Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

After (over) dyeing my hair black-brown (permanent) for close to four years, I was ready for a change. Preliminary research indicated I could either grow it out and cut it off OR bleach it; neither option was at all appealing to me. Somewhere, somehow, (I think it was when I was reading about bleach washing) I learned about Color Oops. I read a gazillion reviews and decided to give it a shot. It seemed like it would be far less damaging than bleaching and was much more time efficient than growing the black dye out. I picked it up at the devil's department store, aka Wal-Mart, for just under ten dollars (my local Sally's doesn't carry this or any other product with hydrosulfite...I live in a rural suburb of Phoenix). ODOR: many reviewers and YouTube videos make mention of how this product smells. Most of those who mention the smell point out the sulfur smell which is understandable since the active ingredient in Color Oops is hydrosulfite. That being said, the smell was not nearly as bad as other reviewers led me to believe. It certainly doesn't smell GOOD, but its not the assault on the senses that I had read/heard about. I liken the smell to a milder version of a perm. I am a nursing mother and haven't quite gotten rid of the hypersensitive nose that comes with pregnancy, so for ME to say that the smell was tolerable goes a long way. As a precaution, my husband took my daughter out of the house and when they returned about 15min after I was finished, he said there was only a mild odor lingering throughout our two-story home (I applied it in our upstairs bathroom and rinsed in the kitchen sink downstairs). INSTRUCTIONS: the instructions that are included are extremely clear and very detailed. If you follow the instructions, you really can't go wrong. About the only thing I learned from YouTube and other reviews that wasn't mentioned in the instructions was to agitate my hair as I rinsed, but I'll get into that more below. It is important to note that Color Oops WILL NOT WORK ON VEGETABLE DYES (i.e. Manic Panic). It ONLY works on oxidative dyes. If you didn't pour part a into part b, it isn't an oxidative dye! APPLICATION: the formula of this product is VERY runny. In my situation, I needed to apply this to the ends of my hair first since they were the areas that were the most over-saturated with dye. I pulled my hair back into a ponytail and applied the solution to the pony first which made it a LOT easier to avoid spilling it all over myself and the floor. After allowing the ends to process for 10min, I saturated the rest of my hair to process for the remaining 10-15min. PROCESSING: once I put the included cap on my head, I went outside to the warm air. The instructions are very clear to stay out of cool rooms and away from air conditioning vents/fans. Since it was a lovely 105º outside, I sat on the porch and let the heat help things along. RINSING: several other reviewers mentioned that this was the most arduous part of the process and I can't disagree with them. While many chose to rinse the solution out in the shower (and thus running out of hot water in the process), I opted to use the kitchen sink. My faucet has a spray function and I alternated between the spray and the regular stream. I also could have used the spigot in the tub, but kneeling on the floor didn't seem desirable at the time. This product works by opening the cuticle and breaking down the color molecules to a size that will rinse out, so keeping the cuticle open is key. The sooner the cuticle closes (i.e. by being hit with cold water), the more dye that remains in the hair. This remaining dye can and will re-oxidize over time, giving the illusion that your hair is spontaneously re-dyeing itself. To keep the cuticle open, rinse using the hottest water you can stand. Since I needed the biggest result on the ends of my hair, I was able to use water that was hotter than I would be able to use on my scalp. To "help" the color molecules find their way out of my hair and down the drain, I followed other recommendations to agitate my hair whilst rinsing it. I think it worked like a charm. RESULT: I could not be more pleased with the result I achieved. My natural color is dark brown and I feel that I was returned to that color. This product works by removing just the artificial dye molecules, and because I had been using deposit-only oxidizing color, my natural color wasn't affected at all. See for yourself by looking at my uploaded photos. The instructions claim that you can re-color your hair immediately after completing the Color Oops process and I would say that my hair felt like it was ready to receive color again. I didn't have my new color on hand to re-color right away, but if I had I wouldn't have hesitated to jump right in. I did re-color the next day after using a protein filler and my hair is really beautiful; shiny, smooth, and soft. I would absolutely use this product again in the future should I have the need and I plan to rave about it to anyone who will listen. The box states that it will only remove the most recent oxidative process that has been applied to hair, but I am here to tell you that it has removed YEARS of color from my hair. I did not have any areas that had been previously bleached (i,e, highlights) which is why I was successful in achieving my natural color. For someone who has/had highlights or who has previously bleached any portion of his or her hair, just know that it is impossible for the bleached areas to return to your natural color because the natural pigments have been removed.