[Sticky] Colour B4 Information

Rachface, you might want to consider pitting back the appointment. You shouldn't have your hair dyed using peroxide on freshly washed hair as it is a bit risky with the possibility of chemical burns. If the hairdresser is good and can keep it off your scalp it might be ok, but not many do.

Thanks! It was fine though, the bleach was only used on the ends of my hair, nowhere near the scalp 🙂

I'm having a bit of a hair disaster eek.  I was a faded live real red last dyed about 8 weeks ago.  I'm wanting to go a pastel blonde so need to get it fairly light.  Someone told me to use the live real blonde as that should lighten and cover the red, only problem is it hasn't and I now have lined roots with the rest a Pinky orange colour.  I feel now I should have used colour b4 first.  If I used it now do you think it would lift the pinky orange off the rest of my hair, even enough for me to put a dark blonde semi on for a couple of weeks? I've added a pic of the colour of my hair now. I have the touch of silver shampoo is it worth giving that a go?

I'm having a bit of a hair disaster eek.  I was a faded live real red last dyed about 8 weeks ago.  I'm wanting to go a pastel blonde so need to get it fairly light.  Someone told me to use the live real blonde as that should lighten and cover the red, only problem is it hasn't and I now have lined roots with the rest a Pinky orange colour.  I feel now I should have used colour b4 first.  If I used it now do you think it would lift the pinky orange off the rest of my hair, even enough for me to put a dark blonde semi on for a couple of weeks? I've added a pic of the colour of my hair now. I have the touch of silver shampoo is it worth giving that a go?

Getting from red to blonde is a hard process, red pretty much always stains.

You can try Colour B4 now, it might help, but I can't promise. I don't think it'll get enough out for blonde though. But yes, it might get you to a pale enough orange/yellow for a dark blonde or light brown.

Thanks for that Ill go get myself some colour b4 and see if it lifts any of the pinky orange bits.  Ill get a semi colour as well to put over once that's done.  I've got another live blonde if I waited a few days with some good hair washing in between do you think it may lift it some more? I'm happy being a medium to dark blonde for a while until more of the red grows out I'm needing my hair cut anyway so that will take about inch off the ends

Don't use the live blonde for at least 4 weeks. You're asking to lose your hair if you use it too soon. And you'd certainly NOT want to wash inbetween as well. You HAVE to have dirty hair to use permanent dyes as you risk chemical burns on your scalp if it's too clean, the dirt and oil helps to protect your scalp. Added to that, you need to leave a week between using Colour B4 and a permanent dye as the peroxide in the dye can cause any residual dye left to re-oxidise.

Oh, and rather that Colour B4, I would actually recommend Decolour Remover (NOT stripper) as I've found it more effective.

You might also want to wait to buy the semi dye (which you CAN use right after a colour remover as there's no peroxide, though that means NOT a 28 wash one, if you have to mix two bottles, that's not what you want). I say this because you're not sure at this point what you're going to get, so you might need a light brown.

Hi yeh I wouldn't use the other live blonde for at least a month I meant to say weeks rather than days in my last post so meant washes to fade the colour in between I'd let it get dirty before colouring again. Can I use a semi colour straight away?

Ah cool 😀

Yes, you can use any semi dye, as long as it's a true semi and not one that mixes with peroxide. Many, if not the vast majority, of dyes sold as semi's in the shops are actually demi's and have a low volume peroxide to mix in. Make sure the one you go for is for 8 washes and not 28 and doesn't have two bottles 🙂

Oh, and you could try a fading method from the thread in the tutorial section to see if it'll fade more. I like the bicarb mix, but makes sure you have some deep conditioner ready as they're very drying.

Got myself some decorous remover to try tonight fingers crossed for some success had a little look at the semi ones that are only a few washes to see what sort of colours they had. Ten maybe next month I can get it the colour I want it to be 🙂 thanks for all your help

I just wanted to sing the praises of Decolour Remover! My hair had a bleached base and I used carnation pink for about a year. About two months ago, I was told I had a job interview, so I (stupidly) put a box red XXL over it to try to make it more employer-friendly. It went a really weird orangey brown, so I chucked a pot of Directions poppy red over it, then topped up the poppy red every couple of weeks to keep it bright.

I didn't really like it red (I'm a pink girl at heart!) and about a week ago I asked my hairdresser to do a strand test to see if it could be bleached out. She put 40 vol on it for an hour and the colour didn't change at all.

Anyway, I just found out I got the job, and they're quite open minded about hair colour, so I thought I'd give Decolour remover a go. I only used one box of it, and it's managed to get rid of the red completely and I've now got very pale pastel pink hair again! I've washed it three times so far and it hasn't reoxidised.

In conclusion, Decolour remover is awesome and my new best friend for giving me back my lovey pink hair! Stinks to high heaven though  😉

So, I have several days to try to remove the black from the bottom portion of my hair, and today I did a Color Oops Extra Strength.  I left it on for 20 minutes under a shower cap, and when I took it off, I could hardly believe that my turquoise was invisible.  I mean, gone without a trace!  O_O  I had yellow-ish hair with a few salmon tips yet from my red staining.  My black was also gone, leaving a light brown base. 

When I rinsed, however, all of the colour seemed to re-oxidized quite a bit.  🙁  According to the package insert, it said to rinse for 5 minutes, then shampoo, then rinse for 20 minutes more.  After that, it said shampoo once more and then rinse an additional 5 minutes.  I followed those steps to the letter, except that I stopped mid-rinse in the 20 minute cycle.  I blotted dry with a towel, and then used the hair dryer to get my hair to about 90% dry.  After that I hopped back in the shower and rinsed for 10 more minutes, shampooed one more time and rinsed until my water went cold on me (about 5 more minutes).

The colour remover I used before was much different (it was one I got a the professional warehouse shop).  Did I do something wrong to have it re-oxidize so much?  I didn't think to get a pic of it just before rinsing... but the first pic is before the colour remover, the second is what it looks like now.  I'm not really looking to shift the turquoise, but I was sad to see how much of the black came back.  🙁  I have another box, but at $13.99 USD, I don't want to use it if I'm going to re-oxidize this much just while rinsing!  What do you think?

EDIT: From what I've read on the MUA and Amazon reviews, I think my rinse water was too chilly and it caused the hair cuticle to seal before the dye molecules were all rinsed out.  🙁  I'm so used to washing in cool water, that what felt really warm to me wasn't really warm enough.  If I decide to use the second box, I'll have my husband help me rinse over the sink with the sprayer so I can keep the water hot.  I ran out of hot water in the shower!  :/

I think that sounds like a very plausible explanation--when rinsing out stuff like this, you want the water to be very hot (just this side of lava, really) to keep the cuticle open so it can all slide out of the hair.

Thanks Intemp, maybe I'll give it another try today. 🙂

EDIT: I gave it another go with the second box.  The pic attached was the result after I took the shower cap off.  Same as yesterday (which is wild!!!).  Post rinse with scalding water and the help of my husband, my hair looks the same as when I started.  🙁  I shifted quite a bit of the black, but I think I've gotten as much as I'm going to get.

EDIT 2: My husband says the bottom is much more brown and much less black.  He said in the sunlight, it's got a lot more auburn shade to it than it had yesterday.  It's so difficult to tell because my natural colour is quite a dark brown, and since I only used 10vol developer with the permanent black, it's not lifted my natural colour much at all.  We'll see this week where bleach lands my colour... then I can be full-headed turq.  😉

It sucks that these are so hit & miss =( I'm super excited to see the outcome of turq!

I bleached my hair before dying it with a semi permanent purple dye 2 weeks ago. The colour is rubbish, faded to an awful pond water colour after about 3 washes. Could I use colour b4 even though my hair is still recovering from the bleaching? It's still got the chewing gum feel and dry and frizzy.