I'll be the first to admit that I am a serial hair dyer; I've been so many different colours and shades. There's been blonde, there's been bright red, I've had ombre, and pink and blue, so much so that I have no idea what my natural hair colour is underneath all of that colouring! I've been various shades of brunette for a while now, and will go through stages of having an ombre, then putting through a totally dark brown once I get sick of it.
I have been curious though about hair colour removal and spied this JoBaz Hair Colour Remover* at the supermarket and thought about giving it go, a few weeks later I was contacted by the company to see if I wanted to try it out, so naturally I said why not?! I have been toying with the idea of going back slightly lighter for summer and thought using this could kick start the process. It was an interesting experience, and this might be a long post, but if you are curious about this product or at-home hair colour removal, keep on reading....
The process of hair colour removal is a little complicated to wrap your head (or hair) around, basically permanent colour latches onto your hair in molecules with a combination of hydrogen peroxide and air, which is why permanent colour doesn't wash out. Using this three step process acts to break down those molecules in the hair, reducing them down to a size before any hair colourant was applied, effectively flushing them from the hair. I've taken a photo of the instruction leaflet which has all the information on it if you are really interested in the whole process (plus they can explain it a little better).
So onto my experience with the JoBaz Hair Colour Remover. I chose 'max strength' because of my darker hair and colour build up, although there is a 'normal strength' option for light to mid toned hair. The first process is just like dying your hair at home, you mix in Part A (Activator) and Part B (Remover) together and apply it to the hair, as you would with a hair dye, massaging it in for maximum effect. My hair is about medium length and I found that there was the perfect amount for me to cover all of my hair with it. My biggest tip is make sure you use this in a well ventilated room, luckily my bathroom has big windows I can open, because this stuff REALLY stinks, it is quite disgusting and a little off putting but I powered through and just got used to the stink (imagine a rotten egg/chemical kind of smell...)
Once it was all applied in my hair, I took some gladwrap/cling film and wrapped that around my head to a) keep the smell contained, and b) it helps to trap in the heat allowing it to work much better and accelerate the removal. For the max. strength version you have to leave it in for 1 hour, and for the normal strength you only need to leave it in for 30 minutes. Basically during this whole process it is shrinking the molecules down in the hair, but it is the next process of buffering and rinsing that actually flushes them out of the hair, restoring a lighter colour.
The rinsing process took a while and a lot of standing around in the shower doing nothing. You use warm water and rinse the hair for at least 5 minutes, I did it for 10 minutes (advised if you have long or thick hair). The next step was to apply Part C (Buffer), this is like a shampoo type product that lathers up in the hair and is what is going to help flush out the artificial hair molecules. Initially you leave it in for 1 minute, then do another rinse for a further 5 minutes (at a minimum). The very last step is to do another round of the buffer, which you lather up and rinse like a normal shampoo. After that very long time of standing in the shower and using up all the hot water, the process was complete!
Now for the before and after...
As you can see my hair was a very dark brunette, and after the removal process it really lightened it up to a strawberry blonde, ginger colour which at first I wasn't so sure of but I got used to it throughout the day. I thought it had definitely worked - obviously the darker colour was gone but the next day after I washed my hair like normal, and the days proceeding, my hair ended up basically turning back to the same dark brown, which makes me think that I either didn't rinse and buffer properly, but I spent so much time in the shower because I was cautious of it being fully rinsed out. The instructions indicated that once the colour molecules were shrunk to the pre-permanent size and not flushed out correctly, the air would cause them to oxidize and expand back to what they were before. It seems bizarre, but that is obviously what happened to my hair, so from that all I can say is rinse, rinse, rinse and use a lot of the buffer if you want the result to work! My hair is definitely not as dark as it was though, and I can't exactly blame the product because that did a great job, it was merely my fault in not rinsing enough!
I would definitely use this again though, now that I understand the whole process and the chemical side of it. This retails for NZD $39.95 and can be found at selected Countdown and New World supermarkets. I hope that this has helped any of you who are curious about the process or this particular product and can learn from my mistakes!
Have you thought about colour removal before? Have you had any hair dying disaster stories?!
*PR Sample.
bloglovin' | facebook | twitter | instagram | pinterest
Comments
Post a Comment