Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

My teen daughter insisted on going down the dye path, in spite of the fact that she had long, thick, milk chocolate colored hair that had red highlights when the sun hit it. I said no way, she said yes way, guess who won (she only lets me win an argument about every 30 days, just to bolster my esteem and foster the pretense that I'm in charge). She started out with very light brownish/blondish highlights. I hated the way they looked, she liked them, she kept them for about a year. She got tired of them, and got darker highlights, which looked more natural, but her hair wasn't as thick and soft anymore, even with sulfate free shampoos and once weekly deep conditioning. Dying is HARD on your hair; imo it's better for your hair and less likely to end in weeping and drama if you go the non-permanent route, with color that washes out in 6-10 washes (there is another semi permanent color that washes out in 28 washes, it's a little rougher on your hair and the color stays in longer than 28, at least it did for me, and my daughter). My other daughter gets a kind of 'glaze' of color over her hair when she goes to the salon; it looks really beautiful and natural. It washes out in two/three days, but it's a safe way to experiment with color. We are all about drama free experimenting in a house of two teen girls. Back to our story: daughter now has darker highlights for six months, gets tired of them, and wants all over color that is a bit darker than her dark highlights. (I did the coloring myself...I've paid significant amounts of money for terrible dye jobs, for color that washed out in the salon sink, for traumatically bad shades, i.e. hair that turned purple when it was supposed to be auburn. I don't pay for color anymore. If your colorist is amazing, count yourself among the blessed and be sure to tip them well. They are few and far between, in my experience, even at reputable salons). In spite of using the washes-out-in-28-washes semi-permanent dye of medium brown, her color came out almost black. It looked like it was coated with shoe polish, it absorbed light like a black hole, it didn't even look edgy or goth, it just looked gawdawful. Cue rounds of weeping and door slamming and bitter recriminations (I know, I know, it's not good for kids to see their mothers like that, but, it was just so, sob, UGLY ;) While my daughter cried herself to sleep, I went online and researched dye lightening/reversal/howcanigetvaliumwithoutaprescription options. It became apparent there are so many people online, RIGHT NOW, looking up ways to fix their overly dark awful dye job (some home, some from salons). The message boards are full of desperate, horrified people, of all ages and genders, trying to fix their hair. There are many 'cures', from the ridiculous (pouring diluted clorox bleach on hair) to helpful (wash w/drops of Dawn dish soap mixed with Prell shampoo, rinse with hottest poss. water, condition, repeat for a month). I don't know why it took me four hours to find Color Oops, but it did, and by this time I was convinced there were no quick fixes, just tedious, somewhat useful fading techniques. That being said, however, C.O. seemed unusual enough that I began to wade through about 500 reviews on Walgreens. Following the instructions is EVERYTHING with this product (I know, right? Me? Following instructions to a T? But I'm an American! I have instruction rights!) Also, it only works with hair that has gone darker, not hair that has been lightened. Be prepared to spend some quality time counting tiles in your shower; the rinsing time is critically important. The infamous smell isn't a problem, because, when you (or, say, your teen) have a wretched dye job and you are wailing "I'll do anything, ANYTHING to fix this, I can't live with this!", a temporary sulfuric, rotten egg-type smell is a small price to pay. The smell doesn't last past a day, anyway. You can always put a little perfume on to distract your nose (which fragrance notes work well with eau d'egg rot? There's gotta be something). Also extremely important: the test strand. I cut about twenty hairs for a tiny but thick enough strand to observe results. I left the solution on for the instructed 20 min, and after rinsing, it seemed too light for her original hair color. For the actual process, I used a timer on my cell, which was more helpful to me than setting an alarm, because I knew precisely how much time had passed. We left the solution on for 13 minutes (I had intended to have her start rinsing at the 10 minute mark, considering how light the test strand went after 20 min, but it ended up being 13 minutes because I had a cooking interruption). She rinsed with warm, not hot, water because we didn't want the heater to run out too quickly, shampooed for 5 minutes, rinsed for 20, shampooed again for 5, rinsed for 20, shampooed a third time, rinsed for ten, and then got out of the shower. The odor was mostly gone by this time, and in point of fact, the smell wasn't as much an issue as the marathon rinsing. It really seemed endless. She had the radio on to help with the tedium, but it was a good thing we used the cell timer, as we both kept saying "Oh surely it's been time enough", and discovered to our chagrin that it wasn't. I didn't have her use conditioner, as I had a packet of olive oil/orange oil deep conditioning mask for her to sleep in, under a shower cap (I use it all the time, it's lovely. $1.50 for single use packet at Walgreens). Her hair, even wet, looked almost exactly like it did back before she started ever dying it. I was amazed. I just couldn't believe such a remarkable transformation. The next morning, she rinsed off the mask, used a tiny drop of BioSilk on the ends, and blew it out with the dryer. Her hair was BEAUTIFUL. It once again looks like milk chocolate with those reddish hues when the sun hits it. A week and two shampoos later, it's still beautiful. She has only been blowing out her bangs, the rest she lets dry overnight, just to baby the hair a bit. I've read reviews about successful color reversals, but with a lot of damage, to the point where they question if they should have just let the hair fade with other timely techniques. I don't know if it's because she has only been dying her hair for a few years, but it's not terribly damaged. A little bit, yes, but not enough to merit concern. Almost certainly her hair would be more damaged if we had dyed again after the C.O. to achieve her desired shade, but we lucked out. I love this product. If I had known of it when I was younger, I could have avoided a lot of my own hair drama. If possible, I'd like to implore the makers of C.O. to branch out: Marriage Oops, I Ate The Whole Box Of Fudge When My Period Started Oops, I Looked Away For Two Seconds To Snarl At My Kids And Nailed The Bumper Of The Mercedes In Front Of Me Whose Driver Turned Out To Be A Lawyer Oops. There's an untapped market here, I'm sure of it. This product is cheap, simple to use, and most importantly, I am now the mother of a Happy Teen With Good Hair. Amazing.