I've never done a review before, but I thought it would be helpful considering I had so much trouble finding the info I was looking for when researching these products.
For those of you who are like me & have an attention span of a 5 year old I will just cut to the chase.
My hair was black & I wanted to lighten it so I used several products. Color Fix, Color Oops & Color Zap.
Color Fix: it did nothing... I could not see any sort of difference... & it left my hair smelling disgusting... I'm not high maintenance when it comes to smells... & applying it was not a problem... but everytime I washed it, it would smell again & linger... after awhile it was just wayyy too much. My hair felt fine after using this product.... still the same color... no extra shine... but it still felt & looked healthy.
Color Oops: By far the best product I used. After using it once it took my hair from jet black to a medium reddish brown. The second time using it, it took my hair from medium reddish brown to light ginger. But... I decided to dye it immediately (I used a light blonde hair color hoping to just get a little of the brassy tones out & leave it a light brown as I read another girl who reviewed it had such luck) but after 3 mins my hair was dark brown again (should of used the protein filler). When I finally pulled my jaw up from the floor I said... I'm on a mission & I dont care if I have to sit here w/ ginger hair for 3 months before dying it again... my hair WILL be lighter. So I bought another box & it went light ginger again. I was soooooo happy. But.... yes here's the but.... I didn't wash it for 2 days... once I washed it I woke up in the morning & half was dark brown & the top half of my hair was bright ginger (again, should of used the protein filler). my hair felt fine after 3 times of using this product... no visible damage & super shiny & soft & did not have a lingering smell.
Color Zap: Worst product ever. DONT DO IT. JUST DONT! I would blame the 4 other times I stripped my hair as the result of what happened w/ this product EXCEPT immediately my hair felt crispy when applying. I had a gut feeling not to use it... but I dismissed it because everyone at Sally's said it was fabulous & was more effective than Color Oops. :/ I felt something was off so as the product sat roasting my hair I decided to google & read somewhere that it contained bleach. By this time it had been in my hair for 20 of the 60 recommended minutes. I jumped up & at lightening speed had it washed out. Too late. Damage was done. The top of my hair actually was DARKER!! So I was left w/ a medium brown reddishy color. But honestly... my hair was so dry... I could not even run my fingers through it. I literally rocked myself back & forth & told the hair God's that if my hair was saved I would never use this product again. I did a deep conditioning treatment & I could run my fingers through it again but I did see split ends. So although most would probably say my hair had just gone through too much... I honestly believe because of how that stuff felt compared to the other stuff I used that it was the product.
Ok... I guess that wasn't a short review like I hoped. But hopefully it was informative!
A little tip... I have medium-long hair & its super thick... 2-3 bottles of color oops was needed. I hear some people add shampoo to it to give its suds & a little extra... do that at your own risk. :) Color fix had more than enough to cover my hair just once.... & I needed 3 bottles for Color Zap & that was w/ me using every last drop.
For those of you scoffing that I should have just gone to a salon... here is my reasoning. I went to the salon alllll the time in my teen's & early 20's... my hair always turned out too short when cut but my color (demi perm shades) was always done right. But the times I did have it stripped, nothing happened to lighten it.... it would look maybe 1/2 of a shade lighter & would feel super damaged - like what I felt after using Color Zap. So that's why I chose to do it myself. If I had been just wanting to touch up my dark hair I would have gone to a salon but that wasn't the case.
Anyways... that's the end of my long review. Hopefully this helps anyone who is trying to lighten their hair!
Also.... my hair was dyed black for several years w/ both demi perm & perm hair dye. My natural color is dirty blonde/light brown.
photo above is the before (dark hair) & after of using color oops one time
Hope this helped out those in a hair crisis!
xo,
Christina Arlene
