Dyed my hair too dark!

[millefeuille1]

I have just done a home dye with a brand I haven't used before and it is WAY too dark - really harsh. Can I redye on top with a lighter brown or will that make it worse?

I've done this a few times (I never learn..)

• always pick about 2 shades lighter than you actually want is the rule of thumb for home dye and some are very dark and cool tones look darker (eg. Ash brown came out almost black on me)

Once I had success putting another dye over the very dark dye and it lifted it a bit and gave it warmer tones

Another time I've tried washing hair multiple times with a shampoo to tone the colour down and have tried vitamin c on my hair to lift it a bit. The ones recommended eg vosene, head & shoulders, t-gel made a bit of difference but by far the best for this was a light coloured shampoo bar from Lush. Vitamin C method did not work. Have never tried 'colour b4'

Ultimately if you want to lift a cool dark tone I think a light brown ight be worth a shot if you really hate it, but if it's ash toned I am not sure you'll notice any difference. If you're able to get some majirel dye and 6% (or 9) peroxide and mix appropriately you will get a more noticeable difference in the colour.

You won't be able to put a lighter dye over now as it won't take

Is it permanent or semi, if you wash with head and shoulders this removes semi permanent quite well, if it's permanent there is a diluted bleach was which is supposed to remove dye but you'll have to do some research on that as I'm not sure the quantities or if it's just for blonde hair

I tried head and shoulders as well as getting lemon juice /or/and camomile on it and sitting out in the sun. Actually once I did a camomile tea rinse every morning and it did lighten a bit.

Thanks for the tips. Just realised it's a permanent dye (why didn't I read the box properly!!). I have ordered some Colour b4. I hope there are no horror stories about this stuff.

Use Washing up liquid as shampoo for a few washes asap. It will bring some of the dye out

You'll need to condition it alot after

Head and Shoulders shampoo is good for fading / washing out recently applied colour. Wash twice and leave on the shampoo for 30-60 seconds each time after you've lathered up.

Use your old towels!

Like leghoul said, try the Vitamin C & Shampoo method, google it for instructions, it should lift the dye out.

The vitamin c method definitely works, I’ve used it for many a hair disaster!! Colour B4 is also really effective but it does lift out all the dye..I usually end up with bright orange hair.

I did this a couple of years ago and did something involving vitamin C and head and shoulders. It was so dark I did it a couple of times and it definitely worked. IIRC the sooner you do it the better.

Give it a week, wash it every day with Vosene, I find dye fades very quickly on me. It might look ok after a week or so.

I did this before I started a new job! I tried to persuade myself it looked ok. After all, Catherine zeta jones hair is extremely dark. I did lather it twice or three times when I washed it and luckily the GOTH look didn't last too long. Put on a bit of blusher.

Thanks for all the replies. I have washed repeatedly with H&S and it's not quite as gothy. I'm just brazening it out otherwise. Dh says he likes it (terrible eyesight though).

You can buy hair dye remover, from Boots,Superdrug ,or Wilkinsons
I have used this in the past and it works

I did that at the weekend. I ended up putting a colour stripper on it, then it went orange. So I put a semi perm dark ash blonde over the orange, just for 5 minutes, and it went back to a medium brown. Nightmare. I'll never learn.

Oh mine never went orange .maybe depends what has been on before

Oh, I'd proper had a go at it. It was a dark brown, then I put a red over it, then another red..... it's back to normal now though

I dyed my hair (mixed 2 dyes :mahogany + a light brown) it came out mauvey. Way too dark .
I now have Vit C and I'm going for it

OK, I have crushed up 20 high strength VitC tablets, mixed with a H&S type shampoo , lathered it on and put on clingfil,
2 hours later , rinsed and....

Diddly Squat
No colour run when I rinsed , nothing on the towel.

I'm wrapped in conditioner now , planning to repeat it tomorrow .

I have brown hair again.

No idea where the dye went , the water ran clear this morning and there was nothing on my pillow but the evil looking mauve has gone !

Which does make me concerned about VitC tablets TBH. I don't take them but if they can remove dye , what can they do to my insides?

I've found the Colour B4 effective, and didn't affect my hair - you are likely to need to put a different dye on top of it afterwards though, as (well, in my experience) it comes out a bit brassy after stripped.

Is ColourB4 for all dyes or mainly for permenamt . Mine is a semi-p but lasts maybe 12 weeks .

And though I haven't used ColourB4 , I know it stinks.
I'll get my techy DD to post my before/after pics , I am quite impressed with myself