Trying to get light brown hair

Use semi dyes in your natural colour. If it doesn’t cover the red enough use a little green dye in conditioner to tone it. If the build up makes it dark again, use clarifyimg shampoo a few times to strip some of the colour out.

Thank you! I tried today with an Ash Medium Brown.. and my hair looks horrifically unhealthy and the red is even worse!! What I wouldnt give to reverse it all and get my hair back! I might resort to just cutting it short and gradually letting it grow out.

As I said, add green. It neutralises the red into brown. You just need a green, a teal one would be ideal, from a company like Manic Panic or Adore. Add a tiny amount to conditioner, put it on during a wash as your usual conditioner. Leave it for 5 minutes and rinse out. If it's not enough, add a little more green and leave it for a little while longer. It's also only going to help your hairs condition 🙂

You might want to try a protein treatment as well. Something like Kpak reconstructor is good. Get a good deep conditioner for afterwards as it can dry the hair out a bit.

If none of that works, go for the chop. It can be lots of fun to start over!

Oh, that red tint to dark hair dyes is awful! Honestly one of the main reasons I went light, lol. A bit of green should neutralize it though - think opposite colors on the color wheel. Depending on how damaged your hair is, it might be a bit uneven though. My hair is very resistant to dye when healthy but my damaged lengths soaks it up like no tomorrow, which leaves me with some *cough* interesting colors, but that's just a matter of trial and error. Try some diluted green dye for a short time at first and then add more color for a longer time if that doesn't take, like Janineb said.

Also don't give up on your hair just yet! I've damaged my hair to the point where it would hardly dry at all and still managed to nurse it back. Obviously it's best to not damage it a lot at all but with some TLC you'd be amazed at how it can bounce back. The Joico K-Pak Reconstructor thingy is a god send in that regard - it saved my hair and I can't recommend it enough! I leave it on for thirty minutes at a time but you should work up from five minutes when you first begin, in case it's too much for your hair. You should follow up with a deep conditioner as well; I like to soak my hair in coconut and olive oil and leave it on over night. Chopping off the worst damage is recommended, but if you're very attached to your length I'd try babying it for a while before determining how much needs to go.

Oh and yeah - brown box dyes tend to have a lot of red pigment, and the peroxide also lightens your natural hair a bit in order to deposit the dye. You should definitely stick to semi-dyes (actual semi-dyes, not the Casting Creme stuff!!!) and ashy tones to neutralize the red. Also, if it's too dark from buildup, try Colour B4! That stuff works wonders and it doesn't damage your hair either, aside from being a bit drying. 🙂