As some of you may have seen, I dyed my hair jet black just before Christmas over bright red.
Needless to say, I fucking hated it.

I was looking around for ways to remove the dye without having to bleach because I don't want to damage my hair and I'm very allergic to lots of hair dyes and bleach.
I found a few places that suggested using vitamin C so I thought I'd give it a try.

Here is a before picture:

AS you can see, really dark.

Now:

It's still not even 100% dry yet but it's lightened it a huge amount!

Here's what I did:

I used vitamin C tablets that I crushed to a powder in a pestle and mortar, you can use a coffee grinder or even the back of a spoon.
I used about 20 500mg tablets to 2 parts shampoo.
I used this much because I have a lot of hair, as you can see.
Change the amount to suit your hair needs but remember to keep it 1 part vit c to 2 parts shampoo.
The shampoo I used was Head and Shoulders but anything that clarifies the hair will work, even baby shampoo.
Clarifier shampoo's are basically shampoo's that get rid of product build up on your hair.
If you can't get any, mix some vodka with your normal shampoo and wash before using the method above.
I mixed it into a paste then started combing it through DAMP hair. I used a spray bottle to get my hair damp but wetting it then towel drying it will work too.

After everything was worked through and I'd bought it to a lather I wrapped my head in a plastic bag (or anything that will stop drips) and left it for around 2 hours.
I looked like a smurf but it stopped stuff dripping on me.
It did irritate my scalp but it was still recovering from the black hair dye so I'm not sure if it was just that, but after about 30 mins after the final wash it had stopped.

After 2 hours I rinsed the crap out my hair then washed with normal shampoo, rinsed and used a deep, rich conditioner to help my hair recover. I left this in for 15 mins then rinsed.

At first I was a little disappointed at how much dye seemed to come out when I was rinsing my hair but after it had dried I realised how much lighter it was.
This is because of the way vitamin C works with the dye.
Instead of stripping colour like you would expect in bleach or if you are just washing it, it penetrates the hair shaft and oxidises with the dye there.
This basically neutralises the pigment inside the hair, bringing the darkness down.

I'm going to be doing this again in a few days as my hair seems to be fine.
I'm lightening my hair enough so I can dye it red again.
If you wanted to completely remove a colour from you hair, depending on the colour to begin with and your natural colour times could vary.
This is by far the least damaging way I've found to remove unwanted dye though.

I'll post from photos the next time I do it too, for comparison.

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Scratch like a cat and bite like a bitch.

~Nice, I'll remember that, next time I dye my hair. c:

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~"It's called a miracle because it doesn't happen."

this is actually really nice =O
worked out pretty wel =O

I'm probably going to use this, thanks

I did the exact same thing, I'm a natural red head but don't usually have any trouble getting the black out. This time I even bleached it a few times, but every time I put something like "light redish auburn" in it turned way way too dark. I've been letting it stay dark for worry I'll somehow give myself a bald spot :/

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Legum servi sumus ut liberi esse possimus

After you've bleached your hair you should leave it at least a week before dying it because it can make your hair really porous meaning it will absorb hair dye much much quicker, resulting in very dark colours if you use browns or even dark reds.



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Scratch like a cat and bite like a bitch.

thats awesome

you did look nice with dark hair though

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dont you wanna come with me, dont you wanna feel my bones, on your bones, its only natural.

Your hair usually looks nice no matter the color but I did like the darker color on you~

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The entire visible spectrum is rainbows.

Also, you can try chamomile too.
That lightens hair apparently.

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Believe that one and I'll tell you another.

You are so beauuttiffuulll.


Also I'm glad you posted this because I've been thinking of dying my hair but people keep saying I shouldn't because I'm ginger and if I wanted to go back to ginger, it would be really difficult cause no matter what colour I dyed it, my roots would be awful and I'd have to grow it all out etc.

But if it's this easier to strip colour, I may well just go ahead and do it.