Hair Color and Dish Soap
She told me to try using Palmolive dish soap to lighten it up. Does this actually work or do you have any advice? I would even be willing to use a box color to lighten it if it wouldn't turn my hair orange.
A: Your hairdresser’s idea is based on real science, but dish soap is not a predictable or gentle way to remove unwanted hair color.
However, dish soap is formulated to strip grease off cookware, not correct hair color. Furthermore, every brand uses a different formula. It should never be used as a substitute for a clarifying shampoo or a professional color-removal product.
Impact of Dye Type
How effective this will be also depends greatly on what type of color your hairdresser used. If the chestnut brown is a temporary or semi-permanent color, repeated washing with a regular or clarifying shampoo may help it fade. If a demi-permanent or permanent color was used, however, washing it is much less likely to remove enough of the artificial pigment to get you back to your original color.I strongly advise against using a lighter box color over the brown in an attempt to make it lighter. Standard hair dye cannot lighten previously deposited artificial color. Applying a lighter color over a darker artificial color can leave you with an unpredictable result and will not brighten the color.
If the brown was applied over hair that had previously been lightened, removing the artificial color may also reveal some of the underlying warm pigment. This warmth is why hair turns orange. Removing the brown does not necessarily return highlighted hair to the exact shade it had prior to the brown application.
Recommended Solutions
The best approach is to find out exactly what type of color was used and, ideally, have a hairdresser do a strand test. A color-removal product designed for that specific type of dye is a much better option than dish soap. If the hair needs additional lightening afterward, that can be assessed based on how the hair looks once the artificial pigment has been removed.If you do decide to try washing out some of the color at home, use a clarifying shampoo rather than dish soap, and avoid repeatedly washing the hair in an attempt to force the color out. Follow up with a good conditioner or moisturizing treatment, since aggressive cleansing can leave colored or highlighted hair feeling dry and rough.
©Hairfinder.com
See also:
Hair color fixes
Stripping hair color
Shampoo, conditioner and hair color fading