[Sticky] Colour B4 Information

Ha you are my hair twin!  😛

What's Colour B4 like with semi permanent dyes? I have this problem where I get bored quickly...

Colour B4 is hit and miss with semis, but a few people on this forum have tried Scott Cornwall's new Recolour Remover and had amazing results with semi dyes.

I'm hoping somebody could help me out/clarify something regarding colour b4............

I have been reading through the forums and this thread but I have problems with absorbing and retaining information so please forgive me if I have completely missed the answer to my question........

I have been dying my hair various shades of red and pink for a couple of years, then about 6 weeks ago I made the mistake of decided to dye my hair all black with a permanent box dye. Obviously, my love of my new raven locks lasted about a week.

I've been fading the dye with a dandruff shampoo but I plan to use colourb4 this weekend.

I did a strand test and it looks promising, but I'm slightly confused about re-oxidising and how long I should wait before bleaching........

If the strand test is accurate, I won't need to bleach the majority of the lengths of my hair in order to dye it red with directions poppy red, but I will need to bleach the regrowth from the pink that was present BEFORE going black, and the regrowth I have SINCE going black.

Would it be OK to do the bleach a couple of days after? I really don't want to wait too long as I know that my hair is going to be a bit of a multicoloured mess until I put the red on.

Also, I picked up some colourstop the other day because I read about it on a blog (and it was only £1!) - would this prevent re-oxidising and at what stage would I apply it?

I'm so sorry for such a long, rambling question! I really appreciate any advice you guys can offer 🙂

Right, I'm going to check out the make-up forum as I actually know what I'm doing when it comes to putting slap on!

We usually advise to do a few washes between a colour remover and any peroxide treatment to ensure all of the residues are out.  As long as the hair has had a few good scrubs it should be ok--I bleached the next day and didn't have a problem with reoxidising.  Just make sure you condition well and coconut oil before bleach, as the colour remover is drying and a few shampoos will dry it out a bit as well.  You should also ideally leave at least a day or two between your last shampoo and the bleach, in order to protect your scalp.

I've never heard of Colourstop, so I'm sorry I can't help you there 🙁

^ What she said!

I have used Colourstop and the only thing I didn't like about it was the smell. I think it might say on the packaging that you can use it after Colour B4 to stop oxidisation however I've never done it. I'd also be a bit anxious that if you hadn't rinsed enough it could trap some dye molecules still in your hair and maybe stopping a better result if that makes sense.

I have over dyed black hair, i was thinking of using colour b4 but i am unsure if this is the right thing for me so wondered if anyone could direct me, My roots are brown and a lot of the black dye (live colour) has washed out to a murky brown black but definately black just not the nice shiney new dyed hair black colour, if this makes sense. I wanted to use the colour b4 and then put the red black or purple black live colour on. I know its not much different and i have put a red black over the top before but it never looks quite right so i thought if i toop the top coat off it might work better. what do you think?

just to add to the last post, i would rather not use colour b4 if anyone has any tips of lifting it slightly or a dye that would be better to used, prefferably permanent that would go over it better and is black red or black purple in colour, cheeeeerrrs

Moderator combined posts

If you want the red to show as more than just a glow in the sunlight, you will need to lighten it slightly.  Box dyes like XXL have brown/black bases, so even if you put a dark red box dye over the black, you're putting a dark base over a dark base which won't give you much change regarding tint.

I personally would recommend Colour B4 or Scott Cornwall's new Recolour Remover (not the stripper, the remover) to lighten your hair and start fresh.  Can I ask why you don't want to use a colour remover?

cos there a tenner so i would rather only have to pay for a dye and not a dye and colour b4, i'm a bit skint at the moment lol thanks for the advice 🙂

No problem--you can always try Jo Bazz, they're a lot cheaper and just as effective 🙂

Hi guys!! I've used the jo baz which is like the same n have ended up a bright gingery orange... I kinda like it but I wanna go cerise.... I've strand tested with directions cerise, a bleach 40 vol, and a bleach bath and each one keeps ending up a dark red!!! Help.....

DONT use 40 vol! leave your hair a week & wash it atleast 3times, then do strand tests. you should get a good pink from ginger. failing that do a 30vol (max) bleach bath(mak sure you coconut oil first) then apply the cerise. 40vol always ends in tears. trust me i learned the hard way =(

Pippa kinda said it above, but I thought I'd also say clearly, it sounds like your hair is re-oxidising, it needs more washes before you can use peroxide on it, otherwise you'll end up where you started.
As pippa said, usually recommended are 3 washes between a colour remover and peroxide (some people need a lot to get the colour out of their hair)

Thanks girls =] I'll give it a go...

I tried a  bleach bath today and didn't do muchcof anything. I realized this may be due to the years of black dye that are still remaining even though I haven't dyed it in 4-6 mos and last time was demipermanent. So back to sally I went and got a color remover. I am trying it tomorrow when I get home. It says to rinse with a 20 vol developer optional which I'm just going to skip since I just did a bleach bath. Im in the States so its really hard to get color b4. I'm assuming any color remover will work in the same fashion? I plan to colorremover tomorrow. Then two days of washing and conditioning then opacity followwrd by 3 min miracle. Then a few days later it will be time for another bb. Wondering if another color remover between kpac and bb would do? I will make sure its all out so as not to reoxidisealso the color remover I'm using says u can mix it with 20 vol developer or do a developer rinse. I'm assuming I should not do this since I just bbed and dint want to double process. Or would that be ok?