Skip to Content

How to Remove Semi-Permanent Hair Dye in One Day?

How to Remove Semi-Permanent Hair Dye in One Day?

Using semi-permanent hair dye to colour your hair might be one of the most common methods to consider. But what if you want to remove it?

Sure, you could go to several salon appointments and decrease the intensity of the shade you have with a few tones every week. However, not all of us have this kind of patience and time.

So, how do you get rid of your semi-permanent hair dye in one day?

In this guide, we will give you the best solutions to removing semi-permanent hair dye fast. And what is most important, you will learn how to do that without damaging your hair more than you have to.  

How to Remove Semi-Permanent Hair Dye in One Day?

The best method to get rid of your semi-permanent hair dye in one day is by investing in a colour remover product.

You can find such a product on the market and they come with all the instructions you need to use them at home. However, you are more on the safe side of you allow a professional to do it.

Pay attention to the ingredients of such colour remover products.

They contain chemicals such as hydrosulfate which will damage your hair significantly. However, the chemicals in colour removers are also the key ingredients that make them so efficient in the first place.

Also, colour removers will not alter your natural colour. It is not a product that works like bleach for instance. These removers will simply eliminate the new pigment of the semi-permanent die from your hair.

This is possible because the semi-permanent dye doesn’t penetrate your hair follicle as much as permanent hair dye.

Besides the main benefit of using a colour remover, which is to eliminate semi-permanent dye from your hair, there are also disadvantages.

Here are two main disadvantages of using colour removers:

  1. They have a strong and very unpleasant smell. You might find the smell of these products extremely bothering.
  2. The strong chemicals in these products will attack the health of your hair. You will not damage your hair in a permanent way but you will definitely affect its beauty and health.

How to Use a Colour Remover Product?

Each product will come with a different set of instructions. But there are also general rules that you need to follow in case you are interested in this method.

Wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo as well as an anti-dandruff shampoo

You should wash your hair diligently by using these types of shampoos.

Make sure that you wash all parts of your hair and you rinse the shampoo off properly. There is no need to use any conditioner after you wash your hair because you will have to move on to other steps.

Prepare the colour remover

You will need a bowl in which you mix the activator and the colour remover. Use a brush or a stick to do that. Most colour remover kits come with all the tools you need to mix them.

Make sure to obtain a homogeneous mixture at the end of this step. You don’t need to add any more ingredients in the mix but the ones you found in the colour remover kit.

Apply the colour remover

To apply the mixture of colour remover on your hair you will have to follow the same technique you would follow when you dye your hair. Use a brush and apply the mix all over your hair and rub it to make sure it gets through all the layers.

This is a crucial step to give you the results you want.

Once you covered your hair with this mix all you have to do is cover it with a classic shower cap as well. You will have to give it time to take action and remove the pigment of the semi-permanent dye. The majority of these products will take up to one hour to get rid of a semi-permanent colour.

Rinse the colour remover of your hair

Rinsing the colour remover from your hair is another essential step in this process.

Get ready to wash your hair more than once in order to get rid of this colour remover. The reason for this is that you will have to eliminate the colour molecules from your hair completely.

Those molecules get taken out of the hair follicle during this process but they remain on the surface of the hair if you don’t wash it correctly.

Over the next few days, these molecules of colour that survived on the top layer of your hair will reactivate the shade you wanted to remove.

And you will be back at the same point. To avoid this outcome rinse your hair twice or even three times to get rid of the semi-permanent colour.

Methods to Remove Semi-Permanent Hair Dye Fast

woman_in_white_tank_top

There are other methods to get rid of semi-permanent dye fast as well.

Some of these are not as instant as the colour remover method but they could be a great choice if you are not in much of a hurry.

Use anti-dandruff shampoo in combination with vitamin C

This is a simple yet very efficient method, however not as fast as the first one. To apply this method, you will need two pills of vitamin C and a tablespoon of anti-dandruff shampoo.

Smash the vitamin C pills into a powder and mix it with the shampoo.

What you will get will be a foam that you have to apply on your hair. Make sure to apply this mix on your wet hair just like you would apply your usual shampoo.

You need to cover the entire surface of your hair with this mix.

Rub it in gently to cover all the hair layers so it will be more efficient. Once you covered all your hair with this mix, wrap it into a shower cap. You will have to give it 45 minutes of sitting in your hair before you can remove it.

After this, you will rinse your hair like normal and dry it accordingly. Rinse it several times in order to remove all the molecules of colour that might be left on the surface of your hair.

Use an anti-dandruff shampoo and baking soda

As you will notice anti-dandruff shampoo is a constant when you need to get rid of semi-permanent hair dye.

For this method, you will have to mix this shampoo with baking soda.

You need one tablespoon of baking soda and the same quantity of anti-dandruff shampoo. Mix them until you obtain a homogeneous blend and apply it all over your hair.

Just like in the previous method, you will have to get your hair wet before applying this mix all over its surface. Massage your hair and scalp good enough to make sure the mixture gets in all its layers.

This mix will have to sit in your hair for a maximum of 20 minutes. Also, cover your hair with a shower cap to increase the action of the mix.

Rinse your hair as long as you need to after the 20 minutes time frame passed. Use warm water and spend at least five minutes washing your hair to be sure you eliminated all the colour left on it.   

If you choose this method, you will have to use a hydrating conditioner as well. Your hair will most likely be dry and you will need to offer the proper moisturizer to prevent chronic damage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70leEwec0ZE

 

Use detergent to wash your hair

This method is a bit extreme and it shouldn’t be your first choice.

This is why we left the detergent method for the end. It is fairly simple to apply this method. All you need is to replace your shampoo with the dishes detergent you find in your kitchen.

Wash your hair like you would normally do by using the dishes detergent.

You just have to rub your hair a few more minutes than you would if you used your regular shampoo. But you will have to also rewash your hair afterwards with an anti-dandruff shampoo.

Condition it properly to avoid dryness effects at the end of this method too.

The reason why the detergent method works to eliminate semi-permanent colour is that it contains sulfates that are very efficient in this process. But you might need to repeat it several times before you see the best results.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are many methods to get the semi-permanent dye out of your hair.

However, you need to apply them with caution because they can dry and damage your hair significantly. The best way is to think more than once before you apply your semi-permanent hair dye in the first place.

You should expect the methods in this guide to help you a lot if you want to change your hair colour!

Sue

Monday 2nd of August 2021

I have used a temporary dye that washes out in 28 shampoos. Will these methods work to remove the color and if so, is one better than the other?

Jewell

Sunday 18th of July 2021

Hi, I last had my natural red hair dyed a deeper red 9 months ago. It’s grown out some but there is still a lot of the deeper color in my hair from the grow out down. Can I use a clarifying shampoo with baking soda to get that dye out? Also, if I add lemon juice or vitamin C will it help. Should I follow that up with coconut oil or add coconut oil with the shampoo concoction so it won’t dry my hair out? Thanks. ( my natural red with some very light blonde and whites are what’s in the new growth, about an inch and a half I’m guessing)

Irina Tracy

Thursday 22nd of July 2021

Hello and thank you for your comment. Yes, you can try that method but I would recommend using a coconut oil mask for the entire night once you are done. This will help your hair hydrate back and gain its natural shine faster. Also, try the clarifying shampoo and baking soda method and see what results you get before adding the lemon and Vitamin C method. Good luck!

Alex

Tuesday 8th of June 2021

Hi. Prior to dying my hair a semi permanent (8 washes) hair dye, I had highlights and permanent salon toner. By using any of these methods will it interrupt the toner I previously had in my hair? Thanks for the help

Irina Tracy

Friday 11th of June 2021

hi, Alex! Yes, you can use any of the methods in this guide and both your toner and hair dye should be removed. The results you will get will also depends on how many layers of dye you have (how often you dyed your hair in the past six months). The more you dyed your hair, the harder it will be to remove the color. However, I think since you used an 8 washes type of dye, you should expect pretty good results with these methods. Thank you for reaching out!

liz

Monday 1st of February 2021

hi! the vitamin C + dandruff shampoo method never specifies how many mg's one vitamin C pill should contain. How many MG's total should i use per tablespoon of dandruff shampoo?

Irina Tracy

Thursday 18th of March 2021

Hello! A 500 MG vitamin C tablet should be enough for one wash. Good luck and thank you for your comment!