Combination Color Stripper

Alright, I did a test section, and I think I can report some great results!  I'll be doing the entire head this morning, but I wanted to report with some photos on the test piece.  I don't think the blue is 100% gone but so much better!  I used the above ingredients without peroxide, just eye-balling the proportions, left it for about 10 minutes, then squeezed a bit of 9-volume peroxide in for another 10 minutes.

My hair did darken just slightly from the permanent blonde I put on earlier this week, but it did look a bit more uniform for our work photos on Friday.  It also left the bluer areas more muddy-looking, and these muddy bits are scattered all over the head.  I chose one area to test and tried to capture before and after photos at the same angles, and it's not easy to do, but I used my proper digital camera to do it, with flash, instead of my mobile.

Before #1 (a pretty good capture of the muddy area where my hair is probably driest, has undergone most lightening, and more than likely held onto the most blue dyes, which I'd say would range from permanent to semis):

Before #2 (lighting more similar to the after picture for comparison):

After 🙂 (the muddy strips fell a bit more forward on this photo than on the before, but it's SOOO much better!):

I'm pleased to have experienced little drying through the process as well, and I'm sure that's due to all the conditioning ingredients.  But I definitely prefer to do it all in one shot.  Unlike Katie, I don't refrain from washing for so many days, but I prefer not to get my hair wet more often than necessary, so this combination colour stripper is brilliant...

Only problem was I bought the cheapest Vitamin C tablets, and they're bl**dy coated, so I have to let them dissolve for ages before they break apart, ha ha.

Katie, thanks so much!  I'd say a couple of treatments like this will help brighten it up whilst I put in the waiting time before the next bleaching.  I'll post photos of the whole head treatment too if they come out.

I give this procedure two thumbs up! 😀

EDIT TO ADD:

... I'm going test different fading treatments on different chunks and I'll post the before and after of all of them! I'll line them all up in a row, do a head + shoulders on one, H+S and bicarb on another, H+S and vitamic c on another, this treatment with peroxide, one without it, etc...I'm actually kind of excited to do it and post the photos 🙂

What a fun experiment, I can't wait to see!

I don't doubt it works 🙂

Alexia, also, have you tried any of the other simpler methods?

It's not that I'm trying to go out of my way to prove this doesn't work. It's that I want to know if it works better 🙂

I've tried colour removers. 🙂  One day I did Colour B4, and the next day Decolour Remover.

This morning's attempt to do an all-over treatment was interrupted by my partner waking up and wanting help with our kitchen refurb (ha ha), and also, I didn't use enough Head 'n' Shoulders in the mixture, as that's my partner's, so I thought I'd buy a new tub for myself.  But I did use the mixture I had and used it all over, and it's not looking bad!

I plan to do another fading treatment during the week sometime - which ingredient(s) do you suggest I use, or leave out?  To be honest, I think a lot of the blue is really faded out now (yay), so I'm not sure if a photo will show any differences, but I do plan to do this again next time I shampoo to see if it brings out some more brightness and as always will take pictures!

Well, I'd always leave the peroxide out... Especially as you've only just dyed your hair.

But as I say, I just use bicarb and head and shoulders or I love juicy by Lush (which is a good one on it's own actually). But it'll be hard to tell as you don't really have much to remove and honestly, I can't see much difference in your photos anyway. 🙂

So next time if I leave out the dishwashing liquid, definitely peroxide, and perhaps the Vitamin C, and see how that compares?  I still want to use the oils and honey - seemed like they really helped combat dryness, as Katie puts it.

I've also read that olive oil helps draw out some colour too, so we test these colour-fading elements: dandruff shampoo, bicarb, and olive oil... that might be a good combo to try and compare results.

It looks so different in different lights, and the true test is the lighting at work in the lift (also a mirror in there!) because the light sheds a green cast, and I can really see differences in my hair in that light, ha ha.

On my monitor, I honestly don't see much difference in colour, Alexia.  It seems more a difference in lighting than anything?  Your hair is blonde.  What colour are you trying to remove, exactly?

EDIT: I'll also add, with as many processes as you put your hair through to lighten it, I'd be wary of adding peroxide to anything else.  It weakens the hair.

The pictures below were from 1-2 weeks ago.  When my hair is dry and I take a picture, I guess you all can't really see what I'm talking about with the green!

But I also took this second photo (yuck!) during the process of the colour remover (1-2 weeks ago) because it appeared as though it was gathering up the blue colouring and looked really intensely green.  Still bad lighting I know, but if you can't see this one, then I'll give up. 🙂

But the good news is that it's all nearly gone!  And with another one of these treatments or version thereof, I think I'll be a happy bunny.

I can see the "tinge" you were talking about in the before pictures, and it definitely looks like it's not there so much anymore! I do see a big change in the tone of it 🙂 I know it may not be as blatant of a result as most people are used to seeing, but you're not removing a full on saturated color, just getting rid of the origional blue/green tone and the toners you have used to try and neutralize the blue/green.EDIT: While typing this response, you posted the other 2 pictures, and I really really see the green you were talking about lol. When I was lightening my fringe over the course of 6-8 months, I clearly had a lot of toning acting going on throughout. One time my hair looked really orange to me, so I used blue to tone it. Nope! It really must have been gold/yellow, because boy did it turn green as ever! It took a while to get it out, and even when my hair looked back to normal (no green) when it was dry, when it was wet it looked exactly like the green you pictured here when you had the color remover on.

I'm glad you are happy with the results! If you're going to do it again and leave out some things, then I really wouldn't go for this method, becuase I think by leaving out more of the "lifting" ingredients, the oils will take over and I think it may end up being useless...So, I would personally just do two different ones. I would try a hot oil treatment first, because those can pull color out too. Not as much as a more abrasive fading treatment, but I was pretty impressed with an hot oil treatment pulling out the last few spots of green I had! Even if it doesn't pull more out by much, at least it's good for your hair 🙂

Then, if that doesn't pull the rest of it out, I would try another simpler method, like H+S and bicarb or something like that. Especially being that you're mainly just trying to remove added tones that were put into your hair and not pull out an entire, fully saturated color, I'm sure a simpler method should help you as well.

Glad you see it, and shame you experienced the same horrible colour, but you know how it is!

I think that's the problem exactly - it's not a saturated colour I'm trying to fade, that most people expect to see in a photo... it's just been an annoying overtone that is probably only visible in person.

Thanks so much for the good advice.  I'll do a nice hot oil treatment mid-week and see what happens and resort to H&S and bicarb as a next process if necessary.  I've got to do something with my hair to amuse myself as I've got too long to wait before I bleach again... ha ha.

I do see the green in the second set of photos you posted where your hair is damp.  I imagine it's one of those times it's extremely difficult to capture and is mostly only visible IRL and under certain lighting.

That's why I'm here, so I can help others and learn more for myself 🙂 Thanks for posting your results here under this. I still haven't had the chance to cut my hair and do the experiment, but when I do I will definitely be updating this thread 🙂

Ha, and I know what you mean about having that sort of itch to do something with your own hair. I need to do a root touch up, still give myself a good trim, and I want my color to be more purpley pink. It may have a more overall purpley pink tone once I cut off 2-3 inches, removing more of the stained ginger based ends...I will just have to see. The rest of my hair is a cooler pink which I love, I just don't like how the color looks over the ginger. So trimming it may just be enough, but if it's not I'm going to have to figure something else out to make whats left of the ends a more cool toned pink..

Right, I can't keep hands off, but I can say I didn't properly get to try it yesterday.  So tonight I used H&S, bicarb, vitamin C, olive oil, and honey.  Followed by a hot oil treatment.

It's still sopping wet, so I don't know if it's done any more good, but the true test seems to be about 24 hours after washing.  For some reason, the dingy green (there's not as much left anymore) seems to appear after a full day.

But had to say I've not been interested in hot oil treatments as an older adult, only because in my late teens/early 20s, I tried them and they never did any good.  Probably because the tiny tubes from VO5 were never enough to cover my curly, knotty hair.  Tonight, I took a good half cup of olive oil, warmed it up in a mug, applied, then used more heat.  And it's such a great treatment, feels like it really strengthens the hair - never knew what I was missing!

Haha @Alexia, I know EXACTLY what you're talking about with those awful little VO5 tubes! My grandma used to get those same ones for me when I was a kid because my hair was so dry from swimming all the time...omg I hated them, they never seemed to do a bit of good but I still used them anyway because I didn't know any better lol. So I was put off from doing a hot oil treatment ever again until a few months ago. I used olive oil and coconut oil, put them in a small glass and sumberged it a bit in a bowl of hot water. Then after I put it on, covered it and put a sweatband around my hairline, I used the blowdryer over it for a short while.

This is awesome Katie, thanks for sharing. It's very clearly worded and easy to follow and I'm sure will help a lot of people.

Hello!

I've wanted to go back to white hair for a while (I had split hair, blue and light pink) so I though I might as well try this!

Here's what my hair looked like to begin with:

Kinda light to begin with but I know alot of people hade trouble to remove turqouise (from directions, which I have in my hair and also flamingo pink) so I was excited to see how well this worked.

The mixture was very liquidy but it was easy-peasy when I put it in my hair! Also it smelled like vomit.... :C

As you can see, it latherd upp nice in my hair! But I left it in my hair for about an 1h or so, just becuse when I latherd it upp and tried to "squeeze" out some excess color, nothing really came out. So I left it on for abit longer.

I let my hair hair dry and this is the result!! I think it faded my hair very well. I love it!!

The only sad thing is that now I have a minty shade that I wanted from the start, but I think I mixed to much Turquise with conditioner so that it turnet blue ;_; But now I finally have minty hair, and a weird pale-yellow-blond??

What should I do now?? Im trying to go back to white hair, do you think I should try this hair stripper again or maybe a bleachbath?? Or maybe color B4?? I really have no clue, so I would love for some help!!

Thank you again for shairing this color stripper!!  *1*