So new, so innocent, so clueless! Burnt copper to pastel pink!?

I'm actually thinking, it's going to be really, really hard. :/

"I have only ever had bleach applied to my hair once. It was a bleach bath using 12%."

Pleeeease don't use 12% (40vol) ever again, even for a bleach bath. It's just too strong.

"I have another box of colour remover but after reading about how it works I get the idea that it won't alter the colour much from what it is now? I used the product exactly to how it recommended and rinsed for longer than was necessary. Is this right? "

What you did was right, yes. But you could get a really good lift of colour still from another 2 goes. It's the best thing to try first.

"I would love it to be the colour of the 2nd pic im posting. I'm quite determined and will happily lift it gently over a long period of time even if it goes yellow as long as I can achieve this colour in the end. Is it possible? Any help would be so appreciated."

Try to not be too determined. It might be impossible to get all of your hair that pink. Going from red to a pastel colour is about as hard as it gets. Red stains badly. You may never get past the orange stage on the mid lengths down.

Once you've used the colour removers, you can start doing weekly bleach baths to see if you can get it light enough. Of course this will damage the ends, even if it is less damaging than a full bleach, so you might have to prepare to lose a little length.

If you manage to get to a pale yellow (inside of a banana) then you can tone to white using a silver toner or purple shampoo.

It's not impossible, but honestly, it's tricky and will probably cause at least some damage. Sorry! 🙂

Thank you so much for your honesty 🙂 even though the remover is a long and frankly smelly process I'm gonna give it another bash this week. I'll add some pics of my progress.

Is it true that the colour remover damages your hair too? Just a small worry that my hair will suffer hugely bleach bathing it after using this chemical.. Or will it be alright?

No, it doesn't really damage hair other than making it dry. Just use a good deep conditioner afterwards.

You need to wait at least a week after using the colour remover before using any bleach. The bleach can cause any residual, but shrunken and not washed out, colour molecules to reoxidise and darken again.

Great advice -thank you!  *thx*

I agree with everything Janine has said. I would concentrate on getting the old colour out before you rush into bleaching. You will need to use a colour remover at least three times, and I would still wait and try and fade it as much as possible between removers before starting the bleaching process.
If you try and bleach out permanent red it will go very orange, much more so than natural dark hair when bleached, so it is not a shortcut. You will also get a lot of banding and unevenness, which will be avoided (or at least minimised) by using the colour removers.

I'm so grateful for your help guys. Before asking I was thinking of bleaching my hair but glad you stopped me!

Ok so I'll use colour remover 2 more times over the next 2 weeks and post pics as I go 🙂