Dyed my hair lilac. This isn’t lilac. It’s permanent.

[mycatsmellsbad]

My natural colour is very dark brown so I really wasn’t expecting great results from a box of ‘live’ lilac colour.

I’m really surprised it’s made my hair look so much lighter but it’s certainly not lilac. Is it a disaster or do you think it’s ok?

Was it Schwarzkopf? If so it lightens first and apparently doesn’t work on brunette hair. I used the rose pink shade on mine. And it didn’t do much.

Not a hint of lilac but it's a lovely colour.

I'm confused about the second photo because I would say that's a dark blonde/very very light brown. If that's your natural colour then it's definitely not dark brown.

You hair looked nice before! I think it's a bit concerning how a lilac dye turned blonde.

I think the new colour is nice and doesn’t look died at all, looks quite natural

But

WOW 😍 your old colour was so nice!! Why would you want to change that??

You've gone from dark blonde/light brown to honey.
It's lovely!

This is dark brown OP! (See pic)

Have woken up with huge regret this morning. I hate it, just looks really orange. I thought it was a wash in/wash out as it said comes out in 6-8 washes but that was just the first in a list of options they do. This is permanent ffs. I didn’t choose it my other half did as he’s been doing the shopping so stupid me for not checking.

I don’t suppose anyone knows if I get a box of brown dye that will help at all or will it just go green?

@whatdoyoudonow Oh I’m definitely not dark brown then!

Well it's clearly not lilac! It's a non descrip ashy blonde.
Why don't you be brave and go for a real strong purple.
Your hair clearly doesn't take to colour very well. So you probably need a much stronger purple. And what's the worst that can actually happen in this time of Corona : no one is going to see it or very few people, so even if it did go bright purple it would probably be totally fab rather than awful!

I would let it grow out. It might not be what you want exactly, but mixing in another color could make it a lot worse!
We have only seen the Pic you posted and that does look fine.

It looks lovely. I also have brown hair and tried to use turquoise but didnt take at all

That is one of the shades that bleaches and colours. I used to use them all the time. On lighter hair you do get a lovely lilac.

Thing is, it does clearly say on the pack that it lightens, right on the front it says "lightener + twist".

I'm also not sure what you expected from a pale lilac shade on dark hair if it had just been a wash out toner? It wouldn't show up at all.

I'm another one not understanding how you thought that you could turn your hair from mid brown to lilac.
In order to get a pastel results you have to bleach to buggery first.
About thirty years ago I bleached my brown hair to white and dyed it pink.
The result lasted about two washes and I had to dye it Auburn.
On a positive note, you were very lucky that you didn't have a total disaster. It doesn't look bad at all.

You could put a brown semi permanent over the top, but I'd give it a while. You might get used to it.
But for heaven's sake don't dye it purple as pp suggested! If you don't like the result you really will be in trouble.
I'd just leave it be.

I really like it! I might try it!

I used to buy the pink version specifically as the lightener part of it worked better than anything else on my hair. The pink bit never showed up much at all but I got a couple of days of rose gold before it went back to ash blonde.

I have lilac through the front of my hair at the moment but the hairdresser did it and it's on very very already bleached hair. My hair's really short though (prelockdown) so I've never worried too much about the condition of it as it doesn't stay on my head long enough to get knackered!

My natural hair colour is about what yours has gone to in the photographs and even dying it directly purple using directions - the colour didn't take before I started bleaching it seriously first.

You could just put a dye over but you'd need maybe dark golden blonde or light golden brown if you're worried about green just def do not out anything that looks medium brown or it'll be a lot darker /black

It looks lovely but your natural hair is not dark brown .

I wish it was as I would be buying one of those lilac dyes to achieve the colour on your first photo, its really nice

Maybe you could use a toner to get the yellow/orange tones out. Bleach London do a good one, and Jerome Russell. You can get them in Sainsbury’s. I do think your hair looked lovely before, but after lockdown I’m sure you can get it put back to that, but I would go to a salon. If you try to dye it back yourself you’ll lose all the different tones that you had before that make it look natural, and it could look a a bit harsh.
It’s not a disaster now, it just needs a toner.

Sorry, but I'm laughing that you considered your hair to be very dark brown!

Don't think it's even as brown as my mum's "mousey brown"!

"I wish it was as I would be buying one of those lilac dyes to achieve the colour on your first photo, its really nice"

Yup!

Hi OP it's light enough to colour over now, put a purple dye mixed with conditioner over the top of it and you should get the lilac you were after, just top it up when you need to :)

It's lovely OP. Stop worrying!

Where it says it will wash out it means the lilac will fade.
These colours are for very light / blonde hair so when the lilac fades you will be back to light/blonde hair.

They do have a lightener in them which is what has taken your hair to it's new colour, it didn't get light enough which is why the lilac didn't take.

The only way to lose the new colour will be to put another permanent, darker colour on.

From your picture it looks fine

It looks fine.
But if you do want to dye it back to the original colour, be aware that brown dyes come up much much darker than you think, Your original colour would be dark blonde or lightest brown.
Even medium brown would come out way too dark and look very harsh.

The problem is that all permanent dyes contain bleach; even brown ones. So you've treated your hair to a low level bleach.

I would advise buying a toner. To get rid of auburn/gingery tones you need to neutralise with a purple toner. Try Lee Stafford Purple shampoo (Boots) Use like a shampoo, Leave on for 5 mins then rinse and condition as normal.

There are other toning shampoos you can try. L'oreal purple shampoo (Tescos) is also good.

Brown box dyes come out notoriously dark- don't do it.

If you have to dye it again; use a dark ash blonde. dark ash blonde is essentially light brown.