Still unhappy - advice needed

Hi,

Bah, my hair's gone too dark again.  I'm annoyed.  After getting my ugly dull muddy hair to a brassy light brown, I was quite pleased with myself.  I thought my hair would have held on to more dye than that over the years, but "yay" I thought.  Anyway, my roots were a dreadful orangey blonde and the rest was the light orangey brown, so I dyed it with a light ash brown colour (as my hair's SOOOO porous), and it went ok.  I say ok because it didn't take to my roots very well, it was too light on my roots even though I did those for longer.  But it did take some of the brassyness away.

Anyway, to cut a very long story short: I dyed my roots again tonight with the other box of the same dye (Nice N Easy light ash brown) and left it for 25-30 minutes.  OF COURSE, because it's ME!!, it's gone too dark on the rest of the hair again.  How that happened I'm not to sure, as I put all the dye on my roots.  What's even worse, my roots are STILL too light.  ARGH.

I don't know what to do now.  My hair looks fine if you're going for that 2-tone look, with those gorgeous orangey undertones (sarcasm )...but I don't want that.  I just want a nice, natural looking, medium brown -  So that it actually looks brown instead of "maybe, maybe not brown", because it's gone so dark.  I know it'll wash out some, but that will just make my roots even lighter.

Goodness gracious me.

Please, any advice that does not include the words "see a professional" or "protein filler" (because it doesn't even exist over here!) will be hugely, hugely welcomed.



Thankfully soon I'll be receiving a box of that much sought after Colorfix courtesy of our lovely Blondie.







Edited by aubergine

Aubergine, what is your virgin hair color?  So, I read in another post that your hair is naturally very light blonde!  GASP!    I think colorfix will get those stubborn pigments out.  Good luck!  Just strand test prior to doing the entire head from now on...to make sure the color comes out even and such. 

Also, when dyeing the new roots, only apply the color to the roots--as you said you have.  Hunt down some conditioner, I think Clairol makes some with protein in it (get to reading those labels at the drugstore ), and apply that to your hair prior to rinsing the color out.  Maybe this will help the darkness from the top not darken the bottom.  And to touch up the mid-section and ends use a demi in one shade lighter than you use for the roots, like Natural Instincts, rather than a permanent.  (use that conditioner if the ends aren't holding color--sort of as a protein filler) The ends tend to grab darker as you have noticed.  Hmmm, I think you must know all this stuff but thought I'd try to help.  Feel for you, really I do! 

Edited by Rebekah

In my opnion, you should condition your hair each time you shampoo it.  Also use "cones" on the ends to keep your hair healthy. 

"Cones" are what is added to your conditioner that coats the hair shaft and filles the "porous" spots to make your hair silky and shiney.  Cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone...I think these are two.  Get Paula Begoun's book if you can to help you decide which product doesn't dry your hair--and has enough conditioning agents in it for your hair type.