[Sticky] Colour B4 Information

I thought the step 3 acted as kind of a test to see if the other steps had done their job. If you didn't succeed in rinsing completely and following the instructions in steps 1 and 2, step 3 would re-oxidize your hair and make it darken again. I read elsewhere that step 3 was like 10 volume developer, which is peroxide, right? Was I misinformed? So, following that line of thinking, putting it on a test strand later would help me know if my hair had lost enough porosity to recolor. Am I completely misunderstanding everything I'm reading about these products?

Ok, I’ve checked the ingredients and it seems you are correct and color fix does have peroxide in step three along with water, a foaming agent and silicone etc. Because it’s diluted with water and the other ingredients, I doubt it’ll be all that strong.

That means it’s different to the ones in the UK because they definitely don’t have peroxide in step three. They’re, as far as I can tell, a mix of various surfuctants and foaming agents with some stuff for smoothing the cuticle.

I find it really weird they add peroxide. It goes against everything we know about colour removers. They don’t always remove all the dye straight away. So yeah, don’t use step three. Ever. It’s stupid. It’s not often it can be said, but the UK products are definitely all superior and I don’t understand why they’re so weird in the US. Use a good clarifying shampoo instead.

I’m pretty blown away actually!

I’d still use a bit of peroxide as the test though. It’ll more accurately show you if it’s going to darken again.

I'm going at Colour B4 again to remove the dreaded Casting Creme Gloss (not so) semi dye. Hopefully it'll take my brown/light brown to a blonde-ish colour.

But I came to think of one thing - I know Colour B4 isn't supposed to do anything to your natural colour, but I swear my roots did lighten a little the last time I used it. I had an inch or two of roots and they seemed lighter. Not bleached lighter, there was no yellowy tones, just a tiny shade lighter of my mousy light brown/dark blonde hue. I remember my co-worker seeing me and going "Oh, I didn't know you had that light hair!" and looking closer I'm pretty sure it was a bit different. I don't really know how that could be though - it could be that my hair seemed darker due to pollution of some kind and the thorough cleanse let the actual colour show through, but I don't live in a very polluted area or anything.

It's no big deal, even if it does change the colour a bit it's just a tiny shade lighter, and it doesn't make it that dreaded orange/yellow bleached colour - but I figured I'd let y'all know in case anyone has experienced it too.  *cheers*

Edit: By the way! Does anyone have any opinions as to whether or not you should apply B4 to wet hair? The last times I've used it I have washed twice with a clarifying shampoo and no conditioner, then towel dried my hair, and used the colour remover right away. I'm not sure if it works differently or not - the results seems the same, but earlier I've never used a clarifying shampoo beforehand. My hair is getting too long for just one box when dry and Colourless is wicked expensive in Norway. Like everything else, duh.  🙁

It needs to be used on dry, very clean hair. The water in your hair dilutes it.

There's no way it lightened your hair, but it can look like that sometimes. There can be a few reasons. Like your hair is ultra clean, so no oil which makes it look darker, the bulk of the hair being lighter has an optical illusion of the roots looking lighter etc.

I get what you're saying and it could very well just be my hair that's weird, but it definitely has changed color. Unfortunately I didn't take any pics before using ColourB4, at least not any that show the color well. I'll try to take some pics tomorrow in daylight when my hair is dry though, so y'all can see how it looks now. My roots have gone from mousy light brown to a definite blonde with strawberry tones; and that is in no way my true colour. My hair is on the ashy side, a murky dishwater color in between light brown and dark blonde depending on who you ask. It's not a bleach-like reaction, and it's not bad, but it's a change. And yeah, my roots were absolutely untouched - no dye or bleach or anything prior to using Colour B4.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I find that my previously bleached lengths darken a lot while rinsing! I read the thread suggesting drying the hair in the middle of the rinsing stage and I used an alarm clock to ensure I had a full 30 minutes of rinsing (and now I never want to shower again!) but even after ten minutes it had darkened visibly, and it stayed that way. It's not all too bad as before rinsing it was very yellow and orange-y, but I wanted it to get as light as possible. I know Scott Cornwall said that bleached hair can seem darker than it is when re-oxidising so there's probably not much to do about it, but if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it! I still have one box left so I'll take another round in a few days to see if I can get any lighter.

And before this becomes too complaining; I love this product and I'm so happy to be back on the blonde side, even if it isn't as light as I wanted it to be. And my hair isn't damaged at all! And even though my hair now reaches below my bra strap, one box was enough to saturate it - yay!  *loveeyes*

Thanks, Mathurine for sharing this important information!