About a fortnight ago, I had an unfortunate accident with my hair, the kind of unfortunate accident that can only result from a slow afternoon and easy access to a box of semi-permanent home dye. I was aiming for a light golden multi-tonal red along the lines of Made In Chelsea's Millie Mackintosh (not entirely unreasonable, given that the shade I used was Nice 'n' Easy Light Golden Red) but what I got was a one-dimensional block of hot, bright chilli-powder red.
Lynnie's hair post dye disaster
I lived with it for all of 72 hours, most of which was spent feeling a shade stupider and wondering how on earth I'd put up with it for eight weeks. And then it occurred to me that I might not have to. Colour B4 is a hair colour remover (you might recall that Kirstie wrote about last year) and I picked up a packet of the Extra Strength formula for reversing dark or red dyes in hopes that it could sort out my hair don't. I reasoned that it could hardly make things any worse.
Colour B4 doesn't contain ammonia, bleach, or peroxide, and it strips even permanent dyes by shrinking all artificial colour molecules so that they can be washed out of hair to return it to its lightest natural colour.
In the kit I found extremely detailed usage instructions, a pair of disposable gloves, and the three-step process required to strip colour and condition hair post treatment. The whole procedure is very much like applying a DIY dye. I used a bin liner to fashion a protective cape to save my clothes from any drips, poured the included Activator into the bottle of Remover, shook it well, and applied it as evenly as possible to my dry hair by dividing it into sections and using the bottle's nozzle, my fingers, and a tinting brush to ensure full coverage from root to tip.
Advertised
Then I piled my hair on top of my head, wrapped it in clingfilm to keep ends and lengths warm and at an even temperature (the heat generated by the scalp can affect the outcome otherwise), and stuck a shower cap on top for good measure.
Per the instructions, I left Colour B4 on for an hour before hopping in the shower, rinsing my hair for 10 minutes, and applying the After Treatment conditioning buffer. A couple of things surprised me: the fact that the water rinsed clear, rather than the colour of the dye(s) I was stripping out (my heart sank when I saw that, because I reckoned it meant the process wasn't really working), and the fact that 10 minutes is a really, really long time to devote to running water through your locks.
The Immersion Police would have had a mickey fit if they'd heard what I was up to.
The bottom line and most important thing, of course, is that it worked brilliantly; I may have used words like "magic" and "totes amaze" to enthusiastically describe its effect. I'm back to a multi-tonal head of hair and it seems barely damaged by the trauma; maybe a little dry at the ends but nothing a bit of TLC won't take care of and a world away from the straw-like mess my sister was left with when she had her hair professionally stripped a couple of years ago.
And the results after using Colour B4 - pretty damn good, eh?
Advertised
While I was braced for the brassy orange tones reported by some users, the faint caramel gingery-ness I've been left with since using Colour B4 is ironically pretty much exactly the colour I was trying to achieve in the first place.
My experience was overwhelmingly positive and I'd definitely use it again in the event of any ill-advised dye jobs, but I have to tell you that Colour B4 stinks to high heaven and then some. I swear I could still catch a whiff of its gross eggy stench in the bathroom (and worse, on my hair when washing it) for days after use. That's gone now, thankfully, so big thumbs up!
