Colour B4 Information

[Elastic Heart]

So I've been trying to find information about Colour B4 on very (bleach) damaged hair for a while now without finding much, and after saying eff it and going for it, I figured I'd share the good news with anyone wondering about the same thing: It didn't make my hair any worse than it was before. And when I'm saying very damaged hair, I mean absolutely fried hair that had broken off in several places and takes about seventy years to dry and when wet resembled sewer goo more than actual human hair. Really bad, y'all. And I Colour B4'd it two times, then dyed it, then Colour B4'd it again as the dye took waaaay too much and it went back to brown again. The dye did worsen my hair, but as far as I can tell, the Colour B4 did nothing to harm it. It felt worse afterwards because Colour B4 strips all the oils from the hair as opposed to my no poo-regimen elsewise, but not much, and it went back to normal after some deep conditioning and letting the natural oils return. Obviously I was hoping (*cough* praying) that it wouldn't damage my hair a lot, but I'm actually quite surprised at how well it went! I thought I'd have to nurse it back a lot more than I have.

Of course, I probably wouldn't recommend it for people with severely damaged hair, the best is obviously to leave your hair the heck alone and let it recover (or just cut it all off if you can pull off short hair) but in my case, it didn't worsen my hair and I'm really pleasantly surprised with the product! I really thought it would be more drying.

Just one thing, which, to be fair, I've had problems with before wrecking my hair as well: I find the colour reoxidises a lot. Not back to the original colour, but it's visibly lighter before I shower vs. after, despite rinsing for a long time in scolding hot water, using the buffer solution three times. Anyone got input on how to avoid that? I'm thinking about going at it again, as I want my hair as light as I can get it (it was a light blonde before I dyed it, and now it's a dark/medium, golden blonde) but I don't want to waste time and money just to have it the same colour.

Oh, and I can attest to it not doing anything to your natural color. I had a bit of regrowth before using it the first time and my natural colour didn't budge one bit. Loved it! The peroxide in the dye did make my roots a bit brighter so now they're a lovely yellow shade though. 

[B]

I had schwartzkopf rose gold for a while and then put their bright pink on top which was fine but then I had to go back to school so I used colour B4 and now my hair had gone blue/grey neither of which are colours I've used before and I just want it back to my natural pale blonde without damaging it. Should I try using it again? I need it sorted fast because I'm not allowed unnatural colours at school

[Elastic Heart]

Probably a shot in the dark as I need to know by tomorrow, but does anyone have any kick-a$$ tips on how to gt rid of the smell? I'm going at ColourB4 again tonight but I don't want to smell like egg farts on Christmas eve, lol. Don't want to have orange hair either though, so what's a girl to do.

Anyhow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed someone will swoop in with some advice, if not I'll try rinsing with ACV and masking the smell as good as I can and let y'all know if something works. Merry Christmas! 

[kitebunny]

Use a highly scented conditioner, leave it on for ages.  Like while you soak in the bath.

You could also try a leave-in conditioner.

[Elastic Heart]

Thanks! 

So what I did was this: I first rinsed for ages, obviously, then followed up with Redken Extreme Strength Builder as my hair is pretty damaged and the drying effect of B4 left it in a very rough and gummy state. Then I let it air dry for a bit while I made a little witch brew of coconut oil, olive oil, and apple cidar vinegar (for the smell mostly), and a bit of Joico hydrating mask-thingy when I ran out. Left that on for a good two or three hours, and then washed it out and conditioned with a highly scented conditioner. My hair still smells like rotten eggs when wet, but when it's dry it just smells of conditioner - thankfully! 

[Shadokat]

Hi! Long story here. Two hopefully easy questions.

 So, I've used color oops before and even though I was given advice (not here) to use a protein treatment right after rinsing to remove the porosity, I did something wrong and when I re-dyed later that same day got the very dark red back that I had used color oops to remove. 

I only left the dye in for five minutes after applying but it takes longer than that to apply the color all over. In later discussions it was suggested that I didn't rinse the color oops long enough but I had rinsed for 30 minutes. I've only dyed my hair once since that incident and that was back in April 2017. You can imagine that I now have a lot of un-dyed roots showing. My natural color is a dark grey with some white hairs scattered around. I'm 51.

After that background, I'm tired of looking like a grey old lady and want to try again. I don't like this dark red and want to go back to the copper/mahogany that I used to get when I first started dyeing my hair. The product I've chosen to help me shrink my existing color molecules (yes I am aware of what these products do) is One n Only Color Fix.

This time I'm prepared to prevent the dark color from returning. I've bought a semi permanent mahogany brown to put on the same day after I do the color removal and will wait until that fades to do a permanent color again. The color is a Clairol product that claims to be for grey hair.

But I have some concerns and thought I'd come here to see if I could get some advice.

With my extensive undyed roots, should I not put the color fix on the roots? That will be very difficult to do.

Afterward, my hair is going to be different colors. I expect the hair that has had dye removed to be a light orange color (which is why I refuse to walk around without recoloring it right away). The undyed hair should still be grey and white. Is that going to look weird after I recolor? Is there anything I can do to even out the two colors so they match more?

This whole process is complicated but I have long hair and a salon is too expensive. 

The picture shows the color I hope to eventually achieve. It was a Feria box color but I've since moved on to using pro colors. It costs less. Sally Beauty has stopped selling pro Feria colors; I don't know if they are still made anywhere.

Any advice is appreciated. Thank you and sorry for the long post.
 

[Janineb]

Colorfix won’t affect any natural hair colour, so don’t worry it getting on your roots. Color oops can affect natural colour because it doesn’t work in the same way.

You shouldn’t be using a dye the same day, it’ll just keep happening if you do. At least, not a permanent dye or any that contain peroxide. Many semi dyes do contain peroxide. If it has two bottles to mix then it almost certainly uses peroxide. You need a direct dye. Adore do a range of browns and reds. Hopefully that’s what you’ve gone with, but as you don’t say I don’t know

[Shadokat]

Colorfix won’t affect any natural hair colour, so don’t worry it getting on your roots. Color oops can affect natural colour because it doesn’t work in the same way.

You shouldn’t be using a dye the same day, it’ll just keep happening if you do. At least, not a permanent dye or any that contain peroxide. Many semi dyes do contain peroxide. If it has two bottles to mix then it almost certainly uses peroxide. You need a direct dye. Adore do a range of browns and reds. Hopefully that’s what you’ve gone with, but as you don’t say I don’t know

The product I plan to re-dye right away with is not Adore, although I hear a lot about that brand. It is from Clairol, is a single bottle with no mixing required, and says it has no peroxide. Thanks for your advice. I won't be so concerned about getting it on my roots.

[Shadokat]

The other thing I'm going to do is save the step 3 from the color fix box. When I'm ready to recolor using permanent dye again I'll put the step 3 on a test strand. If it turns dark, I'll wait. But it will be some time before I try to use the permanent dye. Days to weeks depending on the semi permanent dye, how well I like it and how long it lasts. Thanks again.

[Janineb]

I’m pretty sure step three doesn’t do what you think it does. There’s nothing in it that will cause the hair to go dark again please use the step three as usual, don’t save it. If you have some left over, use it again before you dye. As far as I understand it, it’s kind of just a harsh shampoo that helps rinse out more of the shrunken molecules.

If you want to see if it’s going to turn dark again, use a tiny bit of peroxide on a strand bit of hair that can be hidden.

[Shadokat]

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?

[Janineb]

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.

[Elastic Heart]

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. 

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. 

[Janineb]

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.

[Elastic Heart]

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! 

[MichaelScofield]

Thanks, Mathurine for sharing this important information!