A Hairy Situation

Me and my freshly dyed black hair dated 2009

Several years ago, I thought it might be fun to dye my hair black.  At first I thought it was great, it was a big change for me and I really liked it.  Had I known how difficult it was to remove it from my hair once I changed my mind, i most likely would not have done it.  The main reason I've had my hair black for so long was that I was afraid to chemically treat my hair or end up having to bleach it, which would really damage it.  My ultimate goal was to get rid of my black hair with minimal damage.

First, I tried growing it out, but it was taking a super long time and I'll admit it...I'm an impatient person.  I managed to grow it out at least 2-3" but I was beginning to hate the 2 tone hair.  My roots were lighter than the ends and I wanted to even out the color.  Since I couldn't wait to get rid of it I decided to head over to the beauty supply store and talk to someone there to see what products they would recommend, that didn't include bleaching out my hair.  The girl recommended a color remover that would remove the black but leave your natural hair color behind.  It came in a bright yellow box, and when I used it, it was super smelly.  It took over a week for me to entirely get rid of the odor in my hair.  On the box it said that I may need to do more than one treatment of this product to get the desired color result, but after that first try, I decided to look for another product that was less stinky.  Besides, all it did was lighten my untreated hair and most of the black still remained. 

Very disappointed, most of the black remained, and only my untreated roots were lightened.

After that disaster, I did a little research online and read many rave reviews about Color Oops which is sold at my local drugstore.  I figured it was worth a try.  Should have read the instructions more carefully the first time I used it, had I known that I would have to spend up to 30 minutes in the shower rinsing off this product, I would have put it back on the shelf.  So I decided to give it a try and followed the directions carefully and rinsed until I just couldn't take it anymore, which was about 25-30 minutes.  Afterwards, I felt water logged, but I did notice that some of the black had been removed, but not enough to make a noticeable difference.

After color ooops...minor difference, but still see a lot of black

I ended up heading back to the beauty supply store to see what other products were available to me.  I found a hair color remover by Tweezerman which promised no odor and rinsed out in just minutes.  Surprisingly this had no odor and seemed to work much better than the other products I used.  I've noticed a major difference in the fact that there is a lot less black in my hair. Most of the black seems to be concentrated in the front part of my hair and on the ends.

 I may have to do at least one more treatment to fully get rid of the black, but I'm thinking of opting just to get a lot of it cut off in order to give my hair a break from all the chemicals.  I've probably suffered some damage from all the processing, but someone had recommended that I try Aussie 3 minute miracle and I must admit, that really helped make my hair look and feel much healthier than it did before.  I'm hoping to get the majority of the black cut off and just let the rest grow out since it will mainly be on the ends of my hair.

 Still have some black on the ends!...soo hard to get rid of!

 That big ole black patch is bothering me a little, but is more noticeable in photos than in person.

Still have patches of black to deal with, but I think I'll just try to get some of it cut off and then let the rest grow out.  Making an appointment to get my hair cut this evening...lets hope it will look much better afterwards.  By the way, my natural color is a reddish brown color or dark auburn.

In this photo , my hair looks darker than it does in person.   I like to see the side by side comparison, it makes me feel better seeing where I started and where my hair is at now.  Eventually I would like to go lighter, perhaps some blonde highlights...but I'll wait on that for a bit to give my hair a break.