Hair Woes

Alright, so here we go with my current hair woes...

I had had the same shade of dark brown in my naturally dark dirty blonde/light brown hair for 2 or 3 years, then back in January I got this wild idea that I really wanted to go red! So the process began, I bleached my dark hair until it was light enough to color over. The end result for this project was a brassy, orangey red. After a little bit I went with a shade of bold red, which I liked, but it faded so quickly! It soon turned into an even more orangey shade. 

After a little while I decided that I wanted my dark hair back. So I just dyed over the red. Only a few weeks later the brown was fading and it was lightening up again. I tried a few more times to go dark with the end result always the same, lightening after about 3 weeks.

Thinking this whole situation is crazy, I wondered if my usual brand of dye had changed to semi-permanent without me knowing. Nope, not the case. So, I've waited over a month this time to try once more. I colored it last week using a new brand that I never have before. Not much is happening yet, but it hasn't been that long.

So, I'm wondering what I've done to my poor hair. Have I stripped it or something? Is it really no longer able to hold color?? If you know anything about this or what I can/should do I'd love to hear about it! Please share!