Help! I dyed my hair and it came out too dark!

[TropicalBreeze]

I used L'Oreal Excellence Medium Golden Brown. My hair is naturally a light brown and all I wanted was to remove the brassiness. So it's now really dark, almost black. I tried Dawn dishwashing soap and it's still dark. What can I do?? It's way too dark.

[Elphie]

Try using a color removal product like Color Oops at Sally's. Your hair might appear a bit lighter than what you started with after using it.

[Bunnyhare]

Hi tropical breeze, i have no idea what to do but i wanted to say i know someone can give you advice here...and i hope it all works out good for you..sometimes they fade ,right?

[Fireweed]

Given time it well fade. The sun well make it fade a little faster.

[SimplyLonghair]

Oiling will sometimes help lift the color off. But I would also recommend the oops or color corrector. Good luck.

[spidermom]

I read recently that a warm oil treatment (left on for at least an hour) followed by ALS (ammonium lauryl sulfate) shampooing will pull color.

[Leena7]

I wouldn't use a color remover because they can sometimes make your hair too warm in color. I have dyed my hair brown with box dyes several times and every time I have done it my hair has come out too dark. However, every day the color will probably fade. If you wait 2-3 weeks, the color will probably lighten up substantially. Mine lightened up to the color I wanted after about 2 weeks. I will admit that I washed my hair every day, though. I hope that this helps you out.

[Fiferstone]

Hi TropicalBreeze:

For 3 years I used box dye on my hair to achieve the desired auburn shade (my natural shade is the dreaded light mousy brown). However it was always too dark the day after, it took a week for it fade to the shade I wanted, then it was good for approx 2 weeks after that, and then, at week 4, it started to get that "brassy" look I didn't like, so I'd do a root touch up pulling the color through to the ends per the package insert directions and the process began again.

However, this DID lift my natural color. I was using a permanent color. You can see the demarcation line on my hair to this day (it starts just above shoulder length). Bottom line, it will fade, but you will now need to keep coloring to maintain, and while you are doing that, you are altering your hair and it will be more porous and tend to be drier. I've since switched to henna to achieve the results I want. So far, so good. Good luck.

[Shermie Girl]

I second Spidermom's suggestion. A nice, long warm oil treatment followed by a good sudsing with a clarifying shampoo. Do this several times and be patient, it may take a little while to see results.

Dawn or harsher detergents can pull colour. I have read that some people had luck with Tide. But, yikes! I would give oil and clarifying shampoo a fair and fighting chance before trying them. And remember to condition like crazy, afterward.

If oil or detergent don't fade your shade enough, you may need to resort to a colour remover. Something like ColorFix or Colour Oops will do the job. As will bleach based colour removers. If you resort to them, you will have to dye your hair, again. Colour removers can't restore your natural colour. You will be left with orange hair, after the process. :)

[Bellalalala]

Head and Shoulders has always stripped colour from my hair back when I used to dye it.

[Rapunzal2Be]

I would use Metalex mixed with Prell shampoo, followed up by an SMT. And the hot oil is also a good one. But I would be patient. What seems unbearably dark right now might lighten up within a week or so. Don't do too much to it too quickly.

[~GypsyCurls~]

Before you try something like ColorFix or ColorOops, I would try a hot oil treatment with olive oil. It can help pull fresh color off if you do it soon enough. The color should fade in a week or so, too. That has been my experience with Feria...

If that doesn't do as much as you'd like, use a sulfate-heavy shampoo a few times. Use a color remover as the last resort, of you have to.

HTH, good luck!

[Sylvanas]

I have also faded colour with head & shoulders in the past, but yesterday I found something way more effective.

In an empty bottle I put baking soda and just a little hot water. Shook it a bit to make the powder dissolve. I added a bit of white vinegar, then some SLS shampoo. I made sure my hair was covered in this, and let it sit for 5 minutes. It didn't smell of vinegar at all after I added the shampoo. When I rinsed, I could see the colour coming out. It removed quite a lot of it. As an added bonus, my hair was softer and more shiny than it has ever been :)

[HildeMV]

My hair has always seemed too dark after I've dyed it darker, but it usually fades into a lighter color one or two weeks after.
Decoloration can leave your hair brassy, just saying.

[ericthegreat]

Hi TropicalBreeze, I'm a hairstylist in training so I will give you my best pointers.

The first time you do color, especially if you have done it yourself it almost always turns out darker than expected. It could be that your hair is still damp and it hasn't even fulled dried yet, especially if you air dried your hair instead of fully having it blown out straight and perfectly bone dry. Also, if you left the color on for a bit too long, it will absorb more of it than you want it to and so it will of course look darker that way.

If you really want to remedy this right away there is of course the Color Oops that you can get at most beauty supply stores. This product gets out most newly done color jobs.

You could also wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo every day for the next say 5 days to a week. Clarifying shampoo especially will help to naturally remove anything from your hair including any coloring that you have had done.

[TropicalBreeze]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.

[hmmruka]

I have had this problem before myself and what I did was washed my hair with Johnson & Johnson head to toe baby wash (I have a 7 month old lol) a few times, then I bought some packets of v05 hot oil treatments and put them on my wet hair COLD for 15 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how much time I had. The key to the v05 treatments is to not heat them up! I only had to do this process 3 times over the course of a few days to get some of the color to lift out. I did not get all the color completely out but it faded to a point that I was happy with the color.