Before using Colour B4 - a cautionary tale.

I [STRIKE]have[/STRIKE] used to have an odd shade of red hair. A medium to dark shade of auburn/Titian/red which was roughly the same shade as a gingernut biscuit.

Like any aging redhead, I'm starting to go [STRIKE]grey[/STRIKE] white. So I hit the [dye] bottle.

I used to use Perfect 10 Medium Reddish Blonde. It was lighter than my natural colour and blended the white hairs very well.

Then they stopped making it. :mad:

The hunt has been on to find a replacement. I've tried the alternative to Perfect 10 (Age Defy Light Auburn), but it was far too dark.

Clairol's Nice and Easy is not nice, not easy and not the right shade at all.

So one day it dawned on me, as I scoured the shelves for yet more hope in a bottle, that I was trying to match the new shade of dye (whichever one I picked) to hair that had been repeatedly coated in a variety of dye colours and that my natural colour had been a long time gone.

I've even forgotten what it looked like.

So Einstein here bought a box of Regular Colour B4. That'll do the trick, I thought.

Bring out the natural hair colour again and try to match that, I thought.

The instructions on the side of the box seemed to be so simple, I thought.

What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah.

On opening the box, the simple instructions morphed into two sides of closely printed A4 with not very many pictures.

So tonight, I used the Colour B4, following the instructions to the letter.

Not only does it reek strongly of manky drains, not only is it messy and awkward to use (leave in for an hour, wrapping your head in clingfilm!), not only has it reduced the condition of my hair to straw, it has also exposed the peroxide damage that repeated hair dye use has wrought on my hair. :eek:

From the information inside the packet:-

Colour B4 (TM) can only remove artificial pigment from the hair. If your hair has been subjected to high lifting tints or bleaches your natural pigment has been lightened and altered. It will not be possible to restore your natural hair colour pigment by using Colour B4 (TM). In these instances (and if your original colour is desired) you should re-colour your hair (initially) using a semi-permanent hair colourant which is one shade lighter than your original colour.

In addition, all permanent and even semi-permanent hair colourants may contain peroxide. Even when a very dark or black result has been achieved, your own (natural) hair colour may have been lightened. Although most permanent hair colours (when darkening) only lighten by a tiny amount, there are some colourants which contain higher strengths of peroxide and lighten much more. If your hair has received multiple colour applications (either from permanent or semi-permanent products) it may have been exposed to peroxide on more than one occasion. Therefore (once you have successfully removed your unwanted hair colour) you may notice a warm, brassy, or even copper tone to the hair - which is often more predominant near the roots (due to heat from the scalp accelerating the previous colour). This can be remedied by applying a temporary hair colour in your desired shade. For results which are too warm for example honey or gold use a violet purple shampoo or for more intense coverage a red neutralising ash based toner. This counteracts the brightness of the gold or yellow hair colour.

I'm almost blonde!! :eek:

Imagine going from Julianne Moore to Chris Evans!!

My hair condition is wrecked, I'm a daft shade of wilted carrot and it'll be months before I see my natural colour coming through!!

If you're thinking of trying the stuff out, be warned. It is not the cure you think it might be.

It gets the dye out, sure enough, but it will not reveal your true hair colour.