An experiment in turning dark red hair into something a little less susceptible to sun fading

So not shit, there I was, getting exasperated by the way working outside was fading my (dyed) dark red/brown hair into something that looked less like hair and more like somebody had too many red jello shots and puked. I wish I had thought to take a before picture. It started as an effort to go back to my born-with-peachy-fuzz color. My hair WAS a mild, mousy brown that had some nice highlights and low lights in all the other shades. But it turned blah in the winter and brassy in the summer. So in high school I started dying it red. Big marquee in the sky, sometimes fire-engine even really really red. And eventually I decided to be nice to my hair and stopped coloring it for about 6 years. And it went a darker shade of mouse brown. Blah. So a few months ago I decided to give it more of the red overtones while keeping the brown base. Ahem. I said "keeping the brown base." HAHAHAHAHA. Right. My somewhere in the medium to light ash brown with red highlights went straight to really red with the introduction of a shade by Ion called Dark Red Brown. It ended up being almost exactly their shade Medium Intense Red. So I stuck with that for a few months. But working outside, in Wyoming with the suns shines nearly every day, that was getting to be a pain to maintain. So I think to myself, if I go a very light brown, or more likely with my hair, a strawberry blonde, i won't notice the sun-fade quite so much. Now keep in mind I had tried going actual blonde several times over the years, and the closest I ever got was newly-minted copper penny.

So a very nice woman at Sally's shows me this: one'n'only colorfix. She tells me to leave it on for a full 50 minutes as you would with a bleach, but this is much gentler. So I do. And while it stinks, but not so much as a bleaching kit, but rather more like yicky eggs (that's the technical term, didn't cha know?) I achieved the mythical honey blonde.  But my hair smells slightly of yicky eggs, and you know I can't leave it at that, so I busted out another pin, Shiny, Smooth Hair and while the original page it links to doesn't exist, the instructions had me take olive oil and honey, mix well and coat, let sit and wash. And hopefully, not stink when it's all said and done.

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Updates:
SO, I managed to let that sit for 30 mins, and then shampooed & conditioned with some super-smelly good Garnier Fructis stuff. I could still smell me, but it wasn't as strong. So I hit my hair with the homemade febreeze. Let's see how much Chris reacts when he gets back from Slave labor Day, I mean Frontier Days volun- (told) teering.

It didn't lighten the natural roots as much as the rest, but I think with a sunny day tomorrow and some lemon juice highlights I could just maybe live with it :) With hair as stubborn as mine, I'll call this a win.