How can you remove brassiness from hair?

My hair is naturally a light brown. I tried to dye it a plum color and it turned out an ugly red color. I've been coloring over it a dark brown and my hair is currently an off black color (gotta love hairdressers?) the color is slightly lighter with a red tinge in the sunlight. How can i remove the red and make my hair lighter (im using UNRED to remove the redness but its makin my hair darker!) i definatley dont want to bleach it! uggg wha do i do???