Box coloured hair & stripping to reveal the grey

[Baggybear]

Hi, I'm not a hair person so have posted my question in consumer section.

Have been using box colour to cover my grey hair for ages (the box colour I use is close to my natural colour & I only applied to the regrowth area - as I was trying to hide the grey growth), now I'm fed up of colouring my hair so I'm thinking I want to just go totally natural again & let the grey show :Scared:.

I need a haircut and will be going to the local college for this soon.

What I want to know is, if the college applied a colour stripper to my hair would my natural brown hair stay brown & the grey go grey again (how would my hair look after a professional stripper is applied)?

May seem silly but I don't understand the colour strippers & don't want to ruin my hair so would prefer to know what state hair I might end up with before considering having one used on me by a college student (if they even offer this service).

The only other option I've been considering is having multi-tonal cap highlights put through my whole head and then allow the grey to grow and take over from the highlights (hope that all makes sense :Love but I want to keep my hair in the best possible condition - another reason to stop colouring it.

 

[JoJo1980]

A colour stripper won't just strip artificial pigment from your hair leaving the natural in, it will strip any pigment from your hair. It's basically like a bleach bath. If you're looking to go back to natural, I would get the college to colour it as close to your natural as possible, perhaps adding a few fine foils where you have more grey, so it blends as it grows out. Don't colour it now until the correction is done professionally, as this will make it easier fir the college to see what your natural colour is and what percentage of grey you have.
Xxx

 

[babychops]

Not all colour strippers remove all pigment from the hair, some only remove artificial colour. I would definitely get this done by a professional, they will be able to give you a consultation and determine the best solution for you x

 

[Baggybear]

A colour stripper won't just strip artificial pigment from your hair leaving the natural in, it will strip any pigment from your hair. It's basically like a bleach bath. If you're looking to go back to natural, I would get the college to colour it as close to your natural as possible, perhaps adding a few fine foils where you have more grey, so it blends as it grows out. Don't colour it now until the correction is done professionally, as this will make it easier fir the college to see what your natural colour is and what percentage of grey you have.
Xxx

Thank you for the information about colour strippers, I don't want to strip all the colour out of my hair so I won't go with a stripper.
Looks like I will be going with some highlights. I chose the box colour I have been using because it is so close to my natural colour & there is no obvious difference in my natural colour & the box colour. I now have 6/7 weeks of growth & it's just that the grey stands out at the roots & I want to have something blend that grey in to the lengths and not look so much like it's just regrowth.
I don't plan to use anymore colour on my hair - so the college won't be colouring it just doing something to blend in the new grey growth I have - that's where I think the highlights will have to do.
I also don't like the look of foiled highlights so am probably going to be a bit of a nightmare client as I want the highlights done with a cap (I know my poor head wil kill having it done BUT I think it will give me the closest thing to what I will get when I am totally natural again.)

 

[Nearlyme]

Thank you for the information about colour strippers, I don't want to strip all the colour out of my hair so I won't go with a stripper.
Looks like I will be going with some highlights. I chose the box colour I have been using because it is so close to my natural colour & there is no obvious difference in my natural colour & the box colour. I now have 6/7 weeks of growth & it's just that the grey stands out at the roots & I want to have something blend that grey in to the lengths and not look so much like it's just regrowth.
I don't plan to use anymore colour on my hair - so the college won't be colouring it just doing something to blend in the new grey growth I have - that's where I think the highlights will have to do.
I also don't like the look of foiled highlights so am probably going to be a bit of a nightmare client as I want the highlights done with a cap (I know my poor head wil kill having it done BUT I think it will give me the closest thing to what I will get when I am totally natural again.)

You coulg have some of your dark woven through at the regrowth to break up the solid regrowth line

Sent from my GT-I9505 using SalonGeek mobile app

 

[Nad1a]

Stripped will only remove artificial colour from hair, not natural pigment as previous post states.

Bleach bathing is a different think and will remove both natural & artificial pigments.

Don't worry, a professional is not going to do anything that will make you look silly. Just clarify with them at your appointment exactly what you do and do not want and it should be fine.

 

[magentahair]

Stripped will only remove artificial colour from hair, not natural pigment as previous post states.

Bleach bathing is a different think and will remove both natural & artificial pigments.

Don't worry, a professional is not going to do anything that will make you look silly. Just clarify with them at your appointment exactly what you do and do not want and it should be fine.

So your saying a stripper will reveal your natural colour?

 

[Baggybear]

Stripped will only remove artificial colour from hair, not natural pigment as previous post states.

Bleach bathing is a different think and will remove both natural & artificial pigments.

Don't worry, a professional is not going to do anything that will make you look silly. Just clarify with them at your appointment exactly what you do and do not want and it should be fine.

I am going to the local college to get my hair done so will be getting my hair done using professional products but the student that I see may not be able to offer me as much advice about how to go about acheiving the look I want, a more experience hairdresser is going to be able to offer choice - this is what this post is, me asking for advice on how to get the look I want. I'm asking for advice so that I can make an informed decission about what I want to ask for when I see the student - no good asking them to do something that can't be done.

It seems there are differing opinions on colour stripers so I will just aviod them. I've decided to go with highlights as they should help to blend the grey I already have and help to blend everything together as I continue to grow my hair out to all natural.

 

[AcidPerm]

So your saying a stripper will reveal your natural colour?

Yes, a decent colour remover such as Affinage Eraser works by removing the artificial pigment and doesn't touch the natural colour pigments.

However, as the original permanent hair colour contains peroxide in the mix, this lifts the natural colour slightly anyway (even when going darker) so that's why when you use a colour remover, your hair will be slightly lighter (perhaps up to one level) than your natural colour. You also need to use a peroxide based tint afterwards to 'fix' the colour and stop any remaining darker molecules re-oxidising. If you don't do this, clients often find their hair going darker a couple of washes later.

Also, I prefer to talk about colour remover to clients and only talk about stripping hair if using a bleach based product. But that's probably just my pedantry kicking in.
;-)

Baggybear, do ask what products the college will use beforehand as my old college used to talk about colour removers but used L'Oreal Effasor which is a bleach based remover (and pretty crap to be honest). I think your idea about gradually highlighting over time until the grey takes over sounds good.

 

[Nad1a]

So your saying a stripper will reveal your natural colour?

Colour strippers are a reducing agent. They go in and break up the artificial colour so it can come out however it will not look like it did before, it can be patchy. Generally you will still need to colour over the hair once its been stripped as it will not look nice and even. We don't use strippers at college, we use bleach baths as wella don't do a stripper x

 

[JoJo1980]

The op asked if a colour stripper will remove all artificial pigment to reveal only natural colour, including grey. Show me the results of this and I'll happily eat humble pie, but after using every type of stripper (matrix, effasor, effinage) I have always found it lift natural hair, even when used with just water.
Perhaps all the salons I've worked in have had peroxide on tap.....
Honestly, I wouldn't faff around with them, I'd go with the suggestion of fine foils to match your natural colour.
X

 

[JoJo1980]

Colour strippers are a reducing agent. They go in and break up the artificial colour so it can come out however it will not look like it did before, it can be patchy. Generally you will still need to colour over the hair once its been stripped as it will not look nice and even. We don't use strippers at college, we use bleach baths as wella don't do a stripper x

It won't look nice and even as it will lift natural hair too, and won't reduce all artificial colour molecules evenly.

 

[Nad1a]

The op asked if a colour stripper will remove all artificial pigment to reveal only natural colour, including grey. Show me the results of this and I'll happily eat humble pie, but after using every type of stripper (matrix, effasor, effinage) I have always found it lift natural hair, even when used with just water.
Perhaps all the salons I've worked in have had peroxide on tap.....
Honestly, I wouldn't faff around with them, I'd go with the suggestion of fine foils to match your natural colour.
X

I didn't say it would remove ALL artificial colour.
OP asked how it would look after a stripper and i said it would look uneven and patchy (in the areas where more/less artificial colour has been removed)
I didn't say it would look nice and even lol hence why she would still need to recolour it after stripping it.

 

[Nad1a]

The op asked if a colour stripper will remove all artificial pigment to reveal only natural colour, including grey. Show me the results of this and I'll happily eat humble pie, but after using every type of stripper (matrix, effasor, effinage) I have always found it lift natural hair, even when used with just water.
Perhaps all the salons I've worked in have had peroxide on tap.....
Honestly, I wouldn't faff around with them, I'd go with the suggestion of fine foils to match your natural colour.
X

This is just what I have been taught as I said we use bleach baths at college not strippers so I guess you would know more than me in that area.