Question about my DDs badly home dyed hair

[tinkywinkyshandbag]

My DD (17) asked me to dye her naturally mid brown hair purple last April. We were bored and it was lockdown so I did, with a Schwarzkopf live in a purplish colour. I then topped it up for her in the summer. As it grew out it faded to a lovely pinkish tone but she was getting a lot of regrowth showing so she asked me to dye it back to her natural colour. I put an Olio dye on in light brown. Sadly it didn't really take, you can still see the pink through it and it now looks dull and basically not very nice. I think the Schwarzkopf had actually bleached her hair, so maybe that affected how the Olio went on. We can't afford for her to get the colour redone at a salon and I don't want to put yet another box dye on. Her hair is shoulder length so it will take a long time to grow out. Any ideas? Could we use some sort of toner? She's a bit fed up with it now and it's a shame - I wish we had just left it the pinkish colour to be honest, even with the roots showing.

Can you post a pic?

This is before the brown dye went on, it looks more red here because of the electric light. Now it looks like this but much duller and sort of flat. I'll see if she'll let me take a photo tomorrow in daylight.

Live colours are one of the hardest to get rid of. If you can stand the smell and have time I'd look into colour b4 and remove it and have a semi permanent dye ready to recolour straight after. My Dd and her friend decided to dye their hair with the live black for reasons unknown to me (she's naturally blonde!) after deciding the corpse look wasn't good on her we used colour b4 and successfully removed the black. It's a long process and stinks but as the hairdressers are closed it was the only option.

Ok, I'll be able to help you if I can see a photo of exactly how it looks now. You'll need to buy professional colour and she'll have to darken it a little bit should be totally fixable

@triceratopsmama thank you so much I'll ask her tomorrow that's very kind

@lunalucie that won't work. You cannot remove a colour that has lightened the hair. It worked on the black because the hair was darkened not lightened. Different thing altogether.

@tinkywinkyshandbag no problem at all. Happy to help😊

Get one of the Colourless colour strippers, that should get rid of the pink, and then take stock? I dyed and bleached my hair all the colours under the sun for years, couldn't have said what my natural colour was, but used a stripper and underneath it all it looked quite reasonable. Wasn't the dark brown I remembered, but looked naturally streaked.

@VienneseWhirligig there's no need for the op to do any of that to her daughters hair. She'll be able to colour over it, no need to complicate the matter.

@triceratopsmama I told DD that you offered to help and she was really pleased - photos tomorrow! Thanks again.

@tinkywinkyshandbag that's great, I'll keep an eye out for the photo tomorrow, you can pm it to me if she's happier with that 😊

It was just a suggestion, no need to get your knickers in a twist

I did this to myself once and I had to use semi permanent dye for a year then cut off the dyed part leaving me with a short crop in my natural colour.

@VienneseWhirligig I'm not wearing any🤣

@triceraptopsmama I don't think I can send attachments by private message so here are a few, I think the colour underneath by her hairline is basically her natural colour, the brown colour on the top is the Olio dye and then the lengths is an unholy mess of all three colours! It does look more red in the photos than it does in real life, it's more of a pinkish brown. Thank you for any advice.

@tinkywinkyshandbag would she be happy to go a shade darker than her natural colour?

@triceratopsmama yes I think so - but would she then have reverse roots when her natural colour grows back in?

You need to put a semi terminate on it OP, not a permanent colour.
Do not put another permanent colour on it as this will make it duller as you will create more damage which is why it looks dull.

@tinkywinkyshandbag The best option is to use a semi permanent colour, another permanent colour will be too harsh and look dull.
I'd look for a semi in a level 6, something nice and rich, a chestnut kind of colour. So she won't have the same visible root but there will be a slight difference. But only a semi, definitely nothing permanent, Just something to blend it all together while it grows out. And she can reapply a semi as and when needed without causing damage to her hair.

@triceratopsmama thank you - is there a brand you recommend?

Light brown was probably too light for the colour you were trying to cover. Casting Creme gloss is a range of semi permanent

@tinkywinkyshandbag I've sent you a pm

@triceratopsmama thanks so much, appreciate the help and thanks all who commented.