hey all-

PLEASE help me! I dyed my hair black (its naturally a somewhat dark brown) and I just don't think i'm feeling it, but I don't know HOW THE **** I'M EVER GOING TO GET IT OUT! Does anyone know about this stuff? eeek.

you could go the harsh way and use a stripper and then put in a lighter color. your hair will take a while to start feeling healthy again but ... this happened to me a few months ago. i was going to put in some red (bright crayon red) streaks in my hair and the cap broke so it got red splotches all over my hair. i put a color on, at the suggestion of my mom because she thought it would over color the red...well, it didnt work. it made it worse. so i had to go get a stripper, that didn't work because it was a cheapy one, had to do ANOTHER stripper and then put on another color. by this time my hair was so bright it could have glowed in the dark. so i went for a color a little darker than normal and it was ok. this was about 4 or 5 months ago and my hair is just now starting to feel normal again and the color is finally growing out. i learned my lesson but its so hard for me to stay away from coloring my hair. its like an addiction for me.

hopefully you can get it out and fixed without having to kill your hair. i dont know if putting on a lighter brown will over color the black so you may want to call someone at a salon or a beauty supply store.

I've known people who had the same situation, my suggestion would to go to a pro and get them to fix it for you.

I tried dying my hair black once because I also have dark brown hair, luckily it was a wash out so I only had to live with the mistake for a week or so.

Dana, I'm really sorry to say this, but I'm thinking you're going to need to bite the bullet and get it professionally corrected. Otherwise you're going to have this sad "recovered Goth" thing going on..... And this is not the time to waffle or hesitate. There are reasons of which you and I are both aware for you to have lovely, appealing hair. I speak to you with the serious tone of a concerned older sister because this is serious bidness, my friend.

I have the secret to nice hair.. sorta... heh. So without the right products my hair is DRY, no idea why.. I don't colour it, I don't blow dry it.. I don't do anything to it really. Well not too long ago I decided I would try the "brilliant brunette stuff" figuring at the worst I would have wasted 12.99 (WAY too expensive in Canada in certain stores!), and since I was on a roll I bought "frizz ease" serum. I don't know why I didn't buy conditioner, but it worked out great, and while they are more expensive, it takes twice as long to go through them. So my advice is, if you strip your hair and then dye it again... try my combination! On a side note, I tried the Brilliant Brunette straightening stuff, and my hair does whatever I want it to, I seriously just put it in the style I like and it stays all day (without feeling like a helmut). Me likey sexy hair.. hehe

"Frizz Ease" is awesome stuff, I discovered it years ago when it was only available online (or maybe in very few stores) but it is nice that I can now find it in normal stores. Something you can also do to get rid of frizz/condition your hair is after you wash your hair, put a small dab of conditioner in your hair. Of course you can give yourself a hair mask by putting conditioner in your hair then covering it with a bag for 10 minutes but of course there are commercial hair conditioning masks. Hopefully your hair won't be too dry after your hair is fixed.

For dryness I use a good color-safe conditioner and then use that spray hair wax on the ends and it not only keeps it straight, flippy and controllable, but it also seems to flatten the cuticle and mask any residual damage (from when I was coloring it myself.) I forget the brand name, but I bought it in my salon -- a little bit goes a long way. I'll post the name later.

Prell Original. Dark Green Prell. Washing your hair with that is the best way to strip it at home. I'd say wash it with that a few times, then with a cheapie dishwashing detergent. If you still have black hair, call the salon. I dyed my hair green by accident 10 years ago. Went from Gwen Stefani blond to an ash brown & my hair sucked up the green undertones. Had to go to a pro to get it fixed. Didn't have any Prell.

To get frizz out and control curls, I use a dab of Cholesterol.

http://www.queenhelene.com/haircarechol2.html

Thanks for all of your suggestions and horror stories (hehe). Considering the fact that all of my ugly baseball caps and winter hats are at home, I am SOL for the moment. Yikes! A friend said to just tie it back but its still black and, to quote sarah, "recovered goth looking." eeeeeep. i figured i should skip the eyeliner today
SAPF, as soon as I get out of work (couldn't be soon enough) i'm running my butt over to CVS to get some of the Prell. Thank you soo much for the suggestion. It's definitely worth a shot.

As a sidenote, for frizz (sort of) frizz ease is great, and I use Rusk str8. My hair is kind of wavy and annoying, and it still doesn't look as good as when I flat iron it, but it's pretty darn great and smells good.