Pravana Artificial Hair Color Extractor 3combo Set

First of all: is this product magic? No.If you have box dyed black hair, you'll maybe get to a brassy orange, if lucky. And this is NORMAL. This is NOT a bleach. This does not lighten your natural hair. Actually, it does nothing on natural, virgin hair. But i highly recommend this to anyone who wants to strip previous hair color from their hair. It is perfect if, like me, you had black dyed hair and wanted to eventually get to blonde. This will remove most of the harsh black tint and leave you with a good base to work with bleach after. I did 3 treatments (almost the whole bottle) on my black hair and got to a dark orange brassy color, then went to a professional hair stylist and got platinum after only 2 bleach. My hair is super healthy now because i didn't do more bleach... because i got a lot of the black out with Pravana first!! I also used this to remove semi permanent colors like Aquamarine by Arctic Fox and got my blonde hair back without any stain. (took o9nly 15 minutes to process too!!) It is really a great product.Pros: Get you a good base to lighten after. Remove semi permanent color COMPLETELY in minutes, without stain.Cons: Smells like hell. Holy... i felt like i had rotten eggs on my head haha. Please get a very fragrant shampoo because you'll need it!!

Okay so, this color remover not a miracle in a bottle. But for a sulfur based color remover, this one definitely is the least smelly and the most effective. I asked a stylist for "blue black but a little more blue" last summer and instead, I got black. And I kept it for a bit lacking any other option, but I was pretty disappointed. I've been on a quest since January to get rid of the black now.The shampoo will be rough on your hair, making it feel straw and if you try to comb it while wet or in my case, try out new silicone "massaging" gloves, your hair will break. That's to be expected really, and once you get the steps 2 & 3 in, it will get a little better but you need to be super careful with your hair while processing with this product. Use a soft bonnet attached to your hair dryer for the best results (you can buy one on Amazon for $25ish or go to Sally's). I tried a hot towel the first time but you need really even heat application to get the best results. I've used it now about 5 times in two weeks and my hair is still okay, not counting the breakage from the devil gloves. BUT, I use the Aphogee 2 Minute Reconstructor after every process and follow with Nature's Gate Hemp and Argan oil conditioner. Also, follow up any procedure with a Kpack and then something with heavy duty moisturizing because the protein will restrengthen your hair so it doesn't stretch and snap, but then it needs moisture put back in so make sure you use a heavy duty conditioner -without protein- as a follow-up. Then sleep in something moisturizing. I do argan oil but most recommend coconut oil because it's cheaper and supposedly chelating.One more tip: the best way to "shampoo" the color out is not to put shampoo in and scrub and rinse/repeat. Instead, treat it like another step and put in shampoo and leave it in for at least five minutes, massaging gently. You want to give the shampoo a chance to "process" and then you rinse. Then you repeat. I put a stool in my shower to make spending so much time in the shower easier.The photos go from left to right: the very darkest are after bleaching in January, then trying the One'N'Only color remover two weeks before which is about 10x smellier and did not do anything but strip out my Wella toner and left all the black behind. Second photo after 1 round of Pravana, second photo is after 2nd round then a few days later bleaching with Ion Bond Multiplier added to bleach + 30 vol developer. 4 is after the night before, 5 and 6 are on the same day. The black that hairdresser put in my hair - is still there- but it is almost light enough that I think it will be unnoticeable when I put in some Manic Panic Ultraviolet, which I'd tried to do once before but failed after photo 2, and ended up with a muddy maroon wherever the black had been. Obviously, I decided to strip all of it out again and bleach to try and get lighter.Don't do what I did: start with Pravana Color Extractor, repeat it a few times with protein packs and moisturizing in between, THEN bleach. With a bond multiplier from either Ion or Olaplex if you've got the money.

YES! YES! YES! I am an African American woman with 3b/3c, kinky curly, very thick, bra strap length hair. My starting color was a perrmanent medium brown with bleached highlights (see pic 1). I thought i wanted to go darker for fall, so I put One and Only argan oil demi medium red over my entire head and ended up with a dark brown/off black color with burgundy on the ends (see pics 2 and 3). Although it was pretty, it wasn't me and I missed the lighter hair, so I set out to find my way back to it! I decided on Pravana...So glad I did! I was prepared for the smell, but I didn't find it so offensive and I am very sensitive to fragrances so that was pleasantly surprising.While applying the Pravana color extractor in the shower, I noticed the black/burgundy color was disappearing before my eyes! Wasn't sure if i even needed to use the heat, but I wanted to follow the directions so i sat under my hooded hair dryer for 20 minutes for 2 full applications. I did not use a 10 volume developer to test if everything was out, though. My curly hair was VERY, VERY dry, but not breaking off (see pic 4). I doused my hair with coconut and macadamia nut oil, and Moroccan Oil Hydrating Intense Hair Mask for Thick Hair, put on a processing cap, and turban and went to bed.The next morning, my hair appeared slightly darker...it felt 100% moisturized and smelled divine. I shampooed my hair with very warm/hot water and then did an Olaplex 1 and 2 treatment. Left it in for about 2 hours, shampooed again with very warm/hot water and then did a Redken Shot Phase All Soft treatment while sitting under hooded dryer for 30 minutes. Rinsed with cool water, poured neutral protein filler from Sally's over hair waited the 20 minutes directed and then put One and Only Argan Oil 10A Ash Blonde demi over my entire head with Olaplex 2 in mix (see pics 5 and 6)...left in for about 30 minutes. I think I left it in too long because it ended up darker than I wanted but I like it WAY better than the burgundy color! After rinsing out color, I applied Ion Color Sealer and left on for 2 minutes rinsed again with cool water and then applied argan oil, Kenra Blow Dry Spray and Kenra Color Charge Spray Serum. Blow dried and flat ironed.I LOVE IT! My hair feels like silk!!! It feels better than before I put the Pravana Color Extractor in my hair! I started this process on Friday night and was finished on Saturday afternoon, so it took about 2 days to go thru all of these steps, but so what! I'm serious about my hair and I'd rather take extra time and have healthy, pretty hair. I feel like the Pravana Color Extractor has opened up a whole new world for me. Now, I know there are options that are non damaging to remove color for a new look. I hope this helps others as much as other people's reviews helped me!

This product is great. The smell isn't the greatest at all but you have two options to get color out of your hair, you can either damage it by bleaching and have the smell of that or the less damaging route of this and have your hair smell like eggs for a day or two. Everyone complaining about how it didn't remove their bright fashion colors should probably do a little bit of reading before using this. It clearly states that it removes oxidized colors, which means those that are mixed with a developer.I loved this and will definitely be purchasing it again in the future. I had been dying my hair black for the past 5+ years and after 3 treatments of this it had taken so much of the color out.

A little background on my hair: I'm a natural dark brown, I had dyed my hair red, burgundy 3/4 times, deep burgundy twice, and then blue black. So lots of layers of dye.A few weeks after dying it black, I wanted to get back to my natural color, so I tried to dye over the black (not knowing color won't lift color). After that didn't work, I turned to this to avoid bleaching. First off let me say, this stuff smells TERRIBLE. After reading other reviews, I expected this. It smells like a mixture of rotten eggs, and a port-a-potty.I followed the mixing directions, applied this to my hair, and left it on for 20 minutes. Next I used the shampoo, which somehow made it smell even worse? Again, it smells awful, be prepared for the smell. I let the shampoo sit on my hair, for about 5 minutes. Then kept washing my hair. It does make your hair VERY dry and stiff. The 1st time I did it, my roots turned out WAY lighter than my ends, even though I applied it to my ends first? My ends were still black, so I just applied to the ends the 2nd time, and washed. The 3rd time, I decided to leave it on longer than 20 minutes, which turned out fine. When you're done, I recommend using a good deep conditioner, to bring your hair back to life lol.When I was done, my hair ended up being a light copperish brown color (it looks a lot darker in the pic). So it did lift all the black out! However I skipped the step, suggesting to put developer in your hair (to see if the dye molecules would re-oxidize). The directions also recommend dyeing 2 shades lighter.. But I had dark brown dye already. At this point, I was impatient and just wanted to dye my hair. So I dyed it dark brown and it ended up turning back to black.. Which was really my own fault, I should have followed the directions to a T.Overall this product, does what it says it will do. Don't expect your hair to lift to a nice color, because it most likely won't. It will just lift the dye out, to give you a nice base to dye over. And lastly, don't make the same mistakes as me, and follow all the directions!