I went to the salon few days ago to get my hair dyed. I have naturally black hair and I wanted to color it to a deep chocolate brown. I was really craving this new look and my hair stylist was so promising that he could make it happen. As it turned out, my hair didn't take the colour... so I had walked in there with naturally black hair and walked out with chemically black hair... that this was a top notch salon with experienced stylists... I thought they would know what they were doing so I paid extra $$$ for it when I could have gone elsewhere for cheaper. But they didn't care once they had my money. Needless to say I was very very upset. Is there any advise anyone can give me, do I need to lighten my hair, or wash it more, or get it recolored? The stylist said that after a few shampoos the new colour will show... I have done that as well but it doesn't look like it is going to make a difference. Is there anything I can do about the money I paid the salon? I just don't think its fair that they extract a fee for their services when they couldn't deliver on the terms!

Most reputable salons will redo the color if you're not happy. The stylist's advice that it will fade was probably a good one. Advise him/her that you're not happy, but you'll wait for a couple of weeks before coming in again. If you wait for a couple of weeks and it doesn't lighten up satisfactorily, I'm sure he/she can do something about it. The usual thing to do is to strip the dark color and recolor with a lighter shade, but there are other approaches also.

Thanks a lot for your answer! Unfortunately the salon I went to was out of town and I am not visiting there again. Is there an alternative to lightening and recoloring? I am wondering if there is something I can try at home to lighten it, especially any natural methods? How would my existing hair dye react if I use a hair lightener? I would like to believe that as I keep washing my hair it will become lighter, but I am not sure how effective it will be since I have naturally black hair so the dark brown colour that the salon used did not lift my colour.

The "natural methods" you mention really don't work. There is no such thing as a "natural" method of dyeing hair. Using a hair lightener (that's a euphemism for hair bleach) will actually cause you more problems if you ever try to use a color remover (next paragraph). Lightening your hair will actually be much more complicated. Bleach will lighten the color, but most likely will not get it very light and it'll proably be quite reddish. You'll be disappointed.

I would suggest that you use ColorFix (or Color Zap or Color Oops or Color Charm Color Corrector or Igora Phantom) to remove some or all of the black color. Then re-dye a lighter shade. I don't really see any other alternatives.

http://www.robertcraig.com/php/index.php?location=colorfix