Blush Response

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Perry Purple by lcrontic.com

Greetings, fellow hair adventurer! I’ve rounded up all the beauty questions from the past couple of weeks and picked the three most frequently-asked for this week’s Blush Response. We’re continuing last installment‘s hair color theme, as it seems the most exasperating of all.

What is your favorite blackest-black dye?

This one’s tough because Feria’s Bright Black, the prettiest, most dramatically black dye out there, fades. It fades tragically, inevitably, quickly. Unless you’re prepared to keep dying every 2 weeks, I would avoid it. Nice N’ Easy’s Natural Blue Black is the best and most fade-resistant I’ve found. However, be warned! It’s practically impossible to remove if you get sick of it. Also, most hair salons will shun you when you come to them begging for salvation from Nice N’ Easy. Learn the secret to removing it at home in the last answer!

How do you go about obtaining and maintaining pure white hair?

Bleach and toner. Really, that’s it. Depending on your natural hair color you’ll have to bleach several times to achieve desired lightness. And unless you want your hair to break off in spongy clumps, you will have to wait two weeks between each bleaching session. Hats and scarves help. As far as specific products go, when my head was crowned with platinum I swore by 40-volume developer [within reason], L’Oreal Quick Blue bleach, and Clairol’s Shimmer Lights line for killing yellow. Do not leave toner in longer than its instructions tell you, unless you want your hair to turn dishwater gray.

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Populuxe by ChinaDoll

How did you recover from black hair dye so quickly without killing your hair?

Instead of bleaching, I stripped it, using a mysterious product called “One N’Only Colorfix”. It’s not that this stuff doesn’t damage your hair at all, but it’s much easier on follicles than bleach and I recommend it to anyone wanting to free themselves from a permanent color.  Anyone patient enough to walk around with brassy/orange hair for a couple of weeks, that is. Click the jump to learn the method!

  1. Buy Colorfix. It’s also available here – everyone else charges way too much. I suggest getting two boxes.
  2. Open box, throw away Processing Lotion. This is very important. Let me explain: basically, Colorfix works by shrinking the dye molecules in your hair. Once you use it, the dye is still there, you just can’t see very much of it. The application of anything involving peroxide while the dye molecules are still there will bring your old color back, like some kind of crayzeh Voo Doo. That’s right, and believe me, I went through this a few times myself, so you don’t have to. You must get rid of the evil dye molecules before you can do anything else, and you must do so qquickly because your hair will darken otherwise. The Processing Lotion actually contains peroxide and will bring your old color back. I don’t know why they include it and, frankly, I don’t care. Just toss the bottle and forget about its unfounded existence.
  3. Colorfix. Let the the power of science do its thang. Once Colorfix is on you can cover your hair with a shower cap, or wrap sections of it with tin foil and use a blow dyer to apply heat. This will open up the hair shaft to let dye out, but will also cause further damage. Your choice!
  4. After the ‘Fix. Your hair will be brassy and not exactly healthy, but far less so than it would have been after bleaching. Spend the next two weeks shampooing vigorously. Use volumising shampoo to further open up the hair shaft and get the dye molecules out.
  5. In two weeks. Conduct a strand test. Use a small amount of either bleach or dye you’re planning on using and let it develop for 45 minutes. If your hair returns to it’s old color, it isn’t time yet. Keep shampooing! Depending on the color you wish you achieve, you may or may not need to bleach. For example, if you’re going a brown or a dark red you won’t need to bleach because it will go over the brassy post-colorfix shade just fine. If you intend to go blond, blue or any light, bright, unnatural color you’ll require bleach.
  6. Strand test a success! If your strand test is successful, proceed with bleach and/or color. After you’re all done your hair will not be happy after what you’ve put it through, so condition, condition, condition! Use a protein reconstructor and Jojoba oil masks, but only AFTER you’ve got your final color on. Doing it beforehand will keep you from getting your hair as light as you may need it to be.

A final note about Colorfix: it’s made to remove permanent color. If you’re trying to get rid of semi permanent/vegetable dyes, you’ll have to wash even more after the ‘Fix. Good luck!