Should I try Color Oops? Tips?

[Cafe au Lait]

I went to a salon and had my medium brown hair dyed twice - once in January, once in March. It was a pretty bright red, but it's faded to the "bleh" color in my avatar photo. I've decided that dyeing my hair is too much upkeep for me to bother with. If my hair hadn't turned this gross color I wouldn't care so much, but I HATE what it's turned into.

I'm thinking about trying Color Oops. Mainly what I'm afraid of is damage. My hair is already fairly damaged from previous heat damage, though it's gotten better with good treatment.

What do you guys think?

And if I do go through with it, what's a good conditioner to use afterward? My normal CO wash is Tresemme Naturals. And is it good to do a SMT afterward? I've heard hair gets really porous afterward. Yikes? Is there any way to counteract this after?

Any tips?

[jillosity]

Color Oops won't damage your hair, but keep in mind that the haircolor you've already gotten has lightened your actual hair, so using color oops or any color remover won't give you back your natural color. Hair is made porous by using permanent dyes that lift your natural shade, not necessarily by color oops, but that can depend on how damaged your hair is right now.

You'll possibly (most likely) need to recolor after using a color remover. Any sort of deep treatment that works well for you now will probably be fine after removing color. Because color oops reeks to the sky (it uses sulfur to remove color) a smelly conditioner might be preferable ;) but your hair might stink for weeks afterward (sorry!)

Good luck!

[battles]

Color Oops itself didn't damage my hair, but rinsing my hair for 30 minutes straight didn't leave it in the best condition. I got quite a bit of breakage from it. :(

[Cafe au Lait]

Did it lighten my hair? I didn't think it did. :confused:

[jillosity]

If the salon color had peroxide and made your hair bright red then yes, beneath the color it deposited, your hair is lighter. Which you'll see after using a color remover.

The rinsing won't be great, but again it depends on how damaged your hair is now. I used it twice and had no damage, but I was deeply offended by the stench afterward! ;)

[Cafe au Lait]

Do I have to do anything to prepare my hair before? Should I clarify?

How do I do a strand test?

[hototogisu]

Your colour beneath the dark dye is definitely lightened. Any oxidative dye - even semi permanent dye - will lighten your base colour.

I Colour B4ed (the British version) 3 times to remove my copper red colour. I got the best results when I clarified and didn't condition afterwards (yes really!), allowed my hair to air dry, then applied, rinsed etc. Have an SMT ready for when you're done rinsing, your hair will be a bit dry.

Also be prepared to do a few rounds. But I'm a big advocate of colour removers, I had a great experience!

[Lilli]

My hair was in fine condition after the color oops, but the process is very tiring and I ran out of hot water. It takes forever to rinse but it works. Your hair will be lighter underneath and perhaps a very ugly shade of orange. If you want to recolor it, you must be very careful. They might need to use a filler first and then a lighter color than your real color because it may end up darker than you want. I'd go to a professional to recolor it.

[akilina]

I have always had success with color oops with no damage. You have to keep an open mind though. If you have used any permanent dye whatsoever, it wont take that back to your natural color because permanent dye lifts color, then deposits color. In my experiences the color oops can tend to pull sort of brassy. This probably happened to me though because I used black dye and permanent dye from time to time.
I always follow it with a good smelling SMT. It makes all the odor go away.
I don't rinse it for a half hour either. I rinse for maybe 5 minutes and turn out just fine. I don't attempt to comb out the mess either. Just apply the DT right away.

[jojo]

Did it lighten my hair? I didn't think it did. :confused:

Most hair dyes contain a weak peroxide especially permanent dyes, they help open the hair shaft and allow the dye to enter the shaft better, so yes your result would be slightly lighter when you have removed it with colour oops!

I only used one permanent salon dye and one semi dye ( the rest of my dyes where henna or hendigo) and I managed to remove all traces of all the dyes but my hair is slightly lighter than my virgin hair, but not too much making it a very good match. The more permanent dye you have used the more lighter it will become.

[jojo]

Do I have to do anything to prepare my hair before? Should I clarify?

How do I do a strand test?

Always clarify first with any new treatment to get optimal results. Strand tests can be done by using hair found in hair brushes or done on your hair say behind your ears!

[bunzfan]

Always clarify first with any new treatment to get optimal results. Strand tests can be done by using hair found in hair brushes or done on your hair say behind your ears!

You are fast becoming the colour remover expert :bow:

[Calaelen]

Stylist here. Colour oops will remove most if not all of the deposit dye used in the salon, it will however leave you with the base colour that the chemical process left you with, which will be much lighter than your original colour. You'll likely end up with a strawberry blonde shade, which if you do want to go back to your original colour, will need to be colored over.

I recommend having your hair colour matched in a salon to your natural colour, for this pics will be necessary.

Failing this, you could do the colour oops on your own with little damage if you're gentle in the rinsing process, but you will need to add another colour, and a deposit only dye is what I recommend.

[Cafe au Lait]

Now I'm a little afraid to use Color Oops because of the lightening. I'm kind of hair dye stupid, so I had no idea about the peroxide. I don't want to damage my hair further. But I hate this color. Hate hate hate.

Since I'm color stupid, I'm afraid to match up my color correctly. Ugh. I need one of you guys to live near me and come to the store with me to help! :)

A deposit only? Is that a demi dye? What brand of dye are deposit only?

Thanks for all the help, everyone. I appreciate it. Paranoid me is going to mull over all this info and decide what's best for me.

[Lilli]

I would seriously recommend going professional to fix it. The Color Oops will not damage your hair and is fine to do at home, but then I'd live with the color for a few days, give it time to settle, and then if you feel you need to re-dye it to your natural color, go to a professional. My hair was very brassy for a few days, so I used a ton of violet shampoos and a year later, it is basically fine, except the very ends, which had been permed and straightened years ago. Because of the prior damage to that section, the hair took up more of the color and that section didn't release all the dye like the newer hair did. My hair is pretty close to my natural color now and I never did have to recolor it, as the hair will re-oxidize and darken for a few days after the Color Oops. Honestly, the main problem I noticed is that in lightening my color slightly, as all dyes have some peroxide in them, it really killed my natural highlights, and I regret that immensely.

[Stellaaa]

I'm seriously thinking of Color Oops, too. I've bought the stuff (weeks ago), I've done the strand and allergy tests. Nothing much happened to the strands - they got a bit orangey and crunchy.

My hair is multicolored in three distinct sections - bottom 12-18" is very dark brown, permenantly salon-dyed, next 8-10" or thereabouts is reddish brown, Natural Instincts demi done at home (waaay less damaging than anything at the salon IME) and the roots (6 weeks growth about 3/4-1") is quite silvery/s&p.

Would kind of like it all to sort of match the light reddish brown (the color most apparent in my avatar) but got to get rid of the too-dark salon stuff done in Jan2010 before that can happen. So to get lighter hair I can bleach or remove. So I think remove is the way to go (fingers crossed)

Just trying to get the courage up to dump this goop on my old hair. ANd then there's the smell. Not as bad as I thought it might be, but bad none the less and very strong.

[Maelyssa]

Stylist here. Colour oops will remove most if not all of the deposit dye used in the salon, it will however leave you with the base colour that the chemical process left you with, which will be much lighter than your original colour. You'll likely end up with a strawberry blonde shade, which if you do want to go back to your original colour, will need to be colored over.

I recommend having your hair colour matched in a salon to your natural colour, for this pics will be necessary.

Failing this, you could do the colour oops on your own with little damage if you're gentle in the rinsing process, but you will need to add another colour, and a deposit only dye is what I recommend.

Exactly this just happened to me. From box dye (some shade of brown believe it or not) a few years ago, I tried ColorOops to remove henna and was left with a strawberry blonde shade. I colored over it with a neutral brown but I can still get glimpses of red in the light. And actually, I loving that part.

Proceed with caution and be prepared to color over what's there after the color is removed.

[jojo]

:(
You are fast becoming the colour remover expert :bow:

Not at all, I've only ever used one permanent dye on my hair apart from henna and indigo, but i like to help using my own experiences which have been quite successful even if I do say so myself :D

It's a tricky thing removing colour and I researched and researched before attempting, color oops and color fix I think are similar things, I'd emailed the actual creater of colour B4 before attempting to remove my dyes, it's good to ask questions and share experiences I think, I know from past experiences when going into removing colours years back and spending lots of my well earned money on having it chemically stripped and practically ruining my hair, research is so needed, wish I'd have known about this site back then, mind you I don't even think dye reducers existed back then, it was all basically stripping!

One thing for sure I'd never go down the henna/ indigo route again, although I liked the thicker strands, it was just as expensive getting it out, I get bored way too easy for henna!! Lol! But staying how I'm intended to look from now on.....lesson learnt!