Help! Permanent hair dye done at hairdressers and it is way too dark.... is there anything I can do?

[MrsD28]

In an attempt to cover my greys, I has my hair dyed at the hairdresser about two months ago... but they dyed it way too light (I have medium brown hair and ended up a sort of mousy ginger). I expressed my concerns and they put a toner on it to fix it, but over the weeks it faded and my hair looked worse and worse. So on Saturday I went to another hairdresser to try to get it rectified - I asked to have it dyed back to my natural colour (showed them my roots and lots of pics of me pre-dye). But it has gone the other way and I am now way way too dark (it is almost black!). Once again, I said that I wasn't happy but they were pretty dismissive and wouldn't correct it.

So now I have almost black hair and I HATE it. Is there anything that I can do to fade it (bearing in mind that there is other colour underneath)? I have found recommendations for using Head & Shoulders but these were all for semi-permanent home dyes... has anyone had success in fading permanent dye?

I actually dye my hair dark chocolate brown once a month. It has been maybe over a month now and this is the colour.

Brown does fade over time!

Sorry that's a terrible picture!
I do have some bleached bits in there too on the ends though.

Yes, Head and Shoulders strips permanent colour too. You can also try a few washes using Fairy Liquid - just make sure you use a load of conditioner afterwards.

I dye my hair dark brown but suffer with dandruff and I have to dye my hair every few weeks because H&S strips the colour out.

You might be able to get something like this in the UK? www.sallybeauty.com/hair-color-remover/SBS-405008,default,pd.html?list=Home%7cHair%7cHair%20Color%7cHair%20Color%20Removers%20%26%20Correctors#start=1.
I used it on mine which I accidentally dyed too dark blonde. Did lighten a couple of shades. The colour will fade over time too.

It will fade, don't do anything to it other than washing a few times.
Next time ask for the dye to be applied to the roots first and only half way through to the ends. This gives a much more natural look and it always amazes me how not many hairdressers do it.

And in my opinion h&s does NOT strip hair dye, it's a myth! I've been dying myhair for 20 years and using h&s on and off and never noticed any effect whatsoever.

Another vote for fairy liquid and/or hand soap e.g. Carex. Spend ages with conditioner on afterwards though!

Any clarifying shampoo will fade it in time, also sunlight (do we have any summer left?)

I made this mistake years ago and the reason I hated my hair dark was that it "swallowed up" my face. My eyebrows were too light and my face quite pale.
I did find that darkening my brows balanced that out, also wearing some blusher and bronzer pulled everything together. You might find changing the colours you wear helps too? Go for bolder, darker shades.

If you still hate it, you could have some fine highlights added. You can get a T bar of highlights (just along parting and round hair line).

The first few days after dying are when your hair is alarmingly dark. That very quickly calms down.

Depending on the condition of your hair you could strip it out with a lightening creme but only leave it on for a few minutes until it is a reddish brown. Over that apply a permanent brown but with warm tones and you should end up with a lovely glossy chestnut. You are looking at a 5.3 for medium warmth and 4.3 for darker.

If you want a more mahogany tone then apply 5.4-.5.5.

In future buy professional dye like Majirel and do it yourself. Majirel 5.35 is a lovely chestnut brown for example.

If you strip the colour out you will need to dye over it with a warm dye otherwise you will get a green hue but after that for your next dye you can use a cooler tone if it suits you more.

Pantene strips colour too.

You can get the colour remover stuff from boots. Works well, don't mess around with fairy or H&S. You'd need to use them tons just use the proper remover stuff

Link to the boots options. I used colour B4

Head and shoulders....use it daily for as long as you still don't like the colour. It worked with me.

Do not use dish soap on your hair, especially not if you've just coloured it. You will wreck your hair.

Coconut oil fades hair dye and is very good for your hair. Some dye removers are also not too damaging but it would remove all of the dye. A decent clarifying shampoo once a week will help fade it faster.

Have been there a few times!

Clarifying shampoo, head & shoulders and John's baby shampoo will all help plus washing up liquid but all will be very drying so use good conditioner.

Also, leaving in a hair oil treatment can strip colour.

It won't seem like anything is happening to begin with and then you'll realise it's lightened a lot

Once you are through the first bit you can try highlights - if your hair is v dark they can come out warm so you could try them just under the parting so not too obvious if it's warmer than you would like (rather than directly on parting)

Other solution is to ask salon to strip colour but I think you'd then need a colour back on top

Good luck and it will seem better quicker than you think!

You have to be careful with Colour B4. Permanent dyes (even dark colours) contain peroxide so the chemical colour will strip from your hair but it won't return to it's natural state.
It'll be an odd peachy ginger colour where the peroxide has bleached it.

You'll then need to re dye. This can be problematic because your hair after using Colour B4 will be extremely porous and the dye will oxidise. It'll come out much darker than expected...hello square one.

If you do use a colour stripper, I'd recommend dying over it with a dark ash blonde (semi perm) to achieve a light brown.

Thank you very much for all the tips! I am going to try the Head and Shoulders + deep conditioning oil - if nothing else, at least I will have well-conditioned, flake-free hair. Bit scared of the colour removers as I don't want to go orange again.

You could try the Vitamin C mix - google it for the method, that might shift the dark colour, has worked several times for myself.