How to make my dyed hair brighter with minimal damage / healthy hair tips?

[Abyssinian]

Hello all! I was hoping to find out what the best dyes / hair repair products there are for the brightest colour for the least damage.

I don't know if any of this matters but here's a brief history of my hair! - I'm naturally a mousy brown, but I've been dying my hair red for seven years, and I've always used Schwarzkopf Brilliance 37 (Hypnotic Red). It always came out wonderfully light, almost orange, until a 12 month period about three years ago during which I dyed it brown, regretted it, bleached that out and continued with the red. The colour after bleaching was fire-engine fantastic, but my hair was so damaged I had to cut it most of it off at the end of that year.. I dyed it a fairly darker red once directly after that, and since then have gone back to using my usual dye, but my hair seems to be permenantly darker/more faded now than it ever used to be, even on the regrown hair (which is more than half my hair at this point).

This is my hair after the most recent colouring: (Direct link? I don't know what I'm doing.)
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t135/ellabelle1/357d92be-f731-4bfa-aacf-821b5d67c082.jpg
And this is my ideal colour: (After bleaching, before cut. Sorry about the face!)
http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t135/ellabelle1/d32d65f4-21ee-4220-bb99-cfe4db9a2ed1.jpg

I'm wondering if there's a way to get my brighter colour back without losing all my hair again. I miss it so! I'm after alternatives to bleach such as awesome permenant dye recommendations or less damaging colour-removal products, and also whatever hair care you would recommend to help my hair stay long and healthy, even if I DO wind up bleaching it.

Thanks in advance!

[ravenreed]

It is difficult to go lighter without damaging hair. I use a deposit only dye, Elumen, that shows over my dark hair, but it is somewhat subtle. I actually like it, and get tons of compliments. However, you might have to decide which you want more, length or brightness of color. Here is a picture of my hair color for comparison. Your natural color is probably lighter than mine and might turn out brighter, but I suggest a swatch test before committing because Elumen can be impossible to remove.

If you do want to continue bleaching to keep your bright color, I suggest looking into CO (conditioner only) cleansing to help your color last longer and because it is a little gentler on the hair.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/ravenreed/20140514_171154-1.jpg

[Lockoptimisten]

You could try color b4 it takes away old color whitout damage. I did it and it workes for me.

[kidari]

I like the color in the first pic the best. I strongly suggest that you always save all your shed hairs from your brushes to do a test swatch before proceeding with anything! No matter what color you put on top of what you have right now it will only make it darker and darker. The color you put on top will also blend with the color you have on it already, which is why yours almost never comes out the color on the box or lavender doesn't look lavender on your hair unless it's bleached past the point of yellow. Don't make the mistake I made! I had my hair dyed a dark blonde/light brown and decided to take out the brass by putting some diluted manic panic in turquoise on my hair. I didn't even leave it on that long and in under 30 minutes my hair was jet black with hints of emerald green along the roots and around the hairline. I almost cried, because I wanted to keep the color light. You can look into bleach baths as they are easier to lift color evenly and gently but it only lifts 1 level, maybe 2 depending on the volume developer you use. The only way to get it that light is by removing all the color out prior to dying unfortunately.