What dye to I use to change my dark brown hair to a nice carmel light brown hair? :confused:

Hair color is normally divided into 11 "levels" going from black (0) to very light blonde (10) (there are some conventions that go from 0 to 12, but it doesn't make any difference to this argument). If your desired color is 2 levels or less from your current natural color*, then you can use a single-process haircoloring to dye your hair. If it is more than 2 levels, you have to use bleach to lighten your hair to the proper level and then use a dye (called a 'toner' in this case) to dye it to the desired color.

I'm not sure what you consider a "nice carmel light brown" to be, but I suspect it's more than 2 levels lighter than what you have.

There are some options. You can buy the dye and the developer separately. Most haircolors that come in boxes use "20-volume" developer. It's the developer in haircoloring that actually does the lightening (regardless of the shade you pick!). You can use up to 40-volume developer (12%) to get another level (up to 3 levels) out of the mixture. Some people claim that you can get 4 levels, but this almost never works. Also, when you use stronger developer in order to get more lift, you always get more brassiness (red, orange, and yellow) so this isn't always a great strategy since most people don't want that.

In any case, you should always do a strand test to make sure that what you do to your hair is what you want to do to your hair.

Also, consider using a "professional colorist". Although this is expensive, there are many haircolorists who do a great business doing "corrective color." You have to ask why?

It is possible to do this by yourself, but you need to read a lot and understand what's going to happen. Haircoloring isn't like using paint on a wall. You don't just throw it on and come out with a new color.

*Note: If your current color is not natural pigment, then there are many other questions you have to answer. Hair coloring can not be used to lighten hair that has artificial pigment in it.