Brown box dye over red dye?

[Possibilityofanisland]

A few months ago I dyed my hair navy blue. It was one of those vibrant colours that would have been bright blue on lighter hair.

It looked good for about a week but has now faded to a dark red/copper colour

My natural colour is very dark brown, almost black and I thought if I got a dye that matched my roots it would fix it.

However, when I spoke to a hairdresser she said that it wouldn't work and I'd need a few professional colour treatments to get rid of the red. Is she right?

I just want to be able to return to brown with the least fuss and expense. But if it's going to make it worse then I'll pay a salon.

What do you think?

[Judydreamsofhorses]

I'm not a hairdresser, but i think red is hard to shift, and you can't lift tint with tint. You could use something like Colour B4 to strip the red, but it is really drying. If you have the time/money, I'd go pro.

[Possibilityofanisland]

Bum.

Thank you for your answer. I didn't even dye it red! It was blue. Stupid hair.

[StatisticallyChallenged]

Hmmm, the fact that it's gone red makes me wonder if it's not dye that's left. I think that a bright blue may have contained a fair amount of lifting agent and actually what you're left with is the lightened hair after the tint has faded. Bold colours in general don't hold well.

I'd be tempted to do a strand test to see what happens.

[Possibilityofanisland]

I've never worked out how to strand test with a box dye without having to buy two lots.

What's the worst that could happen? I mean my hair looks pretty dodgy as it is...