Omg...I hate my new color.......

oh no! so it's not even a deep coral, it's more red? ...do you have a picture? maybe as it fades it'll be better-- your base showing through a pinker color might give you the coral you want, but it might take a while if you're not going to switch to dandruff shampoo or anything to fade it faster. 

i know what you mean about being fed up with dying it every week--- i really liked having my hair silver a few years ago, but it was like, one wash and time to redo... just too much work!!  anyway, i bet the color is not as bad as you think, but it still sucks that it's not what you want. 

Yea I was trying to get the pic to work, but it's WAY more electric in real life. I'd be happier if the pic was more like what it is.  I've seen pretty electric corals online before but it's like borderline reddish which reminds me of the joker on me (I know he had green hair, but I just feel like that). I can't pull off that super saturated look, I feel like a kid. The pale color was way better but it was soooo patchy, so my only hope is that this fades drastically in the first wash and there after because I was really trying to avoid bleaching (or fading with harsh methods) again. My hair is pretty dry. : Yea I have the dandruff shampoo which is kinda better for my hair IMO than the sulfate free ones, but I have a lot of those to preserve the color for when it was lighter (and it also washed out for me in one or two washes anyway!)  Also I wonder if this color will fade MORE orange than the Hot Pink, rather than a pinky coral. BLAH! If so I'm just going to do purple when its way way faded, because my funds are limited and I have tons of purple dyes but I wanted that to pale as well, so it will be a while.....

If you already had orangey/gingery/corally tones in your hair, and added Pink Fire over it, which is already red based if I'm remembering correctly, then that will make a much more red toned color. Any kind of ginger/orange ton is going to pull pinks more over to the warm/red side in the first place, especially using a warm pink. Like I had orange/ginger in my hair along with gold and yellow. I used Atomic Pink over it and it was a warm pink over the yellow and gold, but anything with a hint of ginger to it made it pull much more reddish.

If it's too dark and too reddish, I know you don't want to actively fade it, but if you don't have the patience for letting it fade on it's own, I would try and fade it then. Like when you wash your hair, use something with sulfates in it or an anti dandruff shampoo instead, put a shower cap on it and get on with the rest of your shower. Then when you're all done you can just rinse it out. Even just doing overnight coconut oil + olive oil soaks will help pull out color.

Once it's faded some, if you still want a coral and it's orange looking, I would try using very diluted Pink Rose to act as a toner for it. If you have a photo of what your hair looks like when it's faded some (since you said it's too dark) and a photo of what you want it to look like that would help a ton 🙂

It's really hard to say if it will stain or not, there's so many factors that can attribute to staining with semis, so it really is a tough call to make. I'm so sorry you're not happy with your color, that's such a sucky feeling 🙁 It can be fixed though!

@katie Ohh thanks yea I def don't mind using a dandruff shampoo and I also think the oil soaks would be so helpful (as opposed to like a bi-carb fade). I didn't think Pink Fire was red based. (Sometimes I wonder if I have issues seeing color the right way) I couldn't find pics on google for that one, but based on the numbers, I thought it was one step up from Hot Pink but less than Pink Rose. I guess it is, but it's not a perfect spectrum. Also I was previously diluting, so this at full strength is going to be more intense than the colors I was using before. Previously I had (pic) which photoed more orange than it actually was but it was still nice. I just liked how it fit my face. I can't do super cool tones like green/blue, but I'm soooo not a red or dark pink person 😛  I ended up putting Pink Rose on the lengths but keeping the roots a nice pale orange coral and it looked like creamsicle sherbet it was awesoomme!

Oh yea, I remember why I went full strength too, not just because the diluted dye faded sooo fast but the mid lengths you see in the pic would just NOT stay dyed. The color was too light. That's why I started to do the Pink Rose on that part. They didn't just look orange, it looked dusty and blah. Also it was hard to blend from light roots to Pink Rose and often it looked odd. So *now* I hope it stays somewhat colored but knowing me I'll get bored with the evenness and add streaks again. 😛 I love how those looked throughout.

PS I plan on doing something like the color you have as your profile next, and if it fades paler, that would be super awesome!

Besides anti dandruff shampoo, Lush I love juicy  might work even better. I had great results with it. My  head was way happier with I Love Juicy than it would be with anti-dandruff.

Update: It's fading soo much nicer. (As I hoped) Currently the top is a bit more vibrant and pink than the last 'coral' image I posted (from before dying it with Pink Fire) and because of the orange tones that were already there, its a hot pink/coral and the ends are like a magenta fuchsia. They're a little too dark for me comparatively with the top (obviously, cuz it's obmre, but they fade less fast as well) so I'm using the dandruff shampoo and prell specifically on the ends now while washing. I also just bleached my roots and I like how it gives a 'starburst' effect, especially when the top color is lighter already.

But I decided I do like Pink Fire as a color and will probably keep using that but DILUTED! Lol. I also mixed some of my left over Sunrise Orange with Pink Rose diluted as a test and that could work, though previously I used Hot Pink instead of Pink Rose, as Pink Rose is far more magenta.

PS, updated with picture of what I want ideally.

I wouldn't say you're far away from that already, if not already there to be honest but maybe the screen on my phone shows it differently

this faded really nicely!  it does look really close to your ideal-- maybe it's a bit more pinky-purple leaning at the ends, but not much. 

also, maybe off topic, but i'm super jealous of your length.  it looks like you've got *at least* six inches on me, but maybe more, it's hard to tell.  what do you do with all that hair on a normal day, do you braid it or keep it tied up, or do you just wear it down?

Omg I am so jealous of your length!!!!

You really aren't far off at all! You're just a teeny bit darker and have a little bit more orange tone to it, but you are so, so, SO close! In areas you look like you're already there. It may look more like your goal as it fades more. What is your base like? To me it looks like for the first photo, you would need a yellow base or just a fractional amount lighter than yellow. In the 2nd it looks like you would need it between yellow and pale yellow, and pale yellow for the 3rd.

If you can lightly bleach bath it once it fades more, and if it looks to orangey, using the Pink Rose SUPER diluted over it may help tone that down a bit and make it more of a pinky coral.

I absolutely love your hair, this color is gorgeous, it's so long, you have beautiful natural waves, it's just gorgeous!!!

Awwwwwww!!! Thanks!! Lol that's so funny that you guys say that about length cuz of course I'm jealous of girls with longer (and smoother) hair too, go fig!  And if it makes yall feel better I have horrid skin 😐 lol

Yea I actually took some pics in sunlight and it looks way similar to hers, but mine has such a variety of yellow/orange/ginger/browns in it that it's so 'muddy' throughout. Like a few strands are so pretty and even have like highlights of orange and pink but then I get those odd darker ones too. And yea, the ends are more purpley magenta because of that darkness and staining. Hers is like, glorious perfection. I read that she used pravana pink mixed with pravana coral.  Also, once I wash it one more time it totally changes.  I do sometimes think that I don't need to go white, and I worry about the damage (it's already damaged! Long hair always is :|) but then I just look at your hair, Katie and I'm like AHH WANT! lol.  I did try to BB one more time before dying and it was no change. I bet with a better bleach it might...and I'm temped to buy a better bleach even if just for my roots to get lighter than that yellow you see. That's what I get on virgin roots with vol 30, 7th stages bleach bath for about 40? min. I do kind of try to overlap when I bleach so that the previous roots get technically bleached twice and then are lighter, but its spaced apart by a month.  PS guys I heard that using an old synthetic foundation brush for root bleaching gives more control and less flyaways than a tint brush. Gonna try that. A gay man said so so it must be true. 🙂

Pastina, yea its like, always up. You know how it is with kids. I never style it, especially now that I'm dying it. I try to use sulfate free shampoos and cond masks, but *honestly* the sulfate free stuff kinda is bleah. I wear it in a bun when it's wet and almost always up cuz it gets in the way. But I try to use scrunchies (sexy!) and those cloth headbands wound around the bun because it's less damaging than ponies.  I did get the keratin a year ago so it's like, half wavy again, but if I let it air dry not-in-a-bun it would be a crazy fro. For some reason the last few inches  stayed more straight. I had a bad hair cut a few months ago and was sooo pissed. She cut a good 4 inches but it was still long. It's probably about to my waist in the back and doesn't usually go past that. I can get a long layer to like, a few inches below but the bulk of it is around my waist or above. I constantly trim split ends but only get a cut like once a year, which is so bad. I heard hair has a natural internal stop point. Like, if I cut mine short, it will grow back to this length in like 3 years (maybe 2?) but if I keep it long like this it doesn't grow much in a year at all. PS I love your new color! I love mixes like that 🙂

Oh hell I'll add the sunlight pic. Makes me never wanna wash it out haha.