I went brunette!

Sounds like she used a color with too much violet base, the base tends to show when going from lightened to darker. If you dye over it with a brown with a gold base, that ought to counter the violet and warm it up. (Or you can go back to your stylist and tell her its too purple and see if she will fix it for you without charging).

Since you asked for stories, yes, I have been blonde and gone dark over it a few times. Over the years I have learned a few things. One is that 20 volume developer works better than 10 volume for this when using permanent dye. (I would have thought 10 was all you needed since you don't want lift, but did a test strand with each and found the 20 volume went darker and lasted longer). I guess the extra peroxide helps open the hair strand so the dye can get in. I have also learned that using red or green bases in brown dye when doing this can lead to some yucky colors! Green based brown dye will turn it green, and red based dye will turn it various shades of red brown (can be very bright red sometimes). I have used those by mixing the two together, this came out okay, but I like better what I do now. I usually choose a gold or neutral base and sometimes mix a little violet based brown in it to counter the yellowyness of the blonde, (very little), because like you I don't like cool shades on me. Though the worst thing I've ever done was use henna over lightened hair. They tell you not to do that on the henna jar, and boy they mean it! That sea monster green is permanant. All you can do is cut it off. Much better to stick with chemicals in this situation!

Edited by Susan W - October 14 2010 at 12:27pm

The 6 won't lift the 5 any lighter, (color won't lift color), but it will probably tone down the purple. You might want to test strand just to make sure its what you want before you add more damage to all of it.

I had the same happen, I dyed my hair darker the last time using a level 5 mixed with 6, and it came out a blackish brown (but I had used the 10 volume developer that time, so it faded to medium brown in a week, then eventually to dark blonde). Then this time I was trying to go that dark again, I wanted it blacker, and mixed 2 level 5s together (with 20 volume dev.) thinking that would be good enough, and I got medium brown! Both were clairol permanent, so I still don't know why that happened, but either way, its all good! (I also wear cover-up make up though, so the complexion thing is less of an issue no matter what I do to it.)

Edited by Susan W - October 15 2010 at 9:22am