I have been dyeing my hair on and off now for about 18 months. I mainly stick to colours similar to my own, however, on occasion I may try something a little bold and brave just to see what the results are! Recently I tried a dye with a red hue to it and was horrified when my red turned completely red despite washing it off before the time was up. As I work in an environment where I can sometimes deal with members of the public we are requested to have natural hair colours and bright red of course is not natural! I needed to do something to get rid of the dye as quickly as I could and I did not want to keep dyeing my hair until it went brown or the brown might have washed off to reveal red again and then I'd have to do it all over again! I started looking around for products and after a text to a load of female friends I got a reply about this product and headed off to Boots! I believe I paid about £8.00 for this thanks to a special offer but the current full price is £11.99 according to the Boots website.

The packaging is quite simple here, there are two types available, an extra strength one and a normal one, as I had quite a dark strong shade on my head I went for the extra strong variety. The packaging was quite simple and it was easy enough to distinguish between the two varieties, despite them being next to each other. There is a bit of blurb on the box about the product and how easy it is to use etc. It also says that if hair has been coloured with super bright fashion colours that you won't be able to use this. As I wasn't sure if this applied to me or not I figured I'd give it a go anyway as I hadn't nothing to lose by this point! Within the box you get an activator, a remover, a buffer, a pair of gloves and instructions. The bottles and bits are quite simple to those you get when dyeing your hair and the use is pretty similar to be honest.

The instructions were fairly lengthy but I read them through a couple of times just to ensure that I was happy with them before going ahead. I do this with hair dye, every time, too so its not unusual for me to be thorough, although I was nervous about using this anyway just because of my hair getting damaged or the colour getting worse.

My hair had been washed the day before with a basic shampoo and I always leave my hair for a day before dyeing it anyway so this wasn't something I did especially.

To use this was quite simple. I mixed the activator and remover together, then shook quickly for 30 seconds, I removed the nozzle cap and then this was ready to be applied to my hair. The plastic gloves provided offered me a good protection for my hands but I removed my jewellery too, including my wedding rings, just to be on the safe side. I applied this to my hair, all over, mixing it through how I would a hair dye and then I used a large toothed comb to brush through some sections to check that is was applied all over. I found it best to just apply directly to my head and then use the gloves to rub it in, when I got to the ends of my hair I applied some of the solution to my gloved hands and then run it through which was easy to do. I used the full solution throughout my hair and was vigilant when making sure I had got it to all areas.

Once the solution was applied I had to leave it from between half hour and an hour. I went for three quarters of an hour as by this point I was desperate to get it washed off and see what the results were like, also, I felt it'd be plenty of time to remove the colour.

When it came to washing off this solution it was quite straight forward. I rinsed for a few minutes, surprised at the little lack of colour that came off in the water, then I used the buffer. This is quite a small bottle and has a nice fruity smell, so I applied half to my hair, tried to run it through all of my hair, however, it was quite difficult to lather and so this wasn't so simple. I then rinsed again before applying the last of the product and giving my hair one last rinse. Again I was surprised at how little colour I saw being rushed away and I'd probably liken this to the amount that was coming out when I was washing my hair anyway.

Once I'd finished I gave my hair a squeeze to remove left over water, noting how dry and brittle it felt, and then wrapped it up in a towel. I left if for about 20 minutes before I started to dry my hair. I towel dried it first and then I blow dried it for my usual finish. My hair was definitely a little dry and brittle, more than normal, but I wasn't too fazed and was able to dry and brush my hair with relative ease.

So once I had dried my hair I was really pleased with the results. My hair was a brown colour, with a slightly brassiness to it, however, it was far better than the colour that I had been experiencing for the previous few days, definitely! I had a hair cut about 4 days after using this product and that soon got rid of my dry split ends and then a few masks on my hair and conditioners and my hair was back to its glossy, shiny self. I did colour my hair a week after using this and it took beautifully and I had no problems at all. This product was so simple to use, it worked too which is the main thing of course, I did have to spend some money on a haircut (which was probably needed anyway) and some nice new conditioners, however, I was really pleased with the end result and just a few days after using this my hair looked brown, healthy and shiny, ready for another dye! I used a non permanent wash out dye first just to check that everything was going well and then a week after that I was able to dye it using a colour that took my fancy and had a light red hue to it but didn't give any of the bright red results that I experienced first time round.

In all I would recommend this if you are in need of urgently stripping a colour from your hair. My hair was almost brought back to its normal colour and the process was simple in all. My hair was left a little damaged, however, that was advised before hand and the results were far better than I was expecting so in all I am going to give this a 5 out of 5.