So last year, in a not so bright moment, I decided to bleach my hair. At the time, my hair was orange, and afterwards it was a horrible half white half yellow, and a good chunk of my hair had either fallen out or snapped off. I had to get a lot of my hair cut off to just below my chin and a year later, I'm still not allowed to use permanent dyes on my hair. So when I dyed my hair a bit darker, I knew I was taking a risk, as I can never stick to one colour. And now that time has come where I want to dye my hair back to my beloved bright red, yet I can't do that on my hair that is just too dark. I'll admit, a lot of the dye from before (a mix of a dark and bright purple, that turned almost black) has lightened to a darkish red, but this is still too dark. So after searching the web to find ways of removing dye without bleach, I came across a method of mixing bicarbonate of soda and anti dandruff shampoo together to make a more "natural" lightener. Here is what you will need:

I mixed a bit of the Head & Shoulders with the bicarbonate of soda in the bowl then applied to my hair like I would with normal shampoo (I had to mix some more up though because I didn't make enough)

BUT PLEASE BE AWARE THIS MAY DRY YOUR HAIR OUT. There were so many reviews saying that it can dry your hair out, but it seemed pretty obvious to me (maybe from past experience)
Obviously anything removing colour, no matter how strong the bleach is may dry your hair out. To stop this from happening, I used some of the Herbal Essences Bee Strong conditioner and intensive repair mask after using the mixture.

I also used some Moroccan argan oil and combed it through my hair while it was still damp.

My hair is slightly lighter, but not by much. However, I'm going to try this once a week until I see a visible enough result, and hopefully my hair will lighten enough for me to go back to bright red again

Layla x