Can I fix this myself? Hair too dark and red :(

[Diana2000]

Hi, wondering if anyone can help with this??

I stupidly coloured my hair last weekend with a l'oreal casting semi permanent in 'dark chocolate'. Was hoping for a warmish dark brown but it's come out almost black and has a weirdly cold red sheen to it. This red is kind of mahogany/burgundy and it looks horribly cheap and is very unflattering with my skintone.

Also, I've realised that although dark brown hair looked nice on me when I was younger, it looks bloody awful with my 36 year old face. My hair hasn't gone that much darker (natural colour is dark auburn/reddy brown) but somehow it's made me look rough as fuck much older and paler and knackered :( I've tried adjusting my makeup to see if that helps but no matter how I do it, I get a Kat Slater, hard scary effect (makeup normally makes me look 100 times better).

Anyway, I really don't think I can face waiting weeks for this to fade out :( Going to a salon and getting it fixed properly would be the sensible thing to do but I'm skint and am hoping there's some way I can sort it out myself without fucking it up even more. Could I bleach it and then put another colour on top? Or would that be asking for trouble?

Could you try that Colour B4 stuff to strip out some of the pigment? Then a lighter shade?

What is colour B4 Grumpla? Is it like bleach?

I bought colour b4 15 quid wasted your meant to pour one bottle of stuff into another it wouldn't even come out and ended up everywhere, absolute waste of time and money!

Oh dear :(

Colour b4 the £11 extra strong one worked perfectly for me.

I did exactly the same thing as you ... dark blacky- red hair and it got it all off ... its bleach free.

If you pm me your email address ill send you my before and after pics.

It works a treat.

Anti dandruff shampoo, or wierdly Johnsons baby shampoo is great for toning down semi permanents!

Tomsbentpinky, that would be brill - will pm you in a sec. Thank you :)

Baby shampoo Ladywinterfell? I've got some Sainsburys own brand (too tight to buy johnsons!), will give that a go later. Fingers crossed...

Diana I would try to get the remover as I used the same dye on mine, and whilst I fortunately like it, it has not washed out. Two months on and it is still very much there.

I've sent photos to you :)

Two months on and it is still very much there.
Oh Christ, really?? Right, definitely need some of that b4 stuff, I can't go around looking like this for the next two months. Glad the colour worked for you though! :)

Toms, thank you!

Go to a colorist. Expensive but.... This is your HAIR! You have to wear it, day in day out!

Eliza... previously I went to a colourist and spent £200, yes £200 and my hair was awful after, they turned it ginger.

i ended up, after spending £200, putting a £7 brown over it to fix it

The colour be gone worked for me in this situation.

I went into my hairdressers after doing the same thing and they said use head and shoulders citrus shampoo as much as possible ! I piled it on that evening, wrapped hair in a towel turban and left it on till morning - the inside of the turban was black ! Kept using it daily and after a week or so it had faded loads

You need to buy this....good luck!!

I have this problem too.

ColourB4 didn't work on mine but I used a permanent dye. May try the head and shoulders citrus idea. cleaninglady did you wet your hair, and thn put the shampoo on or did you apply it to dry hair??

I have been really tempted to fork out for a colourist but the negative experiences on here have put me off.

IME Casting semi permanent fades quite quickly.

I have made the same mistake as you OP and, after 2 or 3 washes with an anti-dandruff shampoo, the tone was much more natural and flattering.

Eliza, I know, I know, you're right... It's not just the initial cost of the salon colour correction that's putting me off though, it's the thought of then having to keep going back and spending £40+ every month to maintain the salon colour. I am probably just being a tightarse though.

Toms, ouch! That's a hell of a lot of money to pay for a result you hate. Your poor thing, I'd be put off salons too.

Well I've just taken advantage of DS's nap and washed my hair with his baby shampoo. It does seem to have lightened slightly and the blue-red glow has diminished, thankfully. Thank you very much Ladyofwinterfell for that suggestion! Going to get some citrus head & shoulders to see if it helps even more (thanks cleaninglady and tesscorpsedirect :)) And then if it's still bad by the weekend I'll try some of the more hardcore solutions. Thanks applecrumble, that stuff looks good, have you tried it yourself? Boredandrestless, I hope you manage to get yours sorted too, it feels shit having bad hair doesn't it?

Bleach it first- but just long enough to strip the colour out and lighten by a couple of shades. Use a prelightener to bleach. Then use L'oreal excellence cream in a warm toned brown. It needs to be warm to avoid a green hue taking over. This should even it all out.

Dark frosted brown or mahogany brown are natural shades, the latter a more auburn tone to it.

I have, I removed the very same colour you used. No need to bleach your hair if you use this. It has left my hair in really good condition and I immediately re-coloured with a lighter brown. Really pleased with how it looks.

Oops, only just seen Queenie and Applecrumble's posts. Really sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you!

Queenie, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to bleach given what a disaster the original hair colouring was but will look out for l'oreal excellence cream in boots if that's a good range (and hopefully their colours actually come out the same shade on your hair as the packet promises unlike stupid casting creme!).

Apple, that's really encouraging, thanks :) Glad you're happy with your hair now. I'm definitely getting a lighter brown next time too!