Help! I dyed my hair slightly too dark!

[ILoveEurovision]

I dyed my hair for the first time ever last night. I did it at home using Naturtint 3N Dark Chestnut permanent colour. It's covered my greys well but the colour is darker than I realised - it's so hard to tell from the picture on the box. It's not a disaster but not quite the same as my natural colour. I think I should have gone one shade lighter (4N Chestnut).

Can I just use one shade lighter the next time I need to dye my hair? It suggests putting it on your roots for 30 minutes and the rest of your hair for 10 so I guess that would help it blend in a bit. Will it get lighter anyway over time as it's washed even though it says permanent? Help! I have no idea what I'm doing.

I’ve been using home hair dyes since I was 14 and I’m now 38, I’ve done all kinds of colours and had plenty of errors! You’ll probably find it will fade a bit as it’s washed, you can speed it up with using head and shoulders oddly enough- the normal one. It seems to strip colour out really well.

Next time you do it I would use a slightly lighter one and put it on the ends first and roots last - as you want the old colour to lift properly first, roots will be virgin hair so will take the new colour easily. Obviously do a strand test first.

I had the same situation a few years ago. I read that you should wash your hair with Fairy Liquid or Persil, so I did this every few hours! Unfortunately, it made no real difference and I ended up just dying it a lighter shade a few weeks later.

On the plus side, remember that you will likely notice the colour much more than anyone else will. I took a deep breath before going into work on Monday, expecting all the "What have you done to your hair?" comments, but in fact nobody noticed at all! And as the above poster said, it will fade with time.

Thanks both. It's quite a subtle mismatch. I don't think most people would notice but it's like all the nice lighter coloured strands have disappeared.

I nearly bought a semi-permanent and wishing that I did now!