As I mentioned in my welcome back post I am currently on a mission to grow out/remove henna from my hair as I want to go white blonde again.
I was growing it out naturally but as I always do I got bored and impatient and there are many success stories floating around on various forums on how Colour B4 and Decolour Remover can remove/fade henna.
I started with 3 week old henna on my hair that had grown out a little bit but hadn't faded at all, it had gone quite brown though.
I decided to start with Colour B4 and I left it on for an hour and rinsed for 20 minutes as I only have short hair.
This was the result:
It did fade considerably but I wanted more so I went and bought some Decolour after hearing that worked better than Colour B4, I've just rinsed it out and I've ended up with this that I'm going to try and tone a bit before I next get my hair cut.
It's still quite orange but it's so much of an improvement and I'm really shocked at how light my natural colour actually is!
My hair isn't damaged or dry at all but it was totally virgin under the henna.
I think I can get the most of the orange bits cut off next week and then hopefully I can bleach to go white!
Topic starter
Posted : January 17, 2016 3:53 pm
That's a really good result! I'm impressed by how much the colour remover took out.
Posted : January 17, 2016 5:45 pm
I just tried toning it with some Bleach London silver shampoo but it's far too orange for that!
Oh well I'm getting my hair cut next week and it's going a lot shorter so I'll play with what I'm left with after that!
Topic starter
Posted : January 17, 2016 6:43 pm
Double post sorry!
I decided to use another Decolour today because I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that it's fine to do 3 but after that then there's not much point.
Anyway, the 3rd one has lifted even more out, I'm back to my natural colour besides some bits towards the end of my hair that had been hennaed a few more times than the rest.
Here is a final picture!
Topic starter
Posted : January 18, 2016 6:57 pm
I decided to use another Decolour today because I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that it's fine to do 3 but after that then there's not much point.
I see this posted a lot but the reason it's only recommended to use three times in quick succession is because the sodium oxymethylene sulfoxylate creates formaldehyde (a carcinagen) and 3 uses is about as much formaldehyde as you want to be exposed to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongalite
Posted : January 19, 2016 5:25 pm
I think the most i have ever used it on the same hair was five times on stubborn permanent black. It was spread out over several weeks/months, but continued to lift each time. I also did a couple of bleach baths during the lifting process, and the colour remover was more effective afterwards. Whether it would be the same with Henna I have no idea though
Posted : January 19, 2016 9:36 pm
That's interesting to know about the formaldehyde!
I'm getting my hair cut tonight anyway so I'm going to get the darkest orange bits cut out and then see what I'm left with, hopefully it's fine to bleach and tone!
Topic starter
Posted : January 20, 2016 6:25 am
Can formaldehyde cause cancer?
Although the short-term health effects of formaldehyde exposure are well known, less is known about its potential long-term health effects. In 1980, laboratory studies showed that exposure to formaldehyde could cause nasal cancer in rats. This finding raised the question of whether formaldehyde exposure could also cause cancer in humans. In 1987, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) classified formaldehyde as a probable human carcinogen under conditions of unusually high or prolonged exposure (1). Since that time, some studies of humans have suggested that formaldehyde exposure is associated with certain types of cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies formaldehyde as a human carcinogen (2). In 2011, the National Toxicology Program, an interagency program of the Department of Health and Human Services, named formaldehyde as a known human carcinogen in its 12th Report on Carcinogens (3).
Don't panic.
Posted : January 20, 2016 6:29 am
Yeah I wasn't really panicking, I have a background in chemistry and molecular biology (did a huge unit about cancer at uni) but it's good to throw that out there to everyone in general.
The main reason I'm not doing any more colour removers is that I can't stand the smell anymore!
Topic starter
Posted : January 20, 2016 8:32 am
Yeah, it was more of a "Don't Panic" with a big wink! It was hard to convey that when I posted that using Tapatalk on my phone earlier lol I couldn't even do the quote box thing, irritatingly. As you say, it was more as a general, "don't panic, formaldehyde isn't the scary thing people think it is, even if you really don't want too much exposure just like anything" post aimed at anyone reading 🙂
It sounds like you can get far worse levels of formaldehyde in your home using scented cleaning products and air fresheners anyway!
Posted : January 20, 2016 10:05 am
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