Thursday, March 29, 2012

Review: Vanish Color Remover



Vanish Color Correction

I'll be the first to admit, I change my hair color like some women change their handbag. It's a lot, probably every 2-3 months. Now I'm talking about actually changing the color, not doing root touch-ups. My hair has been more colors than I can count, and the only color I can honestly think of that it's never been is black. Most of the time if I'm going from dark to light I'd just bleach and start over. As you can imagine, this takes quite a toll on my hair, and it's certainly been healthier. So a couple months ago I ran across a product called Vanish Color Remover. It has literally changed my hair-coloring life!


Let me start by saying Vanish Color Remover is a pro-only product, meaning if you aren't a licensed hair dresser/stylist you can't go into a beauty supply and buy this. I found it on one of my favorite discount sites, Sleek Hair for $15.89. Honestly, I've paid more than that for bleach. 

Vanish Color Remover is a sulfur-based product. It works by essentially reversing the coloring process. It shrinks the dye molecule so that it can be shampooed out. It doesn't contain bleach, ammonia, developer, etc. It will not affect your natural color, only remove the artificial pigment. If you've gone light blonde, chances are you don't have any of your natural color left, but if you've gone darker, chances are you do. It took me 3 applications of Vanish to remove all the artificial pigment, over 2 days. However, if you have the patience, you can do up to 3 applications in one day. The absolute best part of using Vanish, it doesn't damage your hair at all!

The trick to getting Vanish to work properly is that you have to shampoo the crap out of your hair. I shampooed probably 5-7 times with each application. Upon rinsing the Vanish out of my hair, my hair still felt normal. After all the shampooing, you can imagine my hair was dryer than the Sahara. It felt like a brillo pad. After a couple deep treatments though, it was back to normal. Outside of the crazy amount of shampooing that Vanish requires, there's one other drawback, the smell. It smells like a perm. It's pretty awful, and it lingers, it took me about a week to get rid of the smell.

I can honestly say Vanish Color Remover has saved my hair from countless yet-to-happen bleach sessions. I'll never bother trying to bleach artificial color out of my hair again.

Have you tried Vanish? 




After using Vanish Color Remover and coloring with  level 10A Wella Color Charm 

After using Vanish Color Remover and coloring with Wella Color Charm 10A

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I also change my hair color like it's my job! I'm definitely going to try out the Vanish Color Corrector!

xo, Jessica
http://glitterdusttears-madaboutyou.blogspot.com/2012/03/mad-about-hair-care.html

John Petter said...

She gotta nice hair.
Clearly Natural

Anonymous said...

do you use the whole box for one application??

Mrs. Blacksten said...

@Anonymous, No I didn't use the whole box. I have shoulder length hair, and was able to get 2 uses out of one box. YMMV. :)

sama said...

i have natural light to medium brown hair color with some blonde highlights ... i've never colored my hair before but i want to try dark - medium ash blonde but i really like my hair color so in case i want it back does this product help?? in other words after using it did it bring back your natural hair color or just lighted it up???

Anonymous said...

i have black goldwell color on my head with 6rr under it and i wanna go blonde should i try this? what was your hair before your pics you postd...thanks!

Mrs. Blacksten said...

@sama This probably isn't gonna be your best bet, if you decide you don't like the color and want your natural color back. Once you've used a permanent color on your hair, you're never gonna get your natural color back, you just have to grow out the dyed parts. However, if you aren't sure about how you'll like the dye color, try using a semi or demi color, as they'll both wash out, mostly.

@Anonymous You can definitely try Vanish, it's awesome. For that level of color though your probably going to have a to do several applications, at least 6, probably more like 10. So, I'd plan on doing them over a weekend, preferably over 3 or 4 days. Be prepared to have ugly hair for those days. :( Prior to the Vanish I had henna with a 6 or 7w on top. You can see here: http://mrsblackstenbeautyjunkie.blogspot.com/2012/01/with-and-without-diffusing.html

Anonymous said...

I love any color remover, but the smell is noxious. We should have to smell like wet dog farts for a week. Ugh. There has to be a way to counteract the smell. Any suggestions???

AngelaNichole said...

I just bought the Vanish color corrector and I'm excited to use it. Did you leave it on for only 20 minutes? If you leave it on longer does it make a difference?

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Robert B. Nelson said...
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