i've been pondering starting one of these for a while, and figured that as i am off work poorly, today is as good a time as any.
especially given that i recently used Scott Cornwall's colour b4, and am of the opinion that a review is always useful.
i've been dying my hair since i was seventeen, usually red. for the past 2-ish years, i have used Live Colour XXL in Real Red. yowza. i recolour when my roots start to annoy me but i have never once in my life just touched up the roots - i always redye the whole shebang, and i also use colour-protecting shampoo/conditioner. as i'm continually putting red over red it has been getting darker and less vibrant and i decided i fancied a change.
i read a bunch of reviews of scott cornwall's colour b4, and hesitantly bought two packs of the extra strength version. which have sat in my bathroom for about three months while i dithered. i use ghds on a semi regular basis and have been known on several occasions to use them on not-quite-dry hair, because evidently i can't get enough of the sizzling sound of my hair frying. and my only concession to the colour removal 'plan' was to stop using my colour protect shampoo. so basically i have ticked all the boxes for everything you should do if you want colour b4 to NOT work. go me.
however the other night i decided to man up and go for it. here's what happened!
application:
was relatively painless. now from all the reviews i have read, my biggest concern was what it would smell like, as my bathroom has no ventilation and i have a bad chest at the best of times. while there was definitely a sulphuric quality to it, during application it was nowhere close to as bad as i had been worried about. HOWEVER, the smell lingered and seemed to get worse and worse and genuinely quite suffocating, until last night my fiancé realised i had accidentally left the shirt i wore while applying in the bathroom. once we chucked that in the wash the smell dissipated quite quickly. phew.
similar to a hair dye, you pour bottle a into applicator b, and then apply to your hair. as i must have had a LOT of colour buildup i focused initially on the ends of my hair. i have quite long, thick hair, and i find it easiest to squeeze the product into the palm of my hand and apply with my fingertips, using a wide-toothed comb to comb it through. i worked my way up slowly to the roots, and then focused on the ends again for good measure. i then piled my hair on top of my head, rubbed in the last few drops from the bottle, and wrapped my head in clingfilm. sadly i didn't get any pictures at this stage, but it was genuinely sexy.
processing & removal:
i blasted my hair for a few minutes with my hairdryer on low-blow, high-heat, then wrapped a towel on my head and sat down to do a bit of sewing.
the instructions recommend leaving it to process for 20 mins - 1 hr, but i am rebellious and actually left it on for an hour and a half, after which point i jumped in the shower for 10mins of rinsing under warm water. once you have rinsed for 10 mins, you have to apply bottle c - buffer, which is like a conditioner. you lather it up, leave for one minute, then indulge in another 5-10 mins of rinsing. phew.
as i was rinsing i did notice that my hair was noticeably different, and the strands that came out had a blondeish cast to them - exciting!
as i am tying to grow my hair and thus look after it as much as possible, i didn't hop out of the shower straight away, first i dolloped on some tresemme split remedy conditioning masque and left it in for 4 minutes to try and give my hair some tlc.
results:
the packet advises you not to judge until your hair is fully dry, but even before i towel dried i was judging the results pretty positively. given that my hair was repeatedly coloured with what is supposedly the most difficult colour to remove i was really impressed with the results:
before (apologies for the dark images, i only seem to do my hair in the evenings!):
these were both taken in recent weeks. due to the lack of lighting and the fact i was using my phone camera, i have lightened them a touch in photoshop. however you can see that my hair is really red!
and now these were taken on wednesday morning after using colour b4 on Monday evening (my hair hasn't since been washed as i've been poorly, yuk):
good, right? it's a little bit pinkish on the ends still, no doubt due to the colour buildup, but i am very impressed!
summary:
i am really impressed with how this turned out. given that i ticked all the boxes for it to not work, it was very effective. i would say you have to remember that you hair will have been altered by whatever dye you have used in the past. obviously the peroxide in my previous hair colour has gingered up my natural medium brown something rotten, but i was prepared for that so i'm pleased with the results.
i think it's also worth mentioning that i woke up the morning after using it with the worst cough/headache i've had in a billion years and the lingering scent of the chemicals in the bathroom made me feel far worse. i haven't read anything anywhere about anyone else being similarly affected, so it may well be coincidental timing but i think if nothing else the psychological association would make me quite wary about using it again. :(
i believe there's now a much kinder, gentler version on the market (scott cornwall decolour remover) which i think i will try next time i need to, as my sister has used it with good results.
my original plan was to simply remove the buildup and re-dye my usual red to get increased vibrancy, but now i've changed my mind several times so the jury's out on what i'm gonna do. i thought i had settled on recolouring using l'oreal feria mango intense copper, but now i can see what ginger looks like on me i am not 100% positive i like it against my skintone. so now i am thinking i might use the scott cornwall cool ash colour restore to remove the brassiness and see if i can get a cool dark blonde going on. i'll keep you updated!
thanks for sticking around so long, and i hope you found this post useful. :)
