A burgundy color left your hair looking like a vicious bruise?

If you’ve ever dyed your hair burgundy, then you know that the color can have a tendency to be a little darker than advertised. In addition, it often has a purple tone that makes it look blue-ish when exposed to sunlight. If your hair turned out this way, don’t panic! A burgundy dye disaster can be fixed.

We’ll break down the major causes of a burgundy hair dye disaster and how best to fix them:

Too much blonde has you looking like a yellow chicken?

If you’re a blonde and have gone too blonde, you can use a purple shampoo to tone things down. Purple shampoos are designed to neutralize brassy tones and help brunettes to appear more vibrant. You should be careful with these, though—they can also strip the hair of color if used too often or left on for too long.

When using this technique, it’s best to start with one that doesn’t contain sulfates (sulfuric acid). The more gentle formulas like Redken Shades EQ 02 Vibrant Brunette (with argan oil) will do less damage than other brands with harsher ingredients like violet 2 or PPD 11%.

Midnight blue and coal black have turned your hair into the moldy bread you forgot to throw out?

If your hair’s turned black and blue, try the following:

• A color remover. If you had to use a lot of dye, or if it was a semi-permanent color like red or burgundy, you can remove it with a product designed for that purpose.
• Clarifying shampoo. This will also help lift any remaining dye from your strands as well as get rid of excess oil that might be weighing down your hair and keeping the color in place.
• Color balancing shampoo. This will help neutralize any brassy tones caused by going darker than intended while also giving your locks some much-needed shine back at the same time!

Grey is making you look like a zombie?

If you are starting to look like a zombie and you want to go back to being human, there are options! As long as your hair is not too damaged by the dye job gone wrong, you can use a hair color remover. There are tons on the market but here’s one in particular that I’ve used before (and it worked great).

It’s important to note that if your hair is very damaged from bleaching or coloring it multiple times, then these treatments might not work as well for you. In this case, consider going back to your salon and asking them what they would recommend repairing all of the damage done. If they say “it’s too bad” or something similar then consider getting some highlights or lowlights put in so that at least some dimension comes back into the color of your locks instead of having everything be grey (or whatever color it was).

Chestnut brown looks like dirty, muddy water on your hair?

If you’re experiencing this unfortunate dye disaster, the solution is simple: revert to your original color. Give your hair 2 or 3 washes with a clarifying shampoo that will remove the unwanted color. Once you’ve washed out all of the unwanted pigment, use an international tone remover—like Color Oops—to lighten your hair back up. Once it’s back to its natural state (or close), use a deep conditioning mask for damaged hair and let it sit for 30 minutes before rinsing it out thoroughly. Finally, apply a toner to neutralize any leftover brassiness and reset your base shade to brown.

You can fix that burgundy hair dye disaster.

If you are having a burgundy hair dye disaster, stay calm. It’s time to take action and repair the damage. The first thing you can do is use a dark hair dye remover to lighten the color. Apply it at night so it has plenty of time to work its magic before you wash it out in the morning.

Next, apply some lighter hair dye (a shade lighter than your natural color) with gloves on—you don’t want any more red showing up! Let this sit for 30 minutes while wearing plastic bags over your hands and feet so no red gets on them or anywhere else (don’t forget about those pesky ears).

After that, wash off all of these products using cool water only—no shampooing yet! Then use a blue or purple shampoo once a week for two weeks to counteract any residual burgundy tones left over from mistakes made when dying your hair; then go back to regular shampooing habits afterwards. Finally, if there are still some stubborn areas where too much burgundy remains even after all these steps have been taken then consider clarifying shampoos with ammonia instead of sulfates since they will help remove excess color buildup while leaving behind conditioning agents that act as anti-frizz agents when applied prior  to styling products such as serums/moisturizers/leave-in conditioners/etc…