:-[ *ott*
Ok I decided to give up an expensive trip to the hair salon for dying and highlights and thought I'd just dye my hair one solid colour myself. I know choosing your own colour and developer is best but in a weak moment I bought boxed hair colour. The name of the colour sounded good and it was on offer so thought I'd give it a go. It was light caramel brown by Schwartzkopf.
My hair was previously coloured and hi-lighted but not done for a few months now. I suppose I should've done a strand test but didn't. After the colour was sitting in my head about 15 minutes I noticed it had gone very dark. Way darker than 'light caramel brown'. I let it sit the full 30 minutes the instructions told me too though. Nothing changed for the better, it's still very dark, almost black. I can live with it for now but I don't like it. Why would this happen?? I'm tempted to try doing some bleached highlights myself just around the front to get rid of some of the darkness but the possibility of botching that up is pretty great. So not sure what to do.....
Use a colour remover. Then you can see where you are and try again. Not with a box dye π
Hair that is already lightened has a habit of grabbing colour too much. That's why it happened.
Ok just finished using Colour B4 and then used a temporary 'colour enhancer' to cover up the orangey colour I was left with. It looks ok now anyway and the intense darkness is gone thankfully! I can't remember as its been a while since I had to do this, how long should I wait before using permanent colour again?
A week.
But I wouldn't at all. If your hair has grabbed the colour once, it's going to keep doing it. If you need to lighten your roots, then only use it on your roots. Maybe pull it through for a few minutes at the end, but it's risky. Stick to direct dyes!