MY EXPERIENCE with lightening black box dye
you see the title, it is MY experience and no others, which means what i have done in this process may or may not get the same results. (bet on it not happening)
to preface, the first photo is my hair prior. it is naturally curly/wavy and has a lot of thickness despite thinning it etc.
i last dyed my hair with black box dye on december 5th of 2025, and it has been fading ever since. although it has been "fading" it was still very dark and i have a natural very dark brown color. i was told by stylists to get it platinum it would probably take 3-4 months, and it would be very expensive, so of course i opted to doing it at home a while later. i have EXTREME bleach fear, so i trusted myself a lot with this process and tried to listen to my gut while still respecting objective facts.
the second photo is after the first bleach, it is slightly damp but not completely soaked so the color is almost accurate. as you can see, the roots lightened quite a bit (the grown out virgin bits) but the ends were super dark. i bleached once more but didnt take a photo, and then bleached a third time. the third photo is the results of after bleaching and toning (dont remember which toner, maybe T18 ash wella toner) and it was still very ginger. the last photo is after doing an "ash brown" hair dye over all of it, trying to get a less ginger result.
ok, that is my truth, that is how it went, and honestly if youre attempting this process and you have around my cosmetology skill (very poor) then dont expect the greatest. if you are somewhat experienced, i think its possible to get way lighter than i did.