Colour B4. Hair Colour Remover Extra Strength

My hair background: naturally medium ashy brown. 6 months ago I had highlights, basically natural at the roots that lightened to almost blonde at the bottom. About 4 months ago I decided to go all dark brown with bangs and loved it. I was tired of paying 140 to get my hair done so about a month ago I purchased: L'Oreal Paris Excellence Creme, 4A Dark Ash Brown. This turned my hair way too dark, almost black, and I unfortunately missed some areas. My hair is just past my boobs (very long considering I'm almost 6 ft. tall) and my hair is also thick. I decided I had already committed to the dark hair so I purchased another box to finish the spots I had missed. As my hair faded (while using a deep cleansing shampoo) I noticed the ends looked too dark. It wasn't noticeable to my boyfriend, but I could tell when my hair was straight. So I decided I was sick of looking at the dark ends and wanted to try a color remover... (because my hair just hadn't been through enough yet -_-) I followed the directions exactly, aside for doing the optional skin spot check. I did not perform this because my skin typically isn't sensitive to products and I didn't want to have a glob of this product on my skin for 24 hours like instructions suggested. However, I did do the hair strip test. I grabbed about a square centimeter section at the bottom of my hair line and applied a pea size amount. I waited 60 minutes and then did the five minute rinse. The amount my hair ligntened was barely noticeable, but this was okay to me because I didn't want a drastic change. So, I sectioned my hair into 6 sections (since my hair is thick) and applied the product one section at a time, combing it through with a plastic comb as I went. I was able to completely saturate my hair with just the one bottle. Based on the instructions, I should have needed two, but one was plenty. Almost seemed like too much, but I went ahead and used the whole thing because I didn't want to be streaky. I combed through my hair a lot, until all of the tangles were gone. Once I felt satisfied with my hair saturation, I decided to try to plastic wrap my hair to my scalp like the instructions recommend. I have never done this before but it was super easy. I twisted my hair, piled it on top of my head, balanced, and then plastic wrapped a few times around my hair to hold it all in place. The instructions also said it won't work as well in the cold.. since it's snowy out now my apartment is colder than usual so I put a beanie on over the plastic wrap cap. Cute. I waited one hour and went back to the bathroom to start the rinsing stage.. my first impression after taking the plastic cap off was "wow okay". It looked so light it concerned me. I rinsed my hair with hot water for ten minutes, pulling it around my shoulder to look at it every few minutes. My hair seemed to darken as I rinsed it so the initial shock wore off pretty quickly. I added the final product (the pH balancer), rinsed for five minutes, pH balanced again, rinsed.. and my hair felt pretty dry. It felt about the same dryness as after I use a cleansing shampoo.. so I conditioned because I couldn't stand not to. I also used a spray conditioner after I gently towel dried to help me comb through. I nervously blow dried my bangs to check the color and I was pleasantly surprised. It is definitely not my natural light ash brown, it's warmer than that, but it's really pretty. I'm assuming my hair will darken up a bit and that's fine, I'm just happy my hair is all the same color. It's much more natural looking. Needless to say, this product absolutely worked for me. Lastly, I'm going to comment on the smell. I was anticipating the worst smell in the world based on reviewers, and I'm not going to lie it's bad. My boyfriend thought it smelled like eggs. It smells bad when applying and while wet during the rinse.. but now that I have blow dried my hair I can't really smell it. However, my hair doesn't typically retain smells. It almost annoys me that shampoo and conditioner smells wear out of my hair quickly but maybe that's a good thing. UPDATE: It has been a couple of days, I have washed my hair once using a clarifying shampoo, and my hair has darkened. It is not as dark as it was before, just a couple of shades. I am glad, the product worked well on my hair but it was initially a tad more auburn than my natural color. My hair is now closer to my natural shade.

Edit: it’s been 2 months and the smell is still there. I cut off 6 inches of my hair and wash every day and it’s still there 😭 I hate it soooo much! I can’t go swimming because when I get in the water I smell like a dank fart. Edit 2: almost at 3 months, I tried dying again thinking that hey maybe the dye will cover up the smell and the smell is way stronger now. The chemical is obviously still in my hair and is now stronger smelling with the new dye in. I don’t know what to do. My head smells awful, I’ve cut off almost all of my hair, and I can’t get my hair wet in public in summer. So this was my first time using a dye remover so I came in not knowing quite how bad the smell was, but I did read reviews that had mentioned it. I wanted to remove my dark brown dye from my hair to let my grays come out again. I followed the directions, wrapped hair in plastic wrap (no heater because it’s hotter than hell right now anyways), left it in for the hour, and whatnot. I have pretty course hair (it’s called a hapa fro haha and is a mix of my white and Asian genetics so it’s a frizzy voluminous mess normally and I love it) so knew that it might not get all out the first time round since, according to the reviews, darker colors are hard to take out blah blah. Well, I have a really sensitive nose and one thing I didn’t expect was the power of the smell. It smelled like rotten meat and the smell was STRONG. I’m not even exaggerating. And apparently, when the product is wet it’s much worse. So imagine having to sit in a shower with this overpowering stank for 30 minutes just wringing your hair … yeah I was gagging a lot, fan blasting, manically washing and running my fingers through my scalp, I used so much product after to try to get the smell out but nothing worked, I still wanted to throw up at my own smell. Luckily I found one solution on a forum that actually helped a little because it was from their direct support. Here’s what they suggest: “ Mix 10% of a water soluble bicarbonate/carbonate salt [baking soda] with 90% water and leave on the hair for 5 to 10 minutes. Then without rinsing apply an acid-based solution to acidify the hair, such as 5% white vinegar (acetic acid) [I used apple cider vinegar and it worked fine] or 5% lemon juice (citric acid) mixed with 95% water. Leave this solution on the hair for a further 3 to 5 minutes, then rinse off. This procedure will produce a carbon dioxide gas which will remove the chemicals that cause the odour. Then finish with a pleasant shampoo and condition as usual." So I did this and just kept running the solution over my hair above a bowl and I definitely saw more color come out even after that 30 minutes of rinsing before! The smell is bearable now, but it’s definitely still there and I am absolutely hating it. Like the smell is so close to my face and I keep getting little whiffs of it and I just can’t. It makes me want to throw up. The color itself is still around. My grays lost a little color, but are definitely not at their purest, so it’s suggested to do it a second time. I can’t go through that again lol so I’ll just let it grow out aux naturale. In conclusion: if you have a sensitive nose and dark course hair this product might not be the best for you.

I had Privanna bright red hair for almost 5 years and had, had enough of it. I decided I wanted be blonde, which is almost impossible when you have had bright red hair for that long because the hair follicle is stained. I used the colour B4 extra strength after I had let my bright red hair fade for a couple weeks and this product works!! In one use with the box it stripped the red out of my hair and I was left with a blonde brassy color. My ends were at a pink color but that was because of how porous they are and how long I had been coloring my hair red. I did the colour B4 a second time in a row (u can do up to 3 times in one day I believe) my hair was more blonde and pink was a pastel color. I was amazed I was able too bleach my hair afterwards with little damage and I have fine hair I continued to condition it and a added hilites a Couple days later I did cut off about 3 inches because after bleaching my hair was very dry. The product works and it works really well follow the directions to the tee I did exactly what it said to do. I would highly recommend colour B4 and would use it again! The only thing I can say is the product does stink like a perm and if u get on your clothes it will discolor them like bleach. Just protect your clothing and if you condition afterward with a regular good smelling conditioner the smell will go away!

This product did as it said it would without damage to my hair. It was very dry and felt a bit stripped afterwards but it wasn't fried or changed in way of texture. It's much better than any other color remover I've tried and a million times better than bleach for my fine hair. I rinsed and rinsed and rinsed because I didn't want my hair to darken as other people said they experienced days after this treatment. I suggest following the suggestions of other people when you use this…DO NOT COLOR your hair right after with a regular hair color. You do not want those pigments to go in and oxidize again. This is why you see Youtube vids of people using this and then trying to go blonde right after but ending up brunette. It's like your hair will soak up whatever shade the dye looks on your head and stick. I have read that you should let your hair breath for a few weeks, washing with clarifying shampoos in between and deep conditioning (that's what I did). I've also read that you can use a clear semi permanent (non) colored process to seal the cuticle. Then, in a week or two do the real color that you are desiring to insure that you really get an accurate (not too dark) result. I personally used this treatment. Did clarifying shampoo and deep conditioner for about 10 days and then I put on ION Brilliance Semi Permanent Rose (a soft pink) over my hair as it had come to be a coppery blonde after all my previous colors had been lifted. I left in the Ion Brilliance for another 2 weeks and then I did Pravanna Violet Chroma Silk and my hair looks super fly! My hair smelled like garbage and rotten eggs for about 2.5 weeks after this treatment, especially when it got wet or when anyone was super close to me. The first few days were super harsh. Cover you pillow with a towel and keep your windows open in your car.

I had the ends of my hair dyed purple and then continued to dye it myself with Manic Panic purple for about 6 months. Decided that I was tired of the maintenance and let it fade/wash out until it was a light purple/bluish/green and wanted to get rid of the rest of the color. I did see some reviews that this wouldn't work with stuff like Manic Panic, but I thought I'd try it since I didn't have much dye left. Where there was just a bit of tint, it worked really well, but for heavier tinted areas it only lightened the color a bit. It might have worked if I wanted to get another 2 boxes, but I figured it was easier to just let a hair stylist fix it since I wanted to do an ombre style. It does smell bad, but as someone who's usually really sensitive to smells, it wasn't that bad as once you wrap it, it's mostly above/behind you and not in front of your nose. It does take several washes and there can be a hint of smell left though. Overall, I felt like this was more of a lightener than a remover.

"Este removedor de tinte de cabello es espectacular. Con solo unos pasos, pude eliminar el color no deseado de mi cabello sin dañarlo. La fórmula es suave, huele bien y no dejó residuos. Mi cabello se mantuvo sano y brillante, y recuperé mi tono original fácilmente. ¡Lo recomiendo al 100%!"

So upset over such an expensive purchase that did not do anything at all. I spent a day and half doing everything I could to an exact following of the directions. I washed my hair twice the night before with clarifying shampoo then started my long drawn out process per the instructions that came with the product even utilizing my husband to help. I applied product to warmed clean hair, wrapped head for time period with warming hair with blow dryer the entire time every 5-minutes for an hour. I then washed and applied the last steps verbatim to the instructions. I had the perfect hair to try this product on as I have older permanent red coloring on the tips of my hair, and newer permanent color on the middle that was bleached and then color in blues, purples and pinks and then recent color on the roots as semi-permanent color. Please note that all of these colors were done by a professional in a salon. I will post the before and after pictures shortly, but be aware that the product did not take out any of these colors. Not the older colors, not the color from 3 months ago or the most recent semi-permanent color either. Would not recommend or repeat the process again. Too time consuming for no real impact as all of the colors still remain in my hair.

Sadly, this product did not work for me hardly at all. I have bleached hair to a orange/light brown tint that I covered with a natural henna/indigo mix after removing a bright fire red temp color. I wanted to use this product to lift some highlights closer to the original bleached color, but after three attempts in one day (as instructed you can do up to three), it only came to a medium dark-red brown. After the last attempt, it was also so dry and damaged feeling I felt as if I could have had better results with a shampoo/vitamin C mix with less damage or a mild bleach wash with the same amount of dry, brittleness feeling. The smell is also less than desirable and lingers for some time. Perhaps this is more for temporary hair color like Manic Panic or even a fresh semi-permanent of a lighter color, but definitely not for permanent black/dark browns. I may go back after my hair has sometime to heal to Color Oops, which worked for me very well in one sitting on a chemical chocolate brown color, but definitely not this. To clarify, the box says it doesn't work with henna/indigo with metallic salts, but I used pure henna/indigo (dye quality) mixed myself and not a premixed jar you can find with added ingredients.