How To Wash Out Blue or Green Hair Dye In One Wash- AKA HairDye Kryptonite
/I blogged a few days ago about our DanTDM Hair Fail using L'Oreal Colorista Vivids Turquoise Washout over dark brown hair. My son loved the result, but in sunlight there was a weird green tinge, so we agreed to try to reset to his natural hair and wait until the summer when he can lighten his hair before colouring it.
Now L'Oreal Colorista do a Fader Shampoo, which should help wash out the dye quicker than using regular shampoo and waiting the 7-15 washes stated on the box. As Smix only washes his hair twice a week, and with school starting back in a week and a half, I had considered buying the Fader shampoo to do the job. However looking at reviews online people were saying it didn't do much more than a regular shampoo.
So with a little online research, my own experience with hair dye gone wrong, and a check in with the hair master, Clare from Vintage Rocks, I put together a concoction that in ONE WASH removed all blue and green tinges from his hair. This stuff is hairdye kryptonite, folks.
Before I used that we tried simply using Head and Shoulders last night, to see if that would pull out enough dye. Regular Head & Shoulders (we used Tesco own brand £1) is a nightmare for coloured hair, due to the chemicals used to prevent dandruff. So if you've just coloured your hair a beautiful plum, red or even turquoise, if you use an anti-dandruff shampoo you will lose a huge amount of colour with each wash. If you are trying to maintain a colour, especially a semi-permanent, never ever use Head & Shoulders. The best shampoo for keeping colour strong is Baby Shampoo, so says Clare from Vintage Rocks and she is the expert! So we tried just a shower with using Head & Shoulders in place of his regular shampoo and a lot of blue did come out. In fact last night we thought we had got the colour out, but this morning in daylight the green tinge remained.
The concoction had to go ahead. Here is the recipe for maximum colour washout.
- In a bowl put enough Head & Shoulders to cover the whole hair like a conditioning hair mask would.
- Add a 50p piece squirt of washing up liquid (dish soap)
- Add a heaped tablespoon of baking soda (make sure it's definitely baking SODA not powder, we aren't making a cake here)
- Gently mix together into a thick hair mask, then put all over the hair, scrubbing a little to bubble it slightly.
- Leave on for fifteen minutes
- Wash out in the shower using Head and Shoulders shampoo. The bubbles and water should now run clear, not blue.
- Condition.
We then dried and styled his hair as normal. There is still a tiny amount of colour- you can tell it's been messed with, but there's no horrid green tinge to it.
If that doesn't work for you, you can always try adding crushed vitamin C to the mix. I could have done that if I hadn't not thought things through and bought my vitamin C in the form of those effervescent tablets you dissolve in water and drink. I realised my folly when I put the crushed up Vitamin C in the Head & Shoulders and it started to foam madly! But thankfully my recipe worked without the vitamin C part.
So we are back to his normal hair, and all this this week has made me decide I'm going to just go to Clare and let her professionally do his hair in the summer. We will share those results with you too- DanTDM hair Part Three!
P.S. If your kid wants Dan TDM blue hair there is a wash out spray also from L'Oreal Colorista that worked really well- read about our experience with that here.
