Clarifying shampoo is perfect for spring cleaning your hair. But did you know that clarifying shampoo can also remove hair dye?
You can remove hair dye using clarifying shampoo. The clarifying formula is strong enough to remove build-up and deep clean hair. It’s also strong enough to remove hair dye and fade color over time.
Be sure to moisturize after every wash because clarifying shampoo will strip natural oils and leave your hair dry.
What Is Clarifying Shampoo?
A clarifying shampoo is formulated to deep cleanse your hair.
It can remove product build-up, dirt, oils, chlorine, mineral deposits, and chemicals to leave your hair squeaky clean.
While regular shampoo also cleans your hair, it doesn’t have the same level of cleaning power. Instead, it’s gentler and more suitable for everyday washes.
In contrast, clarifying or deep cleansing shampoo has a higher percentage of surfactants and is not for everyday use.
Typically, the active ingredients in clarifying shampoo include ammonium lauryl sulfate, ammonium laureth sulfate, and sodium lauryl sulfate.
These shampoo detergents are a common ingredient in dish soaps because of their superior ability to remove grease from pots, plates, and pans.
Clarifying shampoo may also contain chlorides and beneficial alcohols that take away excess build-up and break down other deposits in your hair.
When using a clarifying shampoo, you lather it into your hair, massage it into your scalp, and rinse just as you would with regular shampoo.
Also Read: Can you remove hair dye with Coke?
Why Use Clarifying Shampoo and Is It Good for Hair?
Over time, your hair tends to accumulate excess hair products and other deposits that weigh down your strands, making them feel lank and dull.
Regular shampoo doesn’t always help get rid of the gunk, so a deep-cleansing shampoo is needed.
Clarifying shampoo gives your hair a clean slate and restores its natural bounce.
Besides removing impurities, clarifying shampoo is the best product for greasy hair because it strips away the excess oils.
Overall, it’s an excellent product for overly oily hair or hair that’s frequently exposed to products like hair spray, gel, and creams.
These products contain silicone, waxes, butters, and heavy oils that are not water-soluble. As a result, they don’t wash off easily and will form a film on your hair and scalp.
Ultimately, this can lead to greasiness, dullness, dryness, limpness, scalp irritation, flakiness, and breakage.
Therefore, using clarifying shampoo can benefit your hair in many ways.
However, the ultra-cleaning action of clarifying shampoo tends to leave hair feeling too dry by stripping away too many natural oils.
This can stimulate the overproduction of sebum, making oily hair even more oily. You can avoid this by always using a deep conditioner or moisturizer after washing your tresses.
In addition, stick to using clarifying shampoo once every week or two weeks to allow your natural oils to rebalance.
One last thing: Remember clarifying shampoo may not be suitable for sensitive skin.
The high level of heavy surfactants can worsen skin disorders like eczema, psoriasis, and seborrheic dermatitis, which affects the scalp.
Does Clarifying Shampoo Remove Hair Dye?
Clarifying shampoo removes hair dye over time after several washes.
Its formulation contains strong surfactants/detergents that scrub the outer layer of the hair where semi-permanent dye molecules are deposited.
Some clarifying shampoos also have a higher pH that will lift the cuticles.
This allows the shampoo to penetrate the hair shaft and scrub the permanent dye molecules deposited inside.
Unfortunately, clarifying shampoo may not produce great results with permanent hair dye since it’s more challenging to eliminate stuff deep inside the hair cortex.
The best you can hope for is slight fading over time, though you may notice better results if your hair is porous.
This is also true for dark, solid colors like blacks or dark browns that stain the hair deeply and require too much lifting.
These colors usually need a stronger treatment, like a bleach wash. However, you should have no problem quickly fading unnatural and vibrant hair colors like pink or blue.
Clarifying shampoo can even remove the green tint caused by swimming pools and correct your color.
Generally, clarifying shampoo will fade semi-permanent hair dyes significantly after five washes vs. the 15-20 washes you’ll need with regular shampoo.
How To Use Clarifying Shampoo To Remove Hair Dye
Using clarifying shampoo is a simple procedure – it’s the same procedure you would use with regular shampoo.
Instructions
- Wet your hair with warm water (as warm as it can get) to open up the cuticles so the shampoo can penetrate deeper.
- Apply a generous amount of shampoo and massage it throughout your hair to generate a lather.
- Wear a plastic cap and let the shampoo sit for ten or more minutes.
- Rinse out the shampoo with warm water to help more color come off. Remember to do a final rinse with cold water to close the cuticle.
- If you’re desperate to remove hair dye, you can always repeat the procedure.
- Apply a strong conditioner, moisturizer, or mask to keep your hair soft, healthy, and radiant.
Tips for Using Clarifying Shampoo to Remove Hair Dye
Combine clarifying shampoo with other methods
There are plenty of ways to remove hair dye, and some can effectively combine with clarifying shampoo for faster results.
For instance, you can combine clarifying shampoo with baking soda or crushed vitamin C tablets to gradually and gently fade the color.
You can also speed up the stripping process by exposing your hair to more sunlight, spending more time in swimming pools, or washing with dandruff shampoo.
Don’t use too often
Clarifying shampoo won’t remove a significant amount of hair dye in a single wash.
You’ll need at least five washes, but it’s important to strike a balance to avoid drying out your hair.
Use clarifying shampoo over time and not too frequently to fade color over time.
It’s ok to use sulfate shampoo
The best clarifying shampoo for removing hair dye has sulfates and sodium chloride.
You usually should avoid sulfates in regular shampoo because of the drying effect, but in this case, their stripping power works in your favor.
Together with sodium chloride, the sulfates will scrub your hair strands to remove dye molecules.
You should also avoid shampoos that claim to be color-safe because they are too gentle and not strong enough to remove hair dye.
Using a harsher clarifying shampoo can enhance the fading process, but it’s not good for damaged hair, especially if you fail to moisturize sufficiently afterward.
Clarifying shampoo works best in the first week
The clarifying shampoo color removal method works best if you use it in the first five days after coloring your hair.
That’s because the dye molecules haven’t had a chance to fully settle, and your hair’s cuticles will be slightly open. Hence, the dye is easier to remove.
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