Review (5/5): Works but has its limits
prior to salerm i used the color oops which totally backfired, turning my roots orange [my dyed hair is a dark dark brown with auburn and violet tones and i've been dying my hair dark for over 10 years - dying/highlighting for over 20 years], despite following the directions to the letter. But this stuff, fixed the orange and stripped the dark [almost black but not quite] from the bottom up and fixed the orange somehow. I will have to use a second time after a week or so as stripping your hair is a process, especially of dark colors or red/violets, and it takes many rinses - each time i rinse more comes out slowly but surely. You must be patient especially if you've been coloring for a decade or more and nothing will restore you to your original color if youre using permanent dye and semi-permanent dye - you need to grow your hair out to get to your original color. My goal was to lighten so I could go to a lighter shade, which I refuse to bleach my hair as its not worth the damage, NOT restore it to my orignal shade as that is impossible due to the way the oxidation process of dye on hair follicles.
This is what I did besides following the directions;
1. Mix eq. parts as directed & apply quickly (it's a gel so its much easier and you get a lot out of it but if you have very thick long hair it would be safer to go with two boxes)
- it does stink but nowhere near as badly as color oops which lingered in my hair which was gross - if you rinse and shampoo as I did there's no lingering scent
2. Apply a cap (doesn't come with) but also it helps to throw a towel in the dryer to heat up and then wrap over the cap. heat activates it and makes it work better.
3. Leave in for 20 minutes (some people say they've left it on longer but I have healthy hair and i try to protect it so i didn't want to chance it - I may leave it in longer next time, however).
4. Rinse hair first in shower thoroughly and apply shampoo (no conditioner - not yet) than rinse for 20minutes the first time. IMPORTANT - use a crappy shampoo - the stuff that costs $5 with parabans (etc. the crappy stuff)
- Apply shampoo (the crappy stuff again) again & rinse for 5 minutes.
- Shampoo one more time (yes, still the crappy one), rinse for 5 minutes apply conditioner (I used a nexus keratin conditioner mixed with a deep conditioner treatment) and rinse for 5 minutes (last time!).
It's boring and a process but it pays off! Your hair will thank you if you use a nice conditioning treatment (I used a garnier papaya treatment mixed with my nexus keratin conditioner).
I'd also say keep using the crappy shampoo as it helps strip that color! DONT BOTHER WITH COLOR OOPS - it's cheap and terrible! This stuff doesn't hurt your scalp either and the smell doesn't linger the way i re-shampoo-ed and rinsed repeatedly (which helps the stripping process as well). RINSE RINSE RINSE!