Gradient Hair Color - Reunion Coming Help!!!

Okay - I am sorry this is so long but if I tell you all everything....

What seems like forever ago (jeez I am old!) I was a terrific redhead!! Then one day I became a brunette and stayed that way for a long time - Three years ago I was blond (complete hair dye removal rusk elimin8 like three times - then a very gentle bleaching - looked great) Went back to brunette - eventually ends turned so dark brown they looked black.

Well...knowing my reunion is coming and knowing I needed to freshen up my hair - I knew I would have to remove the color and start again - which made me decide to go back to red!!!

I have seriously screwed up (and I should know better). Rusk Elimin8 twice and go a nice even dark blond. No orange, no damage, no foul. Got my hands on Miss Clairol 203RR (Reddest Mahogany Red) and 204RR (Reddest Copper Red) and 30 vol Creme developer(Clairol). I mixed the two (I wanted somewhere in between). Applied to roots, waited patiently for 15 minutes, applied farther down hair shaft, patiently waited ten minutes, applied to ends. Waited patiently 5 minutes and went to rinse.

Okay here's the problem - I think I should have used different strength developers - because now I have EXACTLY the color I wanted from the roots out about 6 inches and then it goes almost two levels darker in a gradient to this muddy red color I am sooooo not pleased with. You can see the fiery red trying to get through - but there's too much deposit (I think)

Now - where I live I do not have access to a professional beauty supply store - and we have limited selections in drugstores (suburban hell of hair dye), so I got all the original supplies online by mail. I am running out of money to do this and running out of time (Reunion on Sept 5th)

I have 1/2 a bottle of the darker of the two miss clairol shades (which I am afraid to do to my roots for fear of too dark result and 3/4 of a bottle of 30 vol developer.

Any suggestions based on what I have at home would be great...or products I can get at a local drug store like CVS (I am thinking of scavenging the highlighting kits)

ANY help is greatly appreciated!!


Edited by CassieCat - August 26 2010 at 2:00pm