Hi all,

I made a big mistake yesterday. Let me give you a little of my hair dyeing history.

November: Chemically dyed my hair red (previously chemically brown)
This faded to a disgusting shade of brown-orange after 2 weeks. I desperately wanted red hair that would STAY red, so..

January: Hennaed my hair twice (left on for 8 hours both times)
I achieved a orange-red-burgundy shade, depending on the lighting. It wasn't RED enough, so..

February: Manic Panic with Vampire Red (5 hours)
This made my hair go too purpley, and it faded out after 3 weeks, so..

March: Special Effects with half Blood Red, half Nuclear Red (3 hours)
I was expecting a truer red since I mixed a warm red with a cool red, but unfortunately, it turned my hair VERY purple-y red.

By this time, I was sick of red hair, especially purpley-red hair, so I decided that.. I wanted to go back to having brown hair with caramel highlights.

I went to the hairdresser, and told her my dyeing "history" as above. She took a look at my hair, and exclaimed that there was "way too much red" in it- even though the MP and SFX were semi-permanent, they still were IN my hair, not just outside it. And the fact that I'd henna'd my hair certainly didn't help.

She told me that there was no way I would be able to get a brown-brown- the best she could do was a warm brown that would still have tints of red in it. That was fine by me, as I look good in warmer shades of brown.

She said that she would strip as much of the red from my hair as possible in order to be able to achieve brown, rather than just.. Slightly brown red. (Does that make sense?)

So she put on a chemical wash, which is something like a weaker version of bleach, and every now and then, she'd come by to check on my hair, then cluck in dismay and tell me how much red there was in my hair, and how it wasn't coming out. She applied to the length first, as she said that the most red was in the length- only towards the end did she apply it to the top of my head and roots.

After TWO HOURS of leaving the chemical wash in my hair (she told me any longer and my hair would be in bad condition), she washed it out..

My roots were an albino pale orange, and right below the roots, it was a strong reddish orange. The length was a faintly-reddish orange. I hope that made sense. So it was sort of like this (imagine this is my hair length):

Albino orange
Strong red orange
Strong red orange
Pale red orange
Pale red orange
Pale red orange
Pale red orange
Pale red orange

She then applied the brown dye, and washed it out etc..

I just looked at my hair under the sunlight/bright lights, and got a shock when I saw how UNEVEN my hair colour was!

While the length is a COOL brown, the very roots are a pale orange, and right below my roots, it was a muddy, but obvious red. So the length CLASHES with the top since it's cool below and warm on top- not to mention the terrible unevenness in colour!! Something like this:

Orange
Reddish brown
Reddish brown
Cool brown
Cool brown
Cool brown
Cool brown
Cool brown

I am SO unhappy- I just wanted a uniform shade of brown, and now it looks like I had an incredibly bad DIY dye job! Not to mention the fact that I paid over $180!!!!!!

I called her today, and she told me that it was expected that the chemical wash would leave my hair uneven, and it could only be corrected after completely dyeing my hair several more times.

What should I do?!?!??! It looks TERRIBLE!! I would rather have kept my eggplant-coloured hair than this!!!

Should I just re-dye my hair? How soon can I do it??
I was thinking of dyeing over my entire head with a warm brown. Would this be a good idea? Could I redye my hair TOMORROW? I know it's going to dry my hair out like crazy, but I'm planning on doing hair treatments EVERYDAY after that. Would this work?

And would it still be possible to get highlights done?
The hairdresser basically told me that my hair cannot be lightened past red, so any highlights I get won't show up- but what if the highlights were a lighter shade of warm brown? I hate having one-dimensional hair colour, which is the reason I wanted to dye it back to brown in the first place..

I'm so sorry for the long post and so many questions, but I desperately need help.. Advice please?!?!?