Extra Strength Hair Color Remover, 1 Application, Hair Dye Remover Processes in 20 Minutes, Safely Removes Permanent & Semi-Permanent Dye, Ammonia & Bleach Free

This is great for removing permanent hair dye. It smells horrible, but it gets the job done with less damage than using a hair lightener (bleach). If you have long or thick hair, you may want to get two bottles. Make sure to have reasonable expectations. This product is unlikely to restore your hair to its original color. You'll likely need to follow up with color correction. The great thing about this product is that you can apply a toner or dye immediately after using it. I've accidentally gone too dark, and this could only lift so much of the black dye out of my over-processed hair. I waited a couple days, using deep conditioning masks, then gave my hair a gentle bleach wash to remove the remaining pigment to achieve the base color I needed. I don't think I could've safely achieved the desired results without first using this color remover. Also, if you dye your hair often, it's nice to use this every once in a while to kind of get a "clean pallet" of hair to work with. That way your hair color comes out more predictable and even. *Note: Rinsing is very important when using this product. I have both long and thick hair, which is very porous from over-processing with bleach and high-level developers for the past year. I spend about 45 min rinsing this product and unwanted color dye from my hair. Maybe I go a little overboard; but if you don't rinse well enough, your unwanted color could return or your hair will turn out in uneven shades. (This may not be apparent right away. I messed up once, and it took 2 days for my hair to gradually darken.) Also, I tend to spend a long time rinsing my hair because I'm paranoid about smelling like rotten eggs (which is basically what this product smells like). Anytime I've used this product (at least 5 times), I felt like I smelled bad for a couple days. I asked people if my hair smelled bad. They'd always say no. However, there was no denying that my bathroom and room smelled horrendous. You'll want to immediately throw your trash out when finished with this product. If you have even semi-clogged drains, you'll want to unclog them because any trapped hair will continue to emit that rotten egg smell. Even though this is not bleach, this will leave your hair dry (not anywhere close to the damage bleach will do, though). It will leave your hair feeling slightly damaged or fragile for a bit. However, the dryness seems to go away within a week or so. I think it's because this leaves your hair shaft open (that's basically how you're able to wash the color out). If you don't need to recolor your hair right away, I would suggest immediately following this up with a protein and moisturizing treatment. And let your hair rest as long as possible before recoloring it.

This is my second time using this product. It definitely works. It lifted all the dull black dye from my hair which was previously dyed a burgundy brown on top of my natural brown black hair. After lifting the black there was a lot of brassiness. Like other viewers may have mentioned there is a strong sulfur smell that lingers and is strongest when hair is wet. Last time I used the product it took about a week or slightly longer to fade. This time around, I got it out it less than 14 hours with only a slight hint of it at future washes for up to an additional 4-5 days. Like a waft when I first wet my hair in the shower then it faded as soon as I started sudsing up my hair. I used 2 boxes. 1. To get an even result make sure you part you hair in sections and detangle before using. Apply tilting your head back or to the side...don't let the chemicals get in your eyes. 2. After rinsing, I used Tio Nacho Younger Lookingg Shampoo for my first round of back to back shampoo-rinse-repeat cycles. The tomato and ginseng ingredient help pull the smell and toxins from your hair. 3. 2nd round of shampoo-rinse-repeat was done with Maui shampoo. The aloe base helps revive, rehydrate and protect your hair. 3. Used a high quality tomato paste (tube) and put it my hair just like hair dye, section by section then wrapped and let sit for 3 hours. It helped neutralize most of the sulfur odor and even more amazingly, pulled ALL the brassiness out my hair. Went from reddish brown to just medium-dark brown. Rinsed and did another tio nacho shampoo. 4. Hair is dried out a bit so I then used my Deity America Extra strength deep penetrating conditioner. This has a very strong Chinese herbal scent but it revitalized my curls and helped pull out the last of the sulfur smell. I let it sit for about 30min before rinsing. I still smelled it throughout the night (hair was wet) but the next morning I couldn't smell the sulfur in my dried hair anymore except for the wafts during subsequent showers as mentioned above. For context I have thick, long wavy/curly Asian and black mixed hair that is very porous. By getting the brassiness out with tomato paste it kept me from redying my hair immediately. My hair would have gotten really dark if I did because the product opens it up the cuticles and your hair will grab color really quickly. I am planning on trying to re dye in about a week. Whew this was long but hope it helps someone. For the shampoos and deep conditioners, these are just products I already use. I'm sure you can get the same or even better results with other similar products.

Read these reviews carefully if you intend on buying this product! I wish I had paid more attention to the previous reviewers because I'm seriously regretting my decision to purchase and use this product. While I can't really comment on the intended purpose of this color remover, I purchased it after reading numerous recommendations on the internet (forums, blogs, youtube videos) for fading or partial removal of direct dyes like Manic Panic or Special Effects. The product does not advertise that they can remove direct dyes, so while it did absolutely nothing to fade the purple dye in my hair, it did a lot more that I hadn't bargained for. Problem #1: The product advertises that it does not damage your hair, I found that to be false. I have long, healthy, silky hair with very little breakage or hair fall. My hair does not tangle or snarl easily and I rarely have a knot. This product turned my entire head of hair into one giant knot. My hair was about 6 inches shorter from all of the tangles I had to work out. It now feels dry and straw-like after several deep conditioning treatments. Problem #2: While many of these types of products come with the warning of "smells terrible!" this one is ten times worse than anything I've ever smelled. I've been to my share of salons and helped friends both perm and dye their hair. I can handle the smell of nail polish and acrylic liquids for hours and it doesn't bother me. I work in a laboratory around hazardous chemicals and the smell of dead rotting fish and it doesn't bother me as much as this smell. This stuff REEKS. I'm not talking it smells when it's in the bottle and it smells when it's on your head. The smell lingers. The smell lingers for WEEKS. Overall I wish I had never wasted my time and money on this product. Even if you are desperate to remove an unwanted box dye color from your hair, this stuff isn't worth it. Go to a salon where professionals use professional level products that don't have you smelling like a sulfurous outhouse for weeks.

I have used this product several times in my life and have always been satisfied with it BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO, AND WHAT IT WILL NOT DO! First of all, this will NOT take you back to your original, natural, hair color, as its not supposed to. When you dye your hair (no matter the color) you use a developer which is made from hydrogen peroxide; this is what lifts the hair cuticle so your hair can absorb the color molecules of permanent and semi-perm dye. EVEN IF YOU DYE YOUR HAIR BLACK this is the process, so your natural color has been permanently compromised by the developer. Generally your natural hair is now, at the minimum, a shade lighter. if your natural hair color was dark, it will pull red because the undertone of dark hair is red. Ok, now having said that... what this product does, if you use it properly (meaning you use enough of it and follow the directions) is remove the oxidized color molecules, thereby removing the DYE COLOR only. not the effects of the developer. Your hair will be left with the color that the developer lifted it to which is usually a lighter brassy or red color. Having said that - most people will need to re-color their hair after using the product to get a shade they like, or at the very least TONE out the brassy, if you don't mind the actual shade/LEVEL. However, I would advise waiting 3-7 days after using the product to do so as your hair cuticle is recovering from the process and will absorb much more color often giving you a darker re-color than you intend. Yes, the product smells. It has a sulfuric odor (rotten eggs) that many people describe here. That is the mild chemical that slightly lifts the hair cuticle (similar to, but nowhere near as much as developer) and deoxidizes the color, shrinking the dye molecule to a smaller size so it can wash out of your hair shaft. The process does dry your hair (it is still a chemical, but not as strong as peroxide or bleach) as does the process of shampooing with hot, hot water which is required to remove the color molecules. Make sure to get a good conditioner/hair mask or some coconut oil to moisturize afterwards. The hair masks and coconut oil will also help with removing the lingering smell, which usually lingers for a day or two. If you have dyed your hair many times you will likely have a lot of color molecule saturated in your hair, so you may have to use the product more than once to get it all out. Always start by applying the product at the ENDS of your hair, where you will likely have the most accumulated dye, and do the roots LAST! Also wrap your head to keep the heat in, as heat helps the product to work. Sometimes, before I wash it out, I will use a hair dryer to heat up the ends as a little boost. Your roots will get heat from your head, so they will likely process better. (similar to bleaching) You will need to wash your hair very well, several times, preferably with clarifying shampoo and rinse, rinse, and rinse with the hottest water you can stand. Again heat helps wash the color molecules out. Do this for at LEAST 15mins, but longer if you can stand it. You will need to deep condition your hair well after all this, because it is a "stripping" process. (both the chemical process and the extensive washing and rinsing, but it is a lot less damaging than coloring, and certainly less than bleach! (both of which you always use a deep conditioner after, right?) I have had my hair every color under the sun since I'm 14, and I've used Color oops often. It works. End of story. You just need to have realistic expectations of what it can do, when you follow the directions. Its good to HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF HOW HAIR COLORING ITSELF WORKS before you use this product so you understand how this product reverses that process. It will also help you understand why IT DOES NOT WORK ON DEPOSIT ONLY COLORS like Manic panic, artic fox, etc, that only "coat" the hair shaft, not penetrate like permanent dye. It's not a magic wand, or a genie, so, no, it won't get you back to your pre-dyed hair color, but it will get the color you don't want out of your hair shaft so you can re-color or tone it. It's also good for removing color build-up so dye takes better to your hair. Please research how permanent hair-dye coloring works and have REALISTIC expectations, and you won't be disappointed.

This stuff is okay. I have used color in my hair for years -- decades -- and am thinking about transitioning to a more natural color, embracing my gray. I thought this would remove some of the color and let my underlying gray show through as highlights. I followed the directions to a tee, leaving the solution on for exactly 20 minutes and rinsing, like forever -- which is difficult, unless your hot water tank is a whole lot larger than mine. It did brighten some of my white areas, and it lightened up the darker areas a bit, but it did not come close to removing all of the color in my hair. I feel like the product changed my dyed medium brown hair to more of a brassy, light brown color, and although there are some lighter strands that look like they may be highlighted, they still retained some color. I suspect this works better on fresh color, rather than hair that has been soaking up the dye for years and years. Even though it did not remove a lot of color, I do feel like it lightened and brightened my hair quite a bit, and got rid of some of the heavy, saturated color that had been building up over the years. I was expecting some major stink, but the smell did not bother me at all. My daughter complained, but I didn't think it was any worse than regular hair dye, and the odor did not linger. I also was concerned that this would really dry my hair out and leave it like straw -- but I rubbed in a little argan oil after using this and my hair is soft and easy to comb -- so that really wasn't an issue. I have not colored my hair after using this, but I would be cautious about coloring, as I expect that treated hair is very porous and really soaks up color. The product comes with good instructions that explain -- chemically -- just how this stuff works. If you read the instructions carefully, you will understand the importance of the rinsing process. The instructions tell you to shampoo and rinse for 15 to 20 minutes, and then shampoo and rinse again, and repeat up to three times. Basically, the more you rinse the more color you will remove from your hair. But 15 to 20 minutes of rinsing is a really, really long time to rinse -- particularly if you try to repeat the process. I used a timer to make sure I didn't under rinse. It seemed like I was in the shower FOREVER. Overall, this isn't a miracle product that removes every speck of dye from your hair, but it did lighten and brighten my color-saturated hair, and I'm glad I tried it.

This product definitely works on removing hair color. My hair color is normally a medium brown. I went red for my husband in February. I'm not a fan of red and have since tried to remove it. I've tried other products to remove the red, without any luck. I've also tried lighter shades of hair color, but the red always remains to the point that my dentist asked if I had red hair when it was months since I'd done the red. I figured I'd try this product after reading reviews and seeing some good turn outs. It comes with instructions, gloves, hair cover, and mixing ingredients. The steps are easy - Mix 1 and 2 together, apply to combed, dry hair, cover, and wait 20 minutes. The after steps are what got to me. Rinse and shampoo then rinse for 15-20 minutes! And then repeat the shampoo process again! Yikes that's a lot of water use! There is a smell, which I read ahead about so I made sure to do when I was home alone. I didn't really think it was too bad but the smell is lingering in my bathroom (probably in the pipes) - a smell that I would say best smells like Draino cleaner. Even before my hair was dry, I could see it was changed. Dry, and now it's the lightest it has ever been. I didn't expect that but I am okay with it. I was looking to go blonder for the summer and now it looks like I did that with this product. Even better - I'm not seeing my red in my hair which is really what I was going for. Eventually I'll dye again but I'll leave it as is for now knowing it gave me results I was hoping for. Another note- my neighbor is a professional hairstylist (I only do myself because going to a salon is not my cup of tea and I'd rather do things solo). She saw me the day I used this product and she thought I had bleached my hair and asked what I had used because she had issues with a customer's hair color needing to be stripped.

So, I must explain what I've done to my poor, poor hair. It is naturally dark/medium brown, and started at a length past my navel. Then I decided I wanted white/gray (aka: platinum) hair. So I began bleaching. Bleached about 8x, and toned about 4x. After a year, I wanted my pretty old long hair back. To avoid damaging it further- I chose red Manic Panic, then later used Argan Oil natural brown permanent dye to get back to close to my natural hair color. It's now been about 4 months since going back to brown. So: Virgin hair - then white/gray/platinum hair - then bright red hair - then brown. Then wanted my blonde back.. I heard of Color Oops and finally decided to put it to the test. THIS STUFF EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS AS FAR AS REMOVING THE COLORING. I used it once, for 20 minutes, not wanting my hair to fall out from so much processing. And I figured if it didn't work in 20 minutes that's because the Brown Hair Dye must have taken to my hair like glue, as my hair follicle and pores were so open and damaged, there would be no other way to reverse the coloring. I used it and WAS HORRIFIED at the result- my hair was a disgusting yellow/orange color, WTF?! I panicked and bought toner immediately. Problem fixed, lol! My hair is not the WHITE it used to be, but is an extremely, extremely pale blonde again with only one application of: Color Oops, and Wella T19 Ash Blonde Toner. Pros: -WORKS- well. -Didn't damage highly processed (And I mean HIGHLY processed- I've bleached the same hair this was used on at least 8x, not to mention the toning, re-coloring, etc.) hair. -More affordable than a salon Cons: -Still kinda pricey -Smells like a piss-pot from the 1800's.. and your hair will too, for several washes. -Took a whole bottle for my shoulder-length hair.

It would be one thing if this product just didn't take the color from my hair, but it also has left my hair smelling of sewage for days. I'm on day three now and the smell just won't go away no matter how much I scrub my hair and scalp. Might work on removing lighter dye jobs, but it didn't even budge the brown dye from my hair. I seriously recommend splurging on something better.