Removing Color

I have a small salon in my home, I have a client coming that needs old color removed and fresh applied.  Its a dark brown, and down to the middle of her back.  I don't have time to go out and get or order a product to remove old color.  It has been quite awhile since I have had to remove color, any home remedy suggestions or salon products that would work.  I am really greatful to anyone that has suggestions.  I have ideas of what to do, but would like imput.  Thanks

karen s wrote: Hi, You could try a bleach shampoo. Basically its bleach mix with 6% (20 vol) peroxide, and about 15ml of shampoo plus and 30 ml of water, mix together in a tint bowl apply to wet hair and emulsify through the hair, until you see the colour lifting from the hair . When you get the desired result, rinse, blow dry the hair and apply the desired colour.   I hope this helps.Karen

A bleach soap cap will only lift 1 to 1.5 levels. Maybe 2 if you really really scrub. If the client wants to go lighter than this you'll need a colour remover.

We must have better color removers here because a bleach cap is not going to lift very much like Alley said. Besides, bleach will lift her natural underlying pigment faster than the artificial pigment. Try Color Oops from the drugstore. Tips include: keep the room warm, rinse for a full ten minutes, apply again if needed. You can add some developer to the hair to test if the dye molecules are completely removed. If not, the hair will darken with the developer. If you prefer salon products, go get Satin Hair Color Remover from the Beauty Supply store. It's basically the same thing though. Use golden tones lighter than you want to achieve. The color remover will leave hair more porous and hair will tend to grab ashier than normal. There's a lot of posts here on color removal, my favorite topic. You might want to try a search to get more info.

Hi Karen,
Perhaps we do have better color removers here in the US. The type I am referring to is a dye solvent color remover. Perhaps you have tried other kinds like the persulfate based ones. I am going to repost this informative article I found on Askmags.com, a cosmetology education website:

"COLOR REMOVERS & BLEACH SOAP CAPS by JBUZZ

For moderate stain removal
3oz. BLONDE DIMENSION
3oz. 20vol.
2oz. Warm wzter
1oz. shampoo

Slight stain removal
3oz. BLONDE DIMENSION
6oz. Warm Water

Did a client’s color turn out too dark? Or perhaps they just want to change the tone without changing the level?
 Do you reach for the bleach or use a powder color remover like Matrix Color Erase?
What about semi-permanent and temporary colors?
There are several different types of color removal products available to the professional colorist, and it’s not always easy to know which one to choose or even how they all differ – manufacturer’s are notoriously bad at providing really useful information on their products.
So, to help you overcome any problems with color removal, I’ve decided to offer this quick little guide to the three types of color removal products.
1-Dye Solvents
2-Persulfate-based bleachs 
3-Sulfonated Castor Oil
A 2-Part Dye-Solvent like the  Roverhair ReMake, Rusk Elimin8, Salon Concepts Color Remover (sold at Sally's) or Schwarzkopf Modulant  is made up of a reducing agent (typically a sulfur-based material) and an acid (usually Citric Acid).
When combined and applied to the hair, they physically reduce the artificial pigments, causing them to separate, become smaller and return to their colorless intermediate state, where they can then be rinsed from the hair. A dye-solvent does this without lightening the natural pigment in the hair or damaging it in any way. After you feel you've removed enough color, usually around 20 minutes, and have rinsed very well (rinse like it's a Sodium Hydroxide relaxer - rinse 5 minutes - when you think you've rinsed enough, rinse some more), you then pour 10 Volume peroxide through the hair and wait 10-20 minutes - if any of the artificial pigments are still in the hair, they will begin to re-develop and turn back into the original color - this means you either didn't rinse enough or more treatments are indicated.
Since dye-solvents are non-damaging, you can do more than one treatment in a single visit. Sometimes after a treatment, you'll notice that the natural base is uneven or that the color has been removed unevenly - if you application was correct, then it means that the original color application was done incorrectly - spot treatments are called for. Dye-Solvents are good to use when you are dealing with a very dark color removal, such as black - you can remove the maximum amount of black with the dye-solvent, then go in with bleach and lighten up to the level required. It is much easier on the hair than just applying bleach for hours. Or when you want to remove color but not really go much lighter on the re-color.
The drawbacks of dye-solvents are the time required and the possibility of re-darkening of the hair - if you don't get it all rinsed out, and don't do the peroxide test, the hair can slowly re-oxidize and re-darken to the original color over the next 24 hours - then you would have to start the treatments all over again. Still, dye-solvents are worth the trouble many times and have their place in every salon.
Dye-solvents can be used to remove any type of oxidative color, such as permanent and demi-permanent. Any color that uses an activator, developer or peroxide.

PersulfatesBleaches-Color removers such as Matrix Color Erase, L'Oreal Effasol, Wella Wellasol and Clairol Un-Color Permanent are simply Persulfate-based (Potassium/Ammonium Persulfate) color removers - i.e. no free-ammonia bleaches.
Usually, they have a slightly lower pH and are a bit more gentle than a straight oil or powder bleach. In addition to removing/bleaching the artificial pigment in the hair, if not watched carefully they will also lighten the natural pigment. They are a bit more flexible than Dye-solvents since they can be mixed with warm water or various volumes of peroxide to customize the amount of lift needed - there is absolutely no danger or worry of the color re-developing or darkening. The drawbacks are, they do damage the hair in the same way as a bleach, create hair weakening Cysteic Acid, and can leave the hair with excessive porosity.
On over-lightened, over-permed, relaxed or super-damaged hair, a Dye-solvent for color removal is more appropriate since it is non-damaging. In some cases, a persulfate-based color remover can be faster than a dye-solvent since you are removing the artifical pigment AND lightening the natural pigment at the same time.
Sulfonated Castor Oils-The final type of color remover is Clairol's Metalex - I believe it is the only product of its kind, at least I'm not aware of another. Metalex is based on Sulfonated Castor Oil and is used to remove Henna, Metallic Salts, Color Restorer's and any type of temporary/semi-permanent color that coats the hair, such as Cellophanes, Prizms, Jazzing, Loving Care, Manic Panic, etc... It will also remove product build-up like hairspray and gels. Besides removing these products, Metalex also reconditions hair damaged by over-tinting or lightening - if rinsed from the hair and not shampooed out, it stops breakage. It will also soften the curl of a new perm without relaxing it. Metalex won't affect permanent tints or toners, but if a permanent color goes a little bit too dark, Metalex can be applied to lift the shade slightly - but only when applied right after tinting. It causes absolutely no damage to the hair.
For lifting dark colors like Loving Care, Metalex is mixed with 20 Volume peroxide and 'cooked' under a warm dryer for 30 minutes. For lighter colors and coatings, Metalex without peroxide is used. You can also mix Metalex with shampoo to create a build-up removal shampoo. After rinsing Metalex from the hair, give a light shampoo. If there is breakage, just rinse the Metalex out without a shampoo. You can also use Metalex as a general reconditioning treatment or before a perm, bleach or color. The oils in it are very good at restoring shine and spring to over-bleached hair and gives it a healthy glow. For permanent colors that also contain Direct Dye's, use Metalex first to lift the direct dyes and recondition at the same time. Then you can use either bleach or a dye-solvent to remove the remaining oxidative pigment.
Metalex by Clairol is another one of those indespensable products that no salon should be without - it's an old product but a good one.
One other product that, technically is a color remover but not classified with the above, is good old powder bleach – most manufacturers give specific instructions on how to mix their powder bleach to create a color remover, but in most cases it’s a pump of shampoo with one or two scoops of powder bleach and an equal amount of 10 or 20 volume peroxide.
Powder bleaches can be mixed with warm or hot water too for more gentle removal, and are usually much cheaper than persulfate-based color removers, since you buy them by the bucket instead of by the packet. Another plus is you probably always have a powder bleach on hand!"

Hope this is helpful to people!

Oh too bad you didn't hear of any familiar ones that were listed as dye solvents. Keep looking. I'm sure they must have one or two at least! : )

Hi Rosie,

You should start a new post to get more responses. Color doesn't lift color so you will need to use a color remover like Color Oops if you are trying to go lighter. If you use a color remover, you should be able to recolor the same day. Make sure to rinse for a full ten minutes or your hair could go dark again. I would go with a medium golden brown if you are going for dark brown so it doesn't come out too dark and go with a semi or demi rather than a permanent color.