I have been dying my hair since the beginning of High School. I remember clearly the first time. It was a wash in/wash off blonde colour. I wanted to go lighter as I was a dark blonde. I dyed it myself and was very disappointed when it came out an orangey blonde. Ofcourse back then I didn't understand WHY I couldn't go blonder without bleaching it. It didn't put me off trying though and tested out probably every brand and colour I could get my hand on.
Home dying is very easy to do but also very easy to get wrong.