Okay, what part of “dark brown auburn” means BRIGHT FREAKIN’ PURPLE in hair dye language? Yes, that’s right, I have just dyed my hair BRIGHT FREAKIN’ PURPLE!!! Well, actually, it’s more burgundy than purple. The bright spot (other than my head)- it’s a temporary colour. Off to the bathroom to take 12-24 showers.
I hear purple can look very fetching. 
Welcome to the not so secret sorority of what Eve refers to as “suicide redheads.” It happened to me too, featherlou and you’ll probably be frustrated if you try to fix it by washing your hair over and over. I fixed mine with Light Golden Brown, but I was getting rid of a hideous lavender/brown rather than a lovely deep shade of amethyst.
What did you use, anyway?
Poor featherlou. Was it a do-it-yourself dye job?
There, there. There, there.
The first time I did mine - my STARS! - it came out orange.
But that’s part of the ADVENTURE, not knowing what color it’s going to come out on your head!
Ok, at least for me that’s part of the fun, but I haven’t seen my natural hair color in almost 10 years.
Sweetie, I found photos of myself when I went double processed blonde (TWO bottles of Clairol extra bonde) on weekend when I was bored. From dark brown with underlying red highlights to ohmygodwhatdidshedo-whispered-behind-hands-to-mouth blonde.
It was SOOOOOO not pretty. At least mebbe your skin tone can offset the purple. I was never (at least in this lifetime) meant to look like a blonde.
Let’s see, what did I use - Clairol “Natural Instincts” Rosewood (Dk. Auburn Brown) - let me assure you, this is not a colour found in nature. The picture on the box shows nice, dark brown hair. If it had shown bright burgundy hair, that would probably have tipped me off.
I used to use Castings by L’oreal (I think that’s who made it), but they’ve “improved” it and added $3 onto the price, so I tried a different brand. {heavy sigh}
Ohhhhh…I know, have felt, and FEEL your pain, featherlou. As the Queen of Dying of the Pelt, I have been that disco shade of vibrating purple…even when I didn’t want to be. For some reason, “deep auburns” sometimes do mutate to the grapey LSD tint you’ve described. I think it’s all a plot by the hair color companies (yeah, I’m glaring at YOU, Clairol and Loreal) to keep you buying their products so you can get rid of the the effects from your first purchase.
I made the mistake once of also putting deep brown on a not-so-old bleach job a couple of years ago. Trust me, Radioactive Orchid Koolaid is a helluva lot prettier than Army Fatigue Puke Green. Which is what happened to me.
Not knowing you, I would like to suggest a quick trip to your friendly hairdresser, and get her to work her magic on you. Any more home remedies might succeed in making your hair, um, non-existant.
I just died my hair…forgot what I used. But I wanted it deep red/purple, and I’m happy with how it came out. Very happy!
I see you posted as I did, and you used Rosewood. In the Bible of Hair Colorings, Rosewood is synonymous with GRAPLE (grape-purple).
It has a tendency to fade to red-pink. If you’re into that, stay with what you have. I merely gathered from the primal scream of the OP thread title, you were less than pleased with the results.
I assure you the new results are much prettier than the fade results are going to be.
Signed,
Sylkyn…She who has been every color there is on this earth, and others.
Quick, go get some Prell, sweetie. That stuff will strip furniture. 2 or 3 shampoos and lots of conditioner.
BAND NAMES!
And I’ve been THERE, oh yes I have. Especially ROK. And they LIE LIE LIE when they say it won’t fade out. It fades out into pukey-straw-good-lord-what-happened-to-your-hair color.
Picture available?
Actually, the trick I’ve found with those semi-permanent dyes – that 12-24 shampoo bunch – is to dye the hair, rinse it till the water runs clear like the directions say, then shampoo and rinse like four or five times in a row. That’ll get out a good bit of the purplage, though it’ll still look a fake for a few days.
That reminds me, it’s about time I picked up another box of Rosewood …
hmm last time I dyed my hair, i bought ‘tangerine’ hair dye, but it came out bright red. bright red as in litte kids were asking me at work, literally if I was Ronald McDonald.
time before: Turquoise. Turned out exactly as planned. 
Two words:
Professional Hairdresser.
I did some really horrible jobs myself many years ago - never again!
You say that as a joke…
I once turned my, now husband, then barely boyfriend into Dennis Rodman. oops… was all I could say. He’s a firefighter. At work the guys kept offering to cut his food for him.
I don’t get to try new things on him any more.
Dread Pirate Jimbo has resisted all my offers to prettify him. But he has such long, beautiful eyelashes…
Looking more closely, I can see that the areas that were previously dyed with a permanent colour (again, an accident - I meant to use a temporary one) have taken much more of the colour than the re-growth area of dark brown. Hmm, kinda seeing a trend here. Maybe I should leave the home dye jobs alone.
Nah. Life’s too short to not dye your hair funny colours by accident.