Died light brown hair blonde but got auburn?

[OrchidFlakes]

I died my light brown hair blonde and although it lightened it certainly isn't blonde but more red auburn, any advice how to get it dark to mid blonde? I really don't have the £ for a full head of high lights and then salon maintenance.

use purple shampoo to tone it down a bit and then use a nice and easy hair dye-look at the back for one that says cool tones or neutral if the purple shampoo gives you a good result.

I once went from brown to blonde but washed it out too soon and it was red -- at least for me, it seems to be a stage on the way to blonde (not sure this is normal). Is it a permanent dye? I would probably be too chicken to try to correct it until it had faded (though a salon could probably sort it out).

In future I would just try a different brand (I used Loreal for years), it shouldn't be too hard to go from light brown to blonde.

Shop bought permanent colours can't lift natural hair more than a couple of shades, less so if already coloured. What has happened is your hair has only gone through the first stage of lifting.

To get it blonde you will have to prelightener the hair and then colour over that. Don't use an ash blonde over bleached hair as it will probably turn a green hue. Get a natural or beige blonde if you want a cooler toned blonde. You need to have a bit of warmth put back in because it is stripped out of the hair and natural usually denotes cool and warm notes to the colour.Level 6 is dark blonde.

Afterwards in terms of aftercare use a blue shampoo ( like touch of silver) once a week to keep the brassy tones to a minimum.

You've possibly got more red (warmth) in your natural colour than you realise and it's more resistant.

I would go with another blonde dye but carefully watch it (with a friend to help?) because it will lift more quickly second time round.

I always considered mine was light to mid brown but actually there was quite a bit of red in there and always needed 'lightest natural blonde' or 'very light blonde' for it to go anything lighter than 'strawberry blonde'

If you really don't want it at all honey blonde then perhaps try an ash blonde?

Ps. If you want to go down the professional dye route you can do it in one stage as the developer is stronger.

This is what you need

Majirel 6.2
20vol cream peroxide
Gloves
Tint brush
Tint bowl

Mix 50ml of majirel with 75ml of cream peroxide. The ratio is 1 of majirel to 1.5 of cream peroxide. If you only want to touch up your roots in future you can mix exactly what you need and it is very cost effective.

Google the majirel shades to get an idea of the tone you want but my guess is 6.2 from what you have said you want.

This has always happened to me. I was advised by a hair-dresser that it was partly due to my natural colour having a lot of red tones and therefore to only ever use ash tones otherwise I ended up bright ginger rather than a lovely blonde... Sorry, no advice on how to remedy xx

Sorry that should be a level 7.2

You wouldn't need a full head OP only half.

Look around for a colourist who would come to the house, because they're cheaper than salons.