Colour B4 review & help!

Hi CarmelB, last year I had black hair and I used colour b4 and it took the layer of black off- underneath it had been dyed many browns and reds.....I used Ex strength and was left with a faded chocolatey colour... I bleached it about a day or two later and it wouldn't bleach it stayed basically the same, eventually I got it blonde but it was too golden...I now realise after more research and my second time do colour b4 ex strength that bleach contains peroxide and hence reverses the colour b4 procedure...

So now I'm in a dilemma, I used colour b4 extra on Friday and on sunday I now have a coppery colour but its too dark to apply a base colour of dark blonde/light brown as I then want to highlight it after so its more of a natural colour (by the way I have been dying my hair every 3-4 weeks with feria plum power- my hair was blonde until December) So it had a lot of colour build up.

Now I don't want to reverse the hard work and money of colour b4 by dying/bleaching for it to reverse ....if i have been washing it with clarifying shampoo since I used colour b4 extra, will Thursday be enough time to start the process of getting rid of the awful orange I chose this week cos my son is on half term...I cannot go to the school on Monday morning with this hair so has anyone been in a similar situation etc pls pls help thanks sorry for the long post I have been reading all the posts by other members thought I may as well ask you guys for help.....(I'm naturally a mousy colour sick of high maintenance red, and rather more natural colour)

Basically when can i bleach ...i know its bad for your hair

Hi Dyehard!! To be honest, the first advice i would give you is to wait as long as possible before doing anything more to your hair. I completely understand not wanting to show up at your son's school looking like a hairdresser worked on you for an hour then fell asleep for 5 before finishing the job! I have had that problem many times over the years. I believe that using a NON-PEROXIDE SEMI PERMANENT hair dye is the way to go. But i always recommend washing your hair the day before colouring again, to make sure every single trace of B4 is gone. It's best to wash once, using an intense conditioner, towel drying alot then repeating the whole process. The best methods to get your hair how you want it, in my experience is to buy some of the little colour sachets that shops sell. The ones that wash out after 3/4 washes. If your hair is left with red tones, buy sachets with ASH in the colour (ash blonde, ash light brown). If you have long or thick hair it's best to use 3 one after the other. In other circumstances i always suggest people use 2 to help tone down any red. It's usually best, to then wait until the following day to dye the hair. If the ends are reddish, before using the semi dye, make the lengths of the hair wet ( but towel dry lightly) then apply the dye, otherwise the roots are likely to be lighter. But really, the best bet, if you have the time & money, is to do the sachets for 2/3 days before dying. You can use 4/5 sachets if you feel the need, depending on how reddish or darker you feel your hair is. If you choose to do this process i STRONGLY recommend doing a strand test with the dye to give an indication if it's going to work.  I went from a year of mahogany brown, to light ash brown. I had lots of build up and had to do all of the above. It worked for me & i'm glad i wet the ends of my hair before applying the dye! My hair is long but not thick. It's good that you have the school hols to fix things, so just go at your own pace and see what the sachets do for you first, then go from there. I hope this helps. Also, if you are looking to go blondish, best to go light ash brown first, then after 2/3 weeks, you can work up to the desired colour. Good Luck!! Let me know how things go!! ;D

so i went to sally's bought wellablonder multi blonde anti-yellow owder with a 30vol peroxide, then for afters i have bought a wella color fresh toning semi in 7/0 medium blonde  and a mixing bowl, measuring cup and application brush....wish me luck....

...couldnt wait....its lightened with the bleach im taking pics as i go from the beginning......

Hi Carmelb

hi well i have done it the bleach lifted it to a yellow colour not the lightest of yellows but yellow, so the lady in sally suggested a 7/0 colour fresh...(worst product for yellow hair) i said shouldnt it be ashy...hmmm

anyway wasted a £10 on that item so then i just went to superdrug and used a mixture of medium ash blonde and light ash brown in nice n easy semi....(2 for £5.99) then i highlighted a little bit ...

its ok its a bit warm but considering how red it was and i  only bleached once with 30vol...whereas last time i bleached about 3 times......

i have a silver shampoo (its purple tho) and so i will condition, for a while now......but any ideas to tone it down....sometimes i find in sally's they are helpful but want u to buy too many things....which are not always needed....oh btw i couldnt find my thing to pull through highlights....ermmm i tried to foli my own hair...well that was hard lol...ill try and add pics, thank u guys ever so much xxxxx mwah x

http://www.flickr.com/photos/63589616@N04/

I think that's quite a result, since you started off with a chocolately colour I believe?  It looks good, anyway : )

Let it rest for a month, reconstruct and deep condition and if you want you can try bleaching again in about 4-6 weeks when the hair feels like it's in good condition again.

Colour B4 Extra Strength is an absolutely brilliant product. It lifted 9 months of darkest brown/black colour build up in 60 mins from my hair. It came out orange lol but it was light brown with blonde highlights and very dry to begin with so I toned it with ash blonde. To tone down red/orange colour I recommend using silver shampoo (yes it is purple but i think they call it silver cos it's meant for grey hair 😉 OR if you wanna stick to natural products and you want your hair to be brown, get a few tea bags and pour boiling water over them, let it brew and cool and tone your hair with that, it works. I am bringing this product for my friend in Poland who wants to lift her darkest brown from her hair and she can't wait to try it!