Does Color Remover Damage Hair? Not if you use it properly

woman covers her face in fear

No, color remover doesn’t damage your hair as long as you use it properly.
Otherwise, if you use the remover without following the manufacturer’s instructions, or use it several times in a row, it could damage your hair.
Also, consider your current hair health. If your hair is weak after bleaching or dry, the remover will only worsen the situation.

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Should I wash my hair before using a color remover?

Do you want to know if the color remover damages your hair?

The answer is no. Let’s begin by saying that no over-the-counter hair product is harmful to your hair.

What actually damages the hair is using products without the proper information. Then, unpleasant surprises happen.

Let’s be honest. Color remover or dye isn’t water either. Neither holy water nor drinking water. Its ingredients remove hair dye by penetrating the hair to remove the color.

Now, if you have applied a dye and you don’t like the color, color remover will be much less aggressive than bleach.

If we represented it on a scale, with 1 being a safe process, and 10 being a very aggressive process, color remover would be at number 2 or 3, while bleaching would be at number 8 or 9.

assess the hair condition before applying the remover
Therefore, the most important thing before using color remover is to consider your hair health. Some people blame the color remover for damaging their hair when it was already damaged before they used the remover.

So, if your hair is weakened by continuous bleaching processes or you color it too often, it may not be a good idea to use it.

The remover is an over-the-counter product. Therefore, it has gone through different levels of control.

Now, will it be safe to apply to your hair? Today, I’ll help you find out. Let’s start by understanding what a color remover is.

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If you want to remove hair dye, a color remover is safer than bleaching

A hair color remover is different from bleaching.

Bleaching removes all the color from natural and artificial hair. In contrast, a color remover only removes the artificial color.

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The chemical reaction of a color remover is not as aggressive as bleaching.

When you apply the remover to your hair, it penetrates through your cuticles into the hair fiber and breaks the chemical bonds of the color. Therefore, it removes the hair dye.

wear gloves for applying hair color remover
Bleaching is a much more aggressive process because it removes both natural and artificial hair color. In that case, more powerful chemicals are used.

To help you understand the difference, let’s take an example.

Your favorite white shirt is stained with coffee. It is made of Egyptian linen.

To remove the coffee stain, you can use two products: bleach or laundry detergent.

What would you choose to remove the coffee stain from your Egyptian linen shirt?

Obviously, a laundry detergent with oxygen molecules protects the most delicate clothes.

On the other hand, a color remover is safer because it doesn’t contain peroxide or bleaching powder, which are actually two very harsh chemicals that dry out the hair.

Of course, the remover is safe according to how you use it and the current state of your hair. And that’s what I’ll talk about next.

To use a color remover safely, you must follow the manufacturer’s instructions and consider your hair health

woman reads product instructions
Any chemical process, from coloring to bleaching, could damage your hair.

A color remover won’t ruin it, but you may find it drier after using it.

You can easily fix that by applying moisturizing masks.

Now, before using a color remover, you should be honest.

How does your hair feel?
Do you dye too often and never worry about moisturizing it?
Do you use a flat iron or curling iron too often?
Have you bleached your hair recently and repaired it after the process?
Do you use a toner very often?

Those aspects could influence your hair health. For example, excessive heat from styling tools generate a loss of moisture and nutrients from the hair. Toner application is a chemical process as well.

So, if your hair is dry, stiff, dull, and frizzy, and you apply a color remover, it’ll obviously damage it even more.

But your hair was already damaged before you used the color remover.

So you should be aware of your hair health before the color remover.

By the way, remember to read the manufacturer’s instructions and respect them.

If the manufacturer says you can’t apply it twice in one day, or recommends doing the strand test do it.

test hair dye remover before application
Those recommendations make the remover safe for hair.

Finally, after using the color remover, I recommend you don’t apply chemical processes to your hair. Let it rest and recover by applying moisturizing or nourishing masks at least once a week.

So, let’s be clear. Color remover won’t break or burn your hair, but the effects on your hair will depend on its health.