What is a color remover? How does it work? Will it restore my original shade? Will it damage my hair? So many questions and no answers? Find out everything you wanted to know about the proces of removing color from your hair using the hair color remover.
When your hair is instead of beige blond orange, or instead of brown it catches black, you often just want to cry. Sometimes coloring doesn't work the way you want it to. Whether the reason is a new (and perhaps inexperienced) hairdresser or a badly chosen color, fortunately there is a solution for all these cases! Hair color removers are here to save you from disaster. In this article you find answers to 12 frequently asked questions to find out if a color remover is the product you are looking for.
1) What Is a Color Remover & When Is It Used?
Hair color remover provides most gentle way to remove hair color. In addition, it helps to prepare the hair, for example to change the color tone from warm to cold or to remove the build-up color caused by frequent and repeated dyeing. You can usually tell by the fact that your hair is dull, without shine, dry, looks heavy, and even if you still use the same shade, your hair looks darker. Bright outgrowths and matte ends are also a sign of accumulated color.
2) How Does the Color Remover Work?
The color remover works by entering the hair shaft, where it focuses on the artificial color pigments and dissolves them. Once the pigment is dissolved, the stored dye has nothing to hold on to, and after a few minutes of applying the color remover, you can easily wash it out of your hair. This means that you will see the results immediately after you rinse your hair.The best thing is that, the color remover does not remove natural hair color or damage or dry out the hair. Therefore it is also suitable for fine and slightly damaged hair.
3) Color Remover vs. Bleacher. What Is the Difference?
The color remover (Efassor, Bond Enforcing Color Remover) enters the hair and removes any artificial color pigment, but your natural pigment remains untouched. This will leave your natural hair color intact and will not damage your hair. In contrast, bleaching agents enter the hair fiber and remove both, all artificial and natural color pigment, leaving no pigment in your hair. This will leave the hair dry, brittle and damaged.
4) Will I Have the Original Hair Color After Application?
Remember, hair color removing does not mean a complete correction. The color remover will restore your original hair color only in certain cases. It always depends on what happened to the hair during the previous coloring. Once you change your natural hair color with an oxidizing color, the color remover cannot restore your original natural hair shade. This is because any peroxide-based hair color is likely to lighten your natural hair color, covering it with the shade you have chosen for the coloring. The more often you color, the more likely it is that your natural color has been permanently and irreversibly removed/lightened. In these cases, you will see a lighter to yellow or copper result after applying the color remover, which is now your true natural shade. What to do with this? If you don't mind the lighter color, you can neutralize the warm tones with toner. Otherwise, we recommend recolor the hair with the selected shade.
5) The Final Color Is Brass/Yellow. What Am I Doing Wrong?
Did you use a color remover that removed your color, but left your hair with a touch of brass or yellow? Don't be scared! As we mentioned in the previous point, that's perfectly fine. This means that the color remover worked. After removing the color, the hair will always have a warmer touch. The orange or yellow tones that remain in the hair come from the developer that was used in the previous coloring. You can easily correct these unwanted warm tones either by coloring your hair to the shade you wanted or by using hair toner.
6) Can the Color Remover Remove Hair Lightening?
Color Remover only removes hair color that is darker than your natural hair color. This means that it cannot remove bleached hair. If your hair has been bleached blond or your color has been lighter than your natural hair color, your natural pigment has been chemically lightened. Depending on how much your hair is lightened, there may no longer be any natural color pigment in your hair, so the color remover actually has nothing to remove.
7) Can All Types of Colors Be Removed?
Yes and no. It always depends on what each manufacturer has in the manual. Usually, each brand has its own color remover, which is designed specifically for their colors (eg. Elumen Color Return a Elumen Play Color Eraser). In general, you should be careful with metal dyes. It is known that they cannot be removed from the hair. Color remover is not very suitable for red, fashion and very dark to black shades, which can bother you when removing.
8) How Many Times Can I Use a Color Remover?
One application should be enough for recent color errors or cleaning up a month old color. However, if necessary, you can use the color remover several times in a row, it is usually recommended a maximum of 3x. For example, if you color your hair for a long time - months, years - you will probably have a decent amount of color on your hair, for which one application will not be enough and you will have to repeat the application more times before the accumulated color is completely removed. It is true that the longer you color your hair, the longer it will take to remove the color. Also, some shades, such as black or red, will be harder to remove because a large amount of artificial pigment needs to be removed, and this will require several color stripper applications. In the worst cases, the black color can leave the hair dirty so that this color cannot be removed. If you are still unable to completely remove the color after three applications, you should consult this with a specialist.
9) The Longer I Will Leave the Product to Work, the More Color Will Be Removed?
Do not leave color remover on your hair for longer than is recommended. Leaving the color remover on your hair longer will not ensure that more color is removed. In fact, it will be the other way around and your hair may darken. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions exactly!
10) Why Did My Hair Darkend After Using Color Remover?
Sometimes if the hair is not rinsed properly, this problem can appear. The reason is re-oxidation. This means that the artificial color molecules were not completely rinsed from the hair during the removal process, they increased and caused the previous color to return. Therefore, it is recommended to rinse the hair properly. Really properly!
11) Can I Dye My Hair Immediately After Using Color Remover?
Be carefull with dyeing your hair straight after color removing! After removing the color, the hair is "different" and will react differently to the hair color. The hair is very porous and the hair cuticle is very open, which means that it absorbs everything that comes to hand. Any shade applied to the hair will be darker than you would like. Therefore, for best results, we recommend waiting at least 48 hours before re-dyeing. However, if you don't want to wait, choose two shades lighter color than you would like. For example, instead of shade 7.1 (gray blonde), choose shade 9.1 (light blonde gray), etc.
12) Careful With Color Protection Hair Care!
If you using shampoo and conditioner, to protect the color, you should stop using them few weeks before using hair color remover. Hair cosmetics with color protection could prevent the remover from working. Better use routine care without color protection.
