I started coloring my hair a decade ago. At the time, I spent many long hours at the back of lecture halls, bored enough to study the heads of the people in front of me. It was kind of a revelation — at least half the women in class had “probably dyed” hair, and overall the dyed stuff looked so much brighter and more interesting than natural hair.
I usually stay within one shade of my natural color, so I’ve made it surprisingly far without any crazy results. Until now. I bought the dye online, didn’t pay enough attention to the box, and voila — dark burgundy hair:
The photo isn’t terrible, but believe me — it was worse in person. Time to research dye removers. The standard option seems to be Color Oops, but I worried about chemical-frying my hair still further. Eventually, I came across an article suggesting Vitamin C as a natural dye remover. I was a bit skeptical that Vitamin C could work, but it’s cheap and sounded gentle, so it seemed harmless for a first attempt.
To use Vitamin C as a hair dye remover, first buy the cheapest Vitamin C you can find (mine was $2.99 for 100 store-brand tablets). Drop some tablets into a plastic sandwich bag (I used roughly 30) and crush them with a hammer. Mix the powder with your regular shampoo, apply to slightly damp hair, cover the mess with a shower cap, and wait 30+ minutes.
It worked! My hair is now 2 shades lighter:
Somehow it seems to have lightened the dye as opposed to “removing” it. (Which is actually a good thing — it didn’t take me back to my visible roots.) I’m not sure the trick would work for too-light bleached hair, and it seems to have left most of the red in place. But too-dark dye is easily removed with this handy trick…. Heaven forbid anyone ends up with a similar disaster, but if you do I highly recommend Vitamin C!
