So after I went off to college, I decided it would be a good idea to dye my hair Deep Brown.. the three dollar revlon box (because I'm a poor college kid). I'd like to lighten my hair to the red/brown/auburn color it was before, even a little bit more on the red side. Unfortunately, I don't have enough money to hit up a salon and do it professionally, and It'll take too long to grow out. Any suggestions? I know that stripping my hair is a bad idea, I used to strip my best friends hair about every 3 months because she'd get bored really fast. I also know that the last time we stripped her hair (to dye it light ash brown), after we tried to dye it, it turned black and it only turned her untouched roots light brown. I'm pretty terrified of what will happened to my hair considering I've got about an inch of untouched roots.

Help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

If you want to go from dark brown to a decent auburn color, you will need to bleach your hair with a low strength bleach to a reddish stage and then apply your color. If this is not an option, you can try using a high-lift red hair color. However, remember that high-lift colors can be unpredictable and may not give you the exact color you want.