Vitamin C Hair Color Remover

This worked perfectly. My hair, which grabs color, had grown way too dark after many color refreshes when doing my roots. I’ve used Color Oops in the past to strip color, but I didn’t want to strip it, I just wanted to lighten it. I didn’t wash it for about 6 days before hand, so it would have lots of natural oil to protect it. I used a vitamin C powder from a health food store (vitamin aisle, very inexpensive) about 2 tablespoons, a couple of blobs of Suave clarifying shampoo. I applied it to damp hair, wrapped it up in a shower cap and towel for 35 minutes and rinsed with hot water.My hair, which is very fine and delicate (like baby hair), didn’t feel particularly dry or over processed, but I did read that the v-c helps to open the cuticle, so I used an after color conditioner when I was done. My hair, which is naturally red/brownish (I color it that color too, because reds start to fade as we get older), looks great. Kept the red and the brown, just lifted it about a shade and a half. I was worried that I’d lose the red, but it looks fabulous. No damage, no smell, just nice red/light brownish hair! Woo hoo!

WOW is all I can say. My hair is dark brown and I had golden highlights. I was tired of the highlights so I decided to cover over them. I just wanted a nice medium/dark brown, but what I got was a blackish-brown. I hated it!! I didn't know what to do. I wanted to try a natural remedy before turning to a chemical color remover. I searched all over the Internet and found so many people who were happy with the vitamin c application. I thought, what the heck, I'll just give it a try. I ground up a whole bunch of pills - no clue how much- and mixed it with Head and Shoulders 2 in 1 shampoo to make a paste. I smothered it all over my hair and then put a shower cap over it. I then wrapped a towel around my head. I let it sit for about two hours and then rinsed it out. I followed with a conditioner. I can't believe it - my hair looks AMAZING! Truly a miracle. My hair lightened a few shades and now I have these beautiful warm, slightly reddish brown highlights that are gorgeous. Plus my hair feels really good, not dry at all. In fact it looks super shiny and bouncy. I think the acidity removed a lot of heavy buildup. It really does work!!! I am SO HAPPY!!!!

I've tried this method multiple times to no avail.

Nope. Did not work on the manic panic in my daughter's hair.

Two days ago I tried this Vitamin C hair color remover, and OH my gosh I'm so so glad that I did. I've always messed around with my hair and never really known which color I like, until I change it and I immediately regret the results. I've been using the Nordic blonde boxed dye to do my hair for the past two years. It works a treat, and I don't THINK it's as bad as using bleach powder. But before the two years of Nordic I DID use a bleach powder and developer, at least 4 times over the course of probably only two months, and two of those times were in the same night... anyway, before then, my hair was naturally brunette that I'd been dying black for probably two years (yet it was still super healthy) So you can see why I went for the harshest of harsh straight up. I decided that I really like blonde hair on myself and I think most other people would totally agree. So of course the other night as I was watching Netflix and admiring a woman's features etc on the TV show I was binging, I decided it totally just HAD to be her hair and I totally just HAD to do the same to mine. As per usual I immediately was disappointed with what I'd done and just sadly left it for a week thinking "oh well, I guess this IS way more close to my natural color, and now that I've gone too dark, if I bleach it again it will just undo all of this progress of finally getting my hair back into shape". That's when I started scouring online looking for a natural way to lighten your hair without damage and I found the VItamin C color remover trick. I crushed up only 9 effervescent vitamin C tablets, and mixed it with some Head and Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo. I applied it to semi wet/towel dried hair and wrapped a plastic bag over my head and left it for just about 2 hours. After I rinsed it off, I shampooed with the Head and Shoulders once more, then used about 4 different conditioners and left them on for about 3 minutes each one. When I got out of the shower I noticed a HUGE difference already. My hair lightened probably 3 shades, to a much nicer brunette. But I am trying to get back to my blonde, so I was wondering if anyone knows from experience whether or not you can do this vitamin C treatment more than once in a week without it hurting your hair? I'm just so anxious to get back to the color that suits me most. PS before this I tried Bi-Carb Soda and lemon juice mixed with shampoo and it totally did nothing.

I've done this an obscene amount of times over the years. I used to be a hairdresser and this was where my hair dying addiction began unfortunately. Years ago we had to bleach colour out and then came colour removers by goldwell etc which you can get similar ones on the high street now like colour b4 etc. Anyway, I use dark colours mostly and in between this I use vivid reds, purples you know the score. So the trick to this is lots of vitamin c tablets and length of time. I use about 40 crushed tablets and any shampoo and put it on dry hair and use a tinting bowl and brush to apply it, making sure all my hair is fully covered. I've even used this to ombre my hair. Leave it on for one to two hours and cover it with a cap/cling film or whatever you have lying round. I've actually got a second lot on my hair as im typing this now. Gone from black to brown with it last week and this time I imagine it will be a lighter brown. I wash it out with a moisturising shampoo then put henna treatment wax conditioner on it for 30 mins and then a normal conditioner after that and then rinse. Hair is always in lovely condition but slightly drier for a couple of weeks. I've heared people say it hasnt worked for them which always surprises me because i've even gone blonde by doing this once a week for a few weeks. I cant think of anything other than using too little vitamin c and not saturating the hair as to why it wouldnt work. All hair is different.

I used this and it worked nicely. I colored my hair with Ion Color Brilliance Intense Medium Brown from Sally Beauty. I had been having it done in a salon but recently had some financial setbacks so decided to keep getting it cut by a pro but try to do the color myself. It was a beautiful color but just too dark on a 55 year old woman. A week after coloring (and shampooing each day to speed the fading along) I tried this little trick. I crushed 30 500 mg Vitamin C tablets into a fine powder and mixed it with about 1/2 cup of Suave Clarifying shampoo. I shampooed my hair once with clarifying shampoo in hot, hot water, towel dried it and put the mixture on, roots to ends, then covered it with a shower cap for about an hour. I rinsed it all out, shampooed again with clarifying shampoo, then put Loreal Damage Eraser deep conditioner on and let it sit on my head for an hour. I rinsed that out, towel dried it, added Not Your Mother's Leave In spray conditioner, then blow dried it. It is still darker than I like, but it is definitely softer and I see hints of gold and copper which "take the edge off it". I will probably do this once a week for a few weeks, and maybe add a hot oil treatment. Overall, this worked well, and my hair is a lot less damaged than it would be if I did a bleach or color remover.

The bomb! I've used on crazy semi colors and permanent natural hued shades alike. It ALWAYS at least lightens and sometimes removes. I take a handful of 500mg plain cheap C tabs and crush them in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. Hey it works. Then I mix with dandruff and clarifying shampoos,in a bowl with a brush, to form a paste - put on hair I dampened w hot water, massage in really well, and let sit up to an hour but usually less in a cap and beanie or turban. I don't even try too too hard to crush there are always chunks. My hair usually feels squeaky clean afterwards but shiny; common sense tells me to use a nice conditioner after. Most recently I used downtown brown by feria and it looked awful dark, so I did this knowing it lightened underneath and sure enough, light brown hair!

This worked so well it's like a magic trick... I have been growing out a reddish blonde hair color for several months, and was getting dark roots. (My natural hair color is dark blonde.) So I went to the salon, where my stylist said she would give me low lights to blend in the growing out part and an all-over warm tone. Instead I ended up with a deep mahogany, much too dark for my coloring.

I hit the internet to see what I could do without going back to the salon/spending a lot of money, or damaging my hair, and came across the Vitamin C cure. There are many variations, but here's what I did:

Crushed 20 Vitamin C tablets (1000 mg) in a plastic bag with a rolling pin. The bag developed a couple of small holes, so I slipped a sheet of foil underneath to catch all the powder. I put the powder in a hair coloring mixing bowl.
Squirted in a bunch of Head & Shoulders original formula shampoo.
Mixed it all up and glopped it onto my head, covering all of my hair thoroughly. (I wet my hair in the sink and towel dried it a bit before applying goop.)
Put on a shower cap and wrapped my head in a towel and waited 60 minutes.
Rinsed it out thoroughly in the shower, washed with a clarifying shampoo, then deep conditioned (Ion Clarifying shampoo and Ion Repair Solutions conditioner).

And incredibly, my hair was about three shades lighter and a perfect coppery blonde. Soft and fragrant too. Some people have said they did not have any luck with this treatment, but if that is the case, I think they didn't use enough Vitamin C or let it sit long enough. Worked like a charm for me!

So...this works. I should specify...it works on semi/demi permanent color. I've been coloring or bleaching or highlighting my hair for so long I got curious about what the natural color actually is. I had been dying it black at home with various high end salon brand demi-permanent color for about two years now. A male friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a while said "ooh I like the black hair. It looks really slutty". Which I took as a compliment, obviously. That was months ago. But about a week ago I was at a Sunday brunch with a few women who had dyed black hair and I thought...you know what? That doesn't look great. They looked great but the hair not so much. Ok one of them looked terrible. So terrible in fact that I am now back to my natural color. After applying a mix of basic shampoo and powdered C to dry hair; ends for an hour, roots for an additional half hour. So 90 minutes total, the color was visibly lifted. It definitely left my hair a bit dryer, or "courser" but conditioner smoothed it out nicely and actually the c treatment gave my fine strands some decent body.

Turns out my hair is dark brown. But probably not for long.

UPDATE- I have since found a product that works well to remove semi/demi perm colorants. It's by Satin and is a two part mixture that smells not great but does the job thoroughly and quickly (they say 20 minutes but it's not damaging so longer is ok).