With the number of hair products available these days, it’s no wonder some of us ladies find ourselves getting lost and confused with what each one is for. From hair color correctors and depositors to masks and removers, we wouldn’t be surprised if you kept a secret list of what each one is for!
What Should You Look for in a Hair Color Remover?
Do hair color removers work without damaging your hair? Yes! But make sure to choose a hair dye remover that has the following formulas and ingredients to keep your hair free from damage.
Choose the Right Product
Choose a suitable hair color remover since some products are specifically made for temporary or permanent color, while others for demi or semi-permanent hair color removers. Read the details on the box properly before buying a hair dye remover.
Bleach-free and Ammonia-free Formulas
The process of hair color removal can damage your hair if not done right. Ammonia-free and bleach-free formulas will leave your hair shinier and softer.
Reparative and Hydrating Ingredients
Subjecting the hair to shampooing multiple times and hot water rinsing reduces the hair’s natural oils, leaving your hair dry. Hydrating or conditioning ingredients such as butter, oils, silicone strengthen keratin proteins and keep your hair from drying out.
How Do Hair Color Removers Work?
Let’s talk about hair color removers. As color remover products say on their package, they work to target permanent hair color, “shrinking dye molecules, allowing them to simply be washed away.”
Despite the popular misunderstanding, hair color removers are not the same as bleach. They’re a mixture of non-damaging color-removing solvent and oftentimes a conditioner that you rub into the hair like dye, except the results yield your natural hair color, giving you a clean slate for a new coloring.
If you’re wanting a fresh start for your mane, a color remover is for you. As long as your hair wasn’t bleached or lightened, using a color remover is a cheaper option you can do right from home. While you’ll see better results from using the product on recent color jobs, it also works for color jobs that are months older.
Many women opt for visiting their hairstylist to have the color professionally removed, but there are an equal number of women who see beautiful results from using an at-home boxed color remover.
Things to Consider about Hair Color Removers
However, playing with hair chemicals is a risky business, and many of us ladies need to know that the way a hair color remover works greatly depends on several factors.
So before you go purchasing the first color remover you see in stores instead of visiting the salon, keep these 8 things in mind to make sure you use them correctly:
Don’t Try It on Lightened or Bleached Hair
The way hair stylists explain it, color remover won’t work on hair that has been bleached or lightened because the natural pigment under the color has already been altered.
Color remover only takes out dye pigment and bleach has no color. And since bleach has no color, there’s no way to remove it. However, there are ways to fix your bleached hair or lightened color, but it is best to ask your hairstylist about those methods.
Don’t Use Them Often
Resorting to color removers whenever you want a “fresh start” instead of seeing a professional can actually cause hair to experience something called reoxidation, a washed-out appearance that happens when you use different color removers and they aren’t fully rinsed out.
At max, you can use it three times in one day. Most professional stylists will say you should wait at least a month before you use it again.
Color Remover Dries Out Hair
Many of the color remover boxes may say they’re drying for hair, but we all know hair products react differently to everyone’s hair, meaning you could experience dry or brittle hair after using a color remover/stripper. To counteract these effects, make sure to follow up the remover with a moisture-rich conditioner.
One Doesn’t Suit All
Depending on the color you’re trying to remove, you’ll need a certain kind of color remover. While all removers work on removing color pigment, there are better ones to use for bright color jobs like pink, blue, or green for example.
Color Oops is one of those. It comes just like a dye kit where you mix together the conditioning serum and color-removing formula.
Color X-Change Phase-Out is another color remover, but it’s recommended for hair that has already been through a lot and is pretty damaged (i.e., if you color your hair often). It also is a mask, so it will sit in your hair overnight before being rinsed out in the morning.
To pick the best color remover for your job, we recommend just searching on amazon or online about your hair type and goals. Reading the reviews for these products will also help you to make a good decision.
Wait Before Coloring Hair Again
Again, different color removers have different guidelines. To be safe, though, stylists recommend waiting between two and five days before coloring hair again. If you do plan to color again, this is the prime time since color removers open up the hair follicle, making it easier to absorb the color.
It Doesn’t Work for Henna Hair Color
Henna is a hair color all on its own and color remover will not work on it. Henna is actually pretty difficult to remove and the only way to remove it is with oil.
Attempting to remove it with a color remover may yield some unpredictable results, so please don’t even try it!
You May Have to Use Color Remover Twice
The number of times you’ll need to use a color remover greatly depends on how recent your color job was, and of course hair’s length and thickness.
If your hair was colored within the past month, one use of color remover should be enough. If it was longer than that, the chances are higher that you’ll need to use a remover more than once.
Prepare for Some Brassy Results
Nothing will fully bring hair back to its natural color, just close to it or enough so that you can re-dye it. Again, depending on the color you’re removing, the results may leave you with some brassiness. There are different toners you can use to get rid of this, so don’t stress!
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