Need to dye my hair dark brown... but I think I'm allergic! What are my options?

[blogsbunny]

I've been dark blonde (multiple hairdresser visits!) for the past two years. My natural hair is dark brown. A few weeks ago I went to the hairdressers to get it back to its natural hair colour and he said that it's normal for the first dye to fade and to require a top up of the colour which was fine as I'm used to upkeep! I've never had an issue with any reaction to a dye before, but after my first dark brown appointment my scalp and my neck were incredibly itchy for a few days and my lymph nodes on my neck were swollen. Not sure if this is indicative of a reaction but I know they can worsen if they're repeated.

Now the colour has already faded and I'm left with this awful, brassy orange-brown colour and am desperate to get back to a cool toned chocolate brown! Do I have any options here? Is there any natural route I can take? I don't want to risk my health for the sake of hair colour but its current state is getting me down!

Thank you in advance!

You could ask them to do the skin allergy test with a different brand of dye in case you just reacted to one particular dye. Otherwise you can ask them to do is as a full head of foils but it's expensive as they have to make sure it doesn't touch your scalp.

The chemical that causes the reaction makes it worse the darker the dye. I wouldn't take the risk and use henna. Pure henna though, like from Lush, not one mixed with dye...

Have you tried using silver shampoo instead? I’d be wary of dying it again but silver shampoo might tone down the brassy tones.

Thank you for the suggestions so far!

redastherose- I will try that- I didn't have any reaction to the skin test I had for this time. There was no redness or rash after I had it dyed - just extreme itchyness! Definitely would not want to go through it again (or even worse) but would love to have nice hair again!

DontTouchMyCurls- I've had a look for a henna that's got no red tone in it and I don't think it exists? I really don't suit any red/warm tones at all which is why it's particularly unflattering in its current state!

FaithInfinity I've got some silver shampoo left from my previous colour days, I'll whack some on and see if it improves it!

Lush make a coolish toned brown I think.