My medium brown hair color turned out waaay too dark - how to fix - or when may I recolor?

[momee]

I do not like it AT ALL.  What are my options?

(this is a boxed medium brown from Loreal or something simple like that)

[Aura]

The same thing happened to me last time I colored my hair. I don't remember which box it was...Garnier Fructis, I think. Was your hair brown to start with? Mine is, so I thought maybe the brown on top of brown made it darker. I don't know.

 

As to what to do, well, I wasn't thrilled with it, but it's not too bad so I'm just waiting till I can color again. I'm thinking about 4-6 weeks, whenever my gray's start really showing through, that's when I'll color again.

 

I usually use hair color from Sally's Beauty Supply, not the box, but the box was more convenient. The stuff from Sally's seems to be not as drying and I get a better feel for the color. But the box stuff wasn't bad, except for being too dark, so I'll probably go with that again, just make sure I go a shade LIGHTER than I want.

 

Sorry for all the rambling! Wish I could offer better advice, but at least you can know you're not alone in this. :)

[Momof3littles]

Did you use permanent color or something semi or demipermenant?  I think that makes a difference.

[Hyacinth]

I did that once. I have brown hair and colored with a brown shade, but I ended up with a serious Elvira vibe (minus the cleavage).

 

I washed it many times with Prell those first few days. It did fade a bit with that treatment. Another option would be to visit a stylist and ask for a re-do or maybe highlights to break it up a bit. 

[Punks in Ontario]

For medium brown or darker, you must use one shade lighter than you want.  This is a common problem resulting in the Elvira look.

 

That said, I'm not sure how to fix it.  Hopefully someone will chime in.

 

[Punks in Ontario]

Actually on thought, if you want 1 shade lighter than you have, pick a colour 2 shades lighter to get the desired shade.  If it's 2 shades too dark, go 4 shades lighter.  (It's a math question.  Just find the average of the two and use that.)

[trinchick]

I have medium brown hair that I used to have professionally colored and highlighted. I now do it on my own and am happy with the results. One time when my stylist was selecting a color, she brought out the swatches. Imagine my surprise when the shade she chose was not brown at all but called "light blonde." But it came out brown.

 

So now I used demi-permanent "light neutral blonde" and it comes out brown. Like a pp, I buy the dye and developer at Sallys, where I find the people to be incredibly helpful.

 

The demi-permanent color turns my grays a lighter shade than the rest, so I actually come out looking like I got highlights for a fraction of the cost - and more importantly for a fraction of the time spent in the chair. Even my stylist agrees that this is the way to go.

 

Not helpful advice to you for this go-round, but maybe useful if you try to color again.

[redsquirrel]

Well, you can do a colour remove. They sell those in Sally's.

 

But you can just wash your hair with a non-colour safe shampoo. It doesn't have to be Prell, it can be anything really. You want those sulfates! Don't do anything extreme, just wash frequently and use water that is quite warm. You should start to see the colour fade rather quickly.

 

However, beware that a brown could start to look brassy. They can lift to an orangy colour, not a guarantee or anything like that, just be aware. It could also make some nice auburn high lights and you might like it, lol.

 

Next time, colour a shade or two lighter than your natural colour. It won't bleach your hair, but it might give you the colour you like.  You can always go darker, but it is difficult to make a too dark colour go lighter.

 

 

[SebastianCat]

I color my hair with color from a box and it always turns out darker than I like it, but fades to something reasonable inside of a week.   I like the color best about 2-3 weeks later.

[Rebel Yell]

Give it a week or 2 of daily washing with a "deep cleansing" shampoo before you do any more coloring. It's fine to condition it, just use a shampoo that will fade the color.  Hotter water will also open up the cuticle layer and let more of the dyes molecules wash out.

 

What specifically did you use?  Demipermanent, semi-permanent, fade-resistant???  Any previous color underneath?  Any previous perms, highlights?  Think back 1 full year for every 6" of length of your hair. Just because it;s faded or covered up doesn't mean the chemicals aren't still present.  It really can make a huge difference in how to fix this.

 

 

[Katy]

You can partially strip the color with Original Dawn Dish detergent.  The brand matters because Dawn contains ammonia, most others don't, and the ratio of ammonia is too high in the concentrated kind.

 

Coat your hair in dawn the way you would with hair color.  Put on a shower cap and leave it on for twenty minutes or so.  Rinse out with warm water and then deep condition your hair.  Aussie makes a good, cheap one.  Rinse out the shampoo, blow dry, and check the color.  Depending on how porous your hair, the shade will be lifted by half a shade to 1 shade.  If it's still too dark you can repeat once or twice.

 

Obviously this won't strip hair out to platinum the way one of those oops hair color removers will, but it's cheap and gentle.

 

Always choose one level lighter than you think you want to color your hair.

[merry gardens]

That happened to me one summer and now i watch out for it every summer and fall. Between the sun and chlorine from a pool, my hair becomes super porous and my usual hair color turned out far darker. I shampooed and shampooed was still unhappy with my hair for a month. I found an expensive powdered product helped a bit--and realized later that baby powder might have a similar lightening affect. I started going to an expensive salon for my hair coloring--and the next summer about that same time of year, my hair still turned out darker, (although not nearly as bad).