Ok,here it is. I have black hair,it is dyed and about bust length. It has been permanantly dyed in the past but I have been dying it semi permanantly for about 2 years now.

I want pink or red hair! I know its almost impossible to remove black dye,but has anyone done it? I know it will damage my hair to use a colour lightener but its the only way!

I have a Manic Panic 40 vol lightening kit,which Im told will do it effectively,although I will end up with orange hair,will this matter if Im going to dye it over the top? I dont want to be blonde,I just dont want black hair anymore!

If anyone has managed it,please help me with your advice. Thankyou sweeties.Laura.xxx

Hey hon,

A friend of mine went from dyed black to mint green using the Herbal Essences PreLightning kit to remove the black. It went well, but did really damage her hair after a while so I would think carefully about your aftercare plan.

xxxxx

Hey hon. My advice is go get someone else to do it. If you can't afford to get your normal hairdresser to do it then go to your local beauty college and that works out a whole lot cheaper. I've been every single colour under the sun and while you can do the upkeep easily enough by yourself, lightening your colour from a permenant dye is so much easier when someone else does it. and has a lot fewer possibilities to go wrong.
Just think about how much it'll hurt if it goes wrong and you're stuck having to wait for an appoinment and needing to pay for someone to fix it.
The other important point is that they'll have access to chemicals designed to take out dye that you won't, they'll be monitoried and will know exactly how best to proceed.
I booked to lighten up parts of my black hair to get it light enough to go blue and while it took ages and wasn't my most pleasent hairdressing experiance (got it done at my local college) it went a hell of a lot better then if I'd tried to do it.
The day before use a hair mask. And get it cut after the dye job. Buy a good shampoo and conditioner.
Hope it looks brilliant :-)

Like you, I'd been using permanent for about 2 years, then semi-permanent for about 6 months... after 2-3 months of not dying my hair I went to a salon and had a strand test. They tested to see if they could lift the colour sufficiently for red dye to take. I was told that there was still too much residual dye at that stage, and they advised me to strip as much of the dye out of my hair as possible, using high-grade clarifying shampoo.

Alas, in the end I lost my nerve and decided against changing my hair colour.

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I'd go to a salon and get the colour stripped out, I've recently gone from black to a light brown and blonde. Goldwell do a non-harmful product that strips out colour which you can use several times in one day. Defo go to a salon though as bleaching can reck your hair xxx

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Easiet way I've found of removing hair colour is Head and Shoulders shampoo it just takes colour right out. It takes a few washes over a couple of weeks but it works without wrecking your tresses.

I used this method to go from black hair to red about ten years ago.

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I just found this product called Affinage hair colour remover.Apparently its what is used in salons to strip colour. It contains no peroxide so cant destroy your hair that much. Has anyone used it?xxx

If you have a Sally's nearby try Rusk Elimin8 colour remover. You might have to do it a few times then bleach it though to get a light enough colour for the pink.

I used Rusk recently to remove black, my hair went gingery brown but still felt really soft and healthy which was unexpected, I wanted purple and didn't need it to be too light so my hair didn't suffer too much.

I've been dyeing my hair pink and/or pillarbox red for 20 years and have to say the only times it has gone wrong was when I had it done in a salon twice. Both times they burned my head with bleach and I ended up fixing it myelf. I strip my hair with 40% peroxide and lightening powder which I buy in bulk from Sally's but I HAVE been doing it for a LONG time.It is easier not to miss bits if a friend helps but I don't think a salon can do much more than you can at home. They will still have to strip your hair with bleach and that WILL damage it but the pink dye on top will help that a bit. It will go orange but Pink will cover that so you don't have to lighten too much.
As the other girls said, look after it with good products after! Also try looking at some of the LIVE colours which lighten and colour the hair in one go. That's what I'm using at the moment with a top up of Directions to boost the colour and 'm pleased with the results as it's much less prone to fading. Best of Luck!

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So if I bleach it,and it goes orange,I can still apply the pink dye and that will cancel the orange out? Or will it just mix together and create a bizarre colour? Should I bleach it until it turns white or just be content with the orangeness?xxx