How to go from dark brown to blonde! ColourB4 review + new hair

By now i've realised how many posts i've dedicated to my hair, it's getting out of hand!
Unfortunately i'm one of those people who just can't leave their hair alone :(

I did say i was only going to be brunette for winter, and as soon as it hit january, i decided it wasn't winter anymore (even though it clearly is).

So without further do, here is how i achieved it without killing my hair!

ColourB4 extra strength:

This is a product i've used before, and i swear by it whenever i'm trying to remove dark hair. It really is the best way to do it without destroying your hair with bleach!

I bought mine from boots, for £11.99 (available here)

I bought the extra strength as my hair was quite a dark brown, and had been dyed a few times since i went dark as well.

The product works as a colour stripper, it reduces all the artificial pigment using the mixture you're given, and then you wash or 'buff' it out for about 15 minutes in the shower! It really is brilliant.
I wouldn't say it doesn't damage your hair at all, but its no where near as damaging as bleach.

The mixture absolutely STINKS.  It smells like rotten eggs, but thats down to the chemicals that are used to strip your hair, so there isn't actually much you can do about that, but it works great!

I would definitely recommending sticking EXACTLY to the instructions in the leaflet, the product will not work properly if you do not follow the instructions properly.

Anyway, here's what my hair looked like just before i used colourb4:

During:

(before i washed out the colour b4)


After:

As you can see, it worked excellently at removing my previous colour! I was so happy with the result! However, i still wanted to go blonder, so i used the same highlighting kit (Jerome Russell Bblonde) i used in a previous blog post (found here: DIY highlights at home)

I've also been using this shampoo recently too, to rid me of any brassiness:

Touch of Silver: Twice a week brightening shampoo.
This shampoo has been a life saver with freshening my blonde and keeping it from going that awful butter yellow blonde. I'd definitely recommend it!

available from super drug and savers

and here is the result!

the lighting is very yellow here, but my hair is ash blonde :)

Have you tried colour b4?

How to go from light brown to blonde: Garnier Color Naturals 110 review!

Let me give you a little background into my hair, it was originally a highlighted blonde pictured here: (my face was blurry so i blacked it out, sorry!)

And as usual, i got bored and dyed over it.  This time i decided to dye it a copper brown with ombre blonde tips.  I don't know why i always try and go darker, because i end up missing the blonde and having to go lighter again!

This was the colour of my hair when it was ombre. luckily for me the colour didn't last long thanks to the swedish sun + dandruff shampoo

And it faded to this:

I thought i was going to have to make a trip to the hairdressers and have gradual highlights done again (the slowest, most irritating way to go light without any ginger mishaps), and as i am in Dubai at the moment, i really struggled to find any hair bleach in any of the stores to do it myself. But then i stumbled across this in the super market:  Its called Garnier Color Naturals in 110 Sandy Light Blonde. 

Now usually i would avoid blonde box dyes like the plague as they are usually a recipe for a ginger disaster and an expensive trip to the hair dressers, but something drew me in. It states on the box that it will lighten hair 3 to 4 tones lighter, which for me was perfect as i wasn't planning on going too light. This is what is known as an 'extra lightening shade' which can also be found in brands such as l'oreal feria metallic silver blonde

The key is to look for the words 'extra' or 'ultra' lightening. This means that the dye alone will lift your hair colour without needing to bleach (depending on your starting colour). I know clairol do some excellent ones as well! However, this garnier was all i could get my hands on.

 I originally planned just to add highlights using a foil technic but ended up just applying it to my whole head as i lacked patience!  my natural root colour is a light ash brown (the mousy brown kind) so i was a little worried that my roots might end up turning orange! I watched the dye carefully for 30 minutes and then rinsed with the conditioner provided in the box.

And here is the result:

A light sandy blonde with remaining highlights!  it looks natural, and i managed to avoid the clown orange tones somehow!