TattyDevine!! Can you help with another hairdye query - dark hair this time

[levantine]

I have dyed my hair for years but for some reason it is starting to look really brassy and has that light halo effect thing round the roots.

I had it done professionally about three months again and since then have used a combo of 118 and Daniel Field watercolours but I keep getting these brassy bits and they look awful on me

I am after a clear dark brown (am a winter so I need to have no red in it at all)

Can you help me?

[Lipstickgal]

Well hope you don't mind me giving you my recommendation- Nice and Easy - medium cool ash brown. This comes out much darker than on the packet. No red hints and it will cover up just about anything.

[Lipstickgal]

Its actually 117d med cool brown, but it is ash toned. It is a fabulous colour. See other shades on their website, they are categorised according to whether the tone you want is neutral, warm or cool. It's very helpful.

[levantine]

Oooh! Thank you very much indeed
That is vair helpful

[TattyDevine]

I'm back! I've been in toddler-house-wrecking hell sorry. I may as well have given the little buggers a wrecking ball, they would have done less damage.

Right, Lipstickgal has said exactly the shade I would have said - 117d Medium Cool Brown. It actually comes out rather dark, if you want dark then its the shade for you and its very cool, no red, an indigo hue.

I strand tested it on some of my hair and was at how dark it was - glad I strand tested!!!

I suggest you too do a strand test. It should sort your root glow and brassiness. May I also recommend Aveda Black Malva shampoo and conditioner for maintenance toning. Lovely product for cool deep brunettes.

[levantine]

Great, I will seek some out tomorrow. I'd forgotten about Black Malva, that is good stuff too
Thank you, I knew you'd know

How DO you know all this btw?

[levantine]

Don't feel obliged to answer, just being nosey

[TattyDevine]

How do I know it. Well my head is full of just information

I have a sort of photographic memory I think, so if I read something I even have a vague interest in, it sticks in my mind almost verbatim. Have been various shades of brunette, blonde, and red over the years so each time I've read something, heard about something, spoken to a hairdresser about something, its just stuck in my mind clear as the day I heard it/read it. I have tried to kill my brain with alcohol and ganga when I was younger (stick to booze these days) but it just won't quit. I also have something called perfect pitch which is like a photographic memory for the pitch of music and songs so if I start singing a song it is always in the right key. And if they steal some music for an ad or something and re-write it in a different key, I know, and it feels all wrong.

When I worked I could never get any work done because people would come into my office and ask me stuff all the time, because they knew I'd know, and I did.

I spent virtually no time studying for my exams. I just read some stuff on the train on the way there.

Its a good skill to have!

[TattyDevine]

That's another thing, even if I am home colouring, I pump my hairdresser for info. None of this "so are you going anywhere nice on holiday this year" bollocks - I pump them for theory. Actually I think I would have started doing the professional dyes by now if my local Sally's hair and beauty warehouse place wasn't trade-only - I like the convenience of box dyes for that reason.

So yes when I leave the salon they collapse, exhausted into a heap on the floor and have a strong cup of tea with 6 sugars before they can resume work.

[levantine]

Back from doing bedtime - I have always wanted a photographic memory - and perfect pitch too - you are v lucky

Thanks again!

[DoraJarr]

oh tatty
how wonderful to be you

[TattyDevine]

Absolutely, Dora