Dying Hair with Hydrogen Peroxide

I am a black girl with mostly natural hair.  My ends are slightly texturized, but overall I'm considered a natural.  My natural hair color/roots are like this:

http://ayearofyoga.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/natural-hair.jpg

I only achieved this color with previous dye jobs:

http://www.beauty-and-the-bath.com/image-files/jayden-smith-boys-natural-african-american-hairstyle.jpg

I achieved it by using a light brown color over my natural color.  I left it on for 45 minutes, because after 30 minutes there was no change and I wanted to at least take it down to a lighter brown.  Then later when new roots came in, I used a red color and followed the directions because I was worried about damage.  I only put the color on the ends for 10 minutes like the directions said.

This was my goal:

http://www.littleblackcherry.co.uk/ekmps/shops/yasmilena/resources/image/redhead-scene%20girl1.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k261/stretchii/Album2/Red%20Hair/red.jpg

With my previous dye jobs, I only got some red highlights and stuff, but I want more of an overall lightening effect.  I wanted more of a red hair color, but don't want to keep putting layers of dye over my hair.  I figure that peroxide might be safer if I use it diluted with water by like 75% etc, and then I could use some cranberry juice or other natural method to bring out more cherry like highlights.

I could use more peroxide when new roots come in, but I'm thinking it work as a transition from store bought hair color.

Please tell me about any experiences you had with dying your hair with peroxide.  Please tell me how much you used and what your results were.  If you need to reference a pic, but don't know where, I just did a google search under images instead of web for whatever hair color images I needed.

Edited by daffodil - October 25 2009 at 11:11am