Tillie i decided not to follow step 3 as when i stripped my daughters colour it went straight to her target shade but reading the instructions it actualy appeared to be an importance and really quite silly of me as i remember it being drilled into us at college to follow manufactures instructions !
The point of step 3 was once you shampooed the 1 and 2 out u then apply the step 3 as you would perm solution to the curlers ! as this then shows the hairs state i.e if not completly stripped the hair will go back to dark and you have to follow the first two steps again ...i didnt follow step 3 the first time and thought wow this is great her hair is great but by the morning she had the darkness back ....instructions also state that if you run out of step 3 you can use any 10 vol peroxide so i am assuming that this softens the hair for the next col application and ensures the colour gets right into the cuticle :o next day i applied again and used step 3 and results are great