I may have had a slight hair colour mishap...

[Jumblebee]

I haven't dyed my hair in about 6 months and decided to go back to my bright orange colour. Only they didn't have my usual dye so I decided to try a very similar colour.

It was meant to be lovely orange (think Bree Van De Kamp):

However my hair is bright bloody red! Like:

I look absolutely ridiculous :(

I'm going to a wedding on Saturday (I know I know, I should have done it sooner and NOT used a colour I've never used before!) and I look like Ronald McDonald :-/

The colour I normally use is Intense mango copper by L'oreal, if I used this dye over it is there any hope it would come out slightly more orange or am I destined to be stuck with this awful red/pink hair? I am KICKING MYSELF!!!

I don't understand how both the colours could be so so similar yet one always comes out perfectly and the other has come out so differently. Wahhhh!

Apologies, I've never attached pictures to a thread before and I can only see one picture of the dye I normally would use.

The colour I have right now is this one, only brighter and more pink!

You could colourb4 your hair? Its not good for your hair, but it should work.

Oooh what is colour b4? Is it something used to strip hair dye? I'm so worried it will look streaky if I dye it again, and if in the harsh light of day it looks even more ridiculous I may have to dye it brown (which doesn't look very good on me )

Thanks for answering

Putting your usual dye over it won't lighten it, it will just make it more red (i speak from experience, trust me!). You either need colourb4 and then a semi perm dye in as close to your usual shade as possible or you're going to have to go and have it fixed at the hairdressers

Oh god, just read the reviews online and it seems EVERYONE has had the same result.

Ok I think I will have to try colourb4 and then a different dye. I am going to be in a mad rush tomorrow

I don't think colour b4 is too bad for your hair, but you can't use a permanent dye straight after it! You have to leave a certain period of time, can't remember how long. You can only use a level 1 colour as far as I remember. Good luck!

I wouldn't risk ColourB4 so close to a wedding, I've used it several times and whilst it did get the colour out (bearing in mind that permanent dyes have peroxide and thus the colour underneath will be lighter) it made my hair smell awful for days

Superdrug do a range of proper semi-permanent dyes (i.e. the dye is ready to use and doesn't require developer or mixing beforehand) that are only supposed to last a few washes, one of those might help tone it down.

Given you've got a wedding on Saturday though I think I'd play it safe and get a hairdresser to fix it.

You need to leave your hair a week after using ColourB4 to put dye with any kind of developer on. True semi-permanents are ok but anything else runs the risk of the removed colour reappearing.

I can't afford a hairdresser unfortunately I shall have a look at the superdrug dyes. Ughhh I was so looking forward to having my nice bright hair back and instead I wasted my boots points on cheap red!

Pop a light brown over it to tone it down. It will still look warm but naturally so.

I dyed my blonde hair a horrendous red shade. Mn gave me advice nd I used a cheapie removed. Did the job but left my hair in straw condition. I didn't have the guts to try dying over it for several weeks so have no advice there for you.

Just wanted to post a slight update

In natural daylight my hair was more pink than I thought, so I ran off to get a light blonde/brown ash hair dye. It's still quite bright, but not trashy pink bright, more deep cherry red! It's not a colour I would ever dye my hair because I am so pale it would never look good, but it's a big improvement on what I had! I shall just avoid looking at any of my stepsisters wedding pictures

Thanks for your help everyone, and yep, I'm still feeling like a huge plonker

Phew! Good save Jumble.

Please forgive me for giggling at you saying you looked like Ronald McDonald.

Ha, it's ok squoosh, I turned round to my DP and said "i look like Ronald McDonald's fat sister!!!"

It's raining outside now, I'm going to pray that this colour doesn't run...