My hair is severely damaged, thin and very very damaged and dry. And my natural hair color is light brown, I would like to go back to that color. Without bleaching it, or my hair will fall out. I died my hair a jet black color. It looks HORRIBLE. I've tried a few things and It won't work to get this color out. HELP!!

I think you're going to have a lot ot trouble trying to get back to light brown -- unless you simply grow it out.

The only thing I can suggest is a reducing-type color remover like ColorFix, Color Oops, Igora Phantom (they smell quite a bit like perm solutions). However, severely-damaged hair can't be "fixed". It has to grow out. I think you're facing major breakage if you try to do anything to it. You can do strand tests on the head, without clipping the strand to determine whether it's feasible. Do the strand test and wait a week to see if the strand breaks. If it does, you're out of luck.

Long story short. I bleached my hair to the point ware it was falling out and decided to dye it brown. The brown kept on fading because of the bleach. So I decided to dye it black thinking it would fade to a dark brown, which is my natural hair color as well. Black has one of the strongest pigments out of all the hair dyes. But you didn't bleach your hair like I did, so your hair will fade to a brown faster. I don't suggest any "color stripping" my case was extremely severe and I didn't even color strip my hair. If you have never done a hair color remover yourself Don't DO IT! Because if you screw up you could strip the natural color of your hair. I would suggest a professional, but I wouldn't strip your hair anyway, its NEVER healthy to do that to your hair. Hot oil treatments are always good for your hair, use oils like coconut oil, and other oils that are good for the hair, use it once or twice a week. Makes your hair healthy shiny, and removes hair dye deposits and what not. Don't WASTE YOUR TIME BUYING HAIR PRODUCTS! It's a WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. Some hair products are good but 95% of the time they are really not. I use to spend so much money on them now I don't at all! Most of them lie and just put more chemicals and deposits in your hair. Make sure you get your hair trimed once a month, it gets rid of the split ends, "nappy" hair look, and gets rid of some of that dyed hair of yours!getting a trim also makes a more clean looking cut, the more clean cut looking the more healthier your hair looks no matter how fried it is! One thing you must learn is patience with this process, that's something that I still struggle on from all the hair dye that is still in my hair. And I bleached it in 07 and its finally half way out. Also getting a malabue treatment at a salon once a month or every other month is good to get all of the rust, hair dye, and product build up in the hair. What I do is get a trim every month and ill get a malibue one month and then the next month a conditioning treatment and so it goes in a pattern. It also helps your hair grow faster! Buy a gallon of distilled water at any grocery/convenient store. Distilled water conditions dryed ends. I put it in a spray bottle and spray my hair w/ it after I wash my hair. Washing your hair everyday IS NOT GOOD. It stripps the natural oils that your hair needs everyday to stay healthy. I was my hair everyother day/ everyother 2 days. If you think its gross.. its not at all. If you wash your hair everyday and you listen to my edvice and wash it every other/ everyother 2 days. At first it will seem "dirty and greasy" but its not. Its because your hair won't be use to all the natural oils that your scalp needs. Your hair is very thin because of all the damage you put in your hair. Once your hair is getting more healthy you will feel the diffrence in texture of your hair. It will begin to thikin. That's what happened to mine. Don't BRUSH YOUR HAIR WHEN ITS WET. It weekends the strands of your hair. And makes your hair more "stringy" and thin. Air dry your hair after washing it. It doesn't dry out your hair as blowdrying it, so you won't get as much "fly aways". When my hair was EXTREMELY fried I had so many fly aways now I don't anymore! The distilled water gets rid of fly aways. And the "greasy" looking hair if you will listen to my edvice about washing the hair correctly. And ONLY put shampoo on your scalp, and always massage it while doing it, it opens the poors in your scalp which conditions the hair. And you Don't need lots of shampoo in your scalp it can dry out your hair and scalp. Only use a quarter size and mix it a little with water. Same w/ conditioner only use a little but in your LENGTH part of your hair. And leave it on a little bit longer than your scalp you will see a HUGE diffrence just by washing your hair like that. And if you need to brush your hair when wet brush your ends first then work your way up. And ALWAYS use a BONE wide comb when brushing your wet hair. Plastic wide combes aren't good for the hair because of the sharp plastic edges on the teeth. If you do style your hair w/ a streightner or curler I would actually suggest a heat styler product, that's one of the only products I use besides shampoo& conditioner. The one I use even though I barly heat style my hair is:http://www.overstockdrugstore.com/pr...5592000065.jpg Shampoos that I would suggest to get rid of the hair dye is prell, any dandruff shampoo that has TAR! I use prell, and I use mg217 its plain tar smells bad but you get use to it you can find it at cvs: http://images.smarter.com/160x160x15/39/94/3183294.jpg I also use this conditioner once a month its amazing makes your hair so strong and thicker than you can ever imagine, ever wonder why indians have such long, strong, healthy looking hair? I would highly recommend this product: Mehandi.com shop - Cassia Obovata makes your hair shiny, healthy and strong and restores gray or drab blond color! it takes a couple applies for it to make your hair stronger but it works! I would suggest the 500g if your willing to buy it and its not that expensive, and there is other stuff on this website for hair that I would highly recommend as well! And when washing your hair make sure to rinse it with cool water. It closes the hair folicules. This brush from target makes your hair silky smooth trust me! Kashuk Tools® Bristle Hair Brush : Target

Like I said don't bother with hair products! Its good to have them in your hair every once in a while, like when hair stylists put it in your hair that's fine. But other than that don't spend too much money on them! Its still temping for me because of all the stuff they say about the products even thought its lies! And when products say its " 100% natural" its most likely not. I would also suggest a clarifying shampoo it gets rid of rust I use it when I don't get malibus for a long period, it also gets rid of hair dye build up, and rust buildup ( that's the whole point of a clarifying shampoo) I haven't tried this product but if you really want to try a similar hair stripping product this looks safer to do: Juice Organics Brightening Haircare Kit - 4.0 oz. : Target Here is a picture of my hair now, sorry its kind of a "showy" picture but its shows my hair haha. And its not edited so its really what my hair looks like: Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting

So good luck with the hair!