don't try this at home

Up until 2 weeks ago, I had never coloured my hair. I decided I wanted honey blonde hair. My sister applied two shades of hi-lift colour using foils. It turned out beautifully. I should have left it alone. A few days later, though, we used a highlighting kit to brighten it up a bit. The highlights ended up a pale lemon yellow and my hair looked hideous. There was so much contrast between the highlights and base colour, I had to bleach all of my hair to the pale yellow level. I toned afterwards with a med. neutral blonde and my hair turned the colour of apricots. Then, I used a med. ash blonde to try to tone down the orange and ended up with peach hair. I panicked and, rather than waiting for the semi-permanent color to fade, I died my hair with a permanent light ash brown. Now, my hair is almost back to its natural colour -- except now it's a slightly duller colour, drier, and not as shiny. Lesson learned -- ALWAYS DO A TEST STRAND (or go to a professional).