hold my ends up to my roots there is an obvious colour difference but its not noticeable to anyone but me :D
Hope that helps

[christi.adell]

A few weeks ago in a moment of insanity I thought I wanted to get rid of my black. Used colorfix from Sally's...it did absolutely nothing.
Which is good because I like my black (just having a OMG I need something different right now!!! moment).
So just know that it might not do anything. :( And those things can get expensive (I think it was like $13 for the box?)
Though I do have a couple of hendigos in my hair so maybe that affected the outcome?
Sorry I don't have any other advice, but good luck!

[Roscata]

So If you go down that route buy a semi brown to put over the top once you have used the colour oops, or you will have an embarrassing trip back to the drugstore with orange hair (speaking from experience here!)

Did you try using a toner? And if you did, what was the effect?

[kitten1986]

I didnt try a toner because my hair was SOOOOO orange I doubt it would have helped ;)

[Joliebaby]

I recommend Colorfix. Two consecutive treatments, with using a CHELATING shampoo in-between. Not clarifying or something, else, but chelating (mineral removing). And leave it on for a while, It should pull out those color molecules that have been made smaller by the Colorfix. They are now small enough to be pulled out by the chelating shampoo.
Using the after- lotion will re-oxidaze any color molecules there are left, so you may want to skip that. If there are a lot of color molecules left your hair will darken back some the following days as they re-oxidaze. But you should still end up with significantly lighter hair. If the color is pulled off really well, you will end up with orange hair, but you could then dye on top of it to make it a nicer brown.

It worked really well for me, even though I had used semi-permanent color, which Colorfix is not meant to remove (it works way better for oxidative, or permanent dyes).
I still got somewhat lighter hair :) The best part is that is pretty much non-damaging. You might have a bit of dryness, but nothing a good deep-conditioning won't fix.

Good luck whatever you do!!