TATTY DEVINE! Over here! can you advise me?

[fustyarse]

Hello!

I was hoping you could give me some of your fabulous advice, as you appear to be THE colouring expert of MN

I am blonde (dyed) but my real colour is a mousy brown. I used to be natural blonde as a child/teen but have been getting darker with age

I want a darker colour for winter, something like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.flatoutfabulous.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/jennifer_aniston.jpg&imgrefurl=www.flatoutfabulous.net/%3Ftag%3Dcelebrity-favorite-shu-uemura-celebrity-favorite-like-jennifer-aniston-and-kate-bosworth&h=300&w=300&sz=19&tbnid=2IplA6ZXXL9GYM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=94&prev=/search%3Fq%3Djennifer%2Baniston%2Bhair%26tbm%3Disch%26tbo%3Du&zoom=1&q=jennifer+aniston+hair&docid=9f9On89qXlkrUM&sa=X&ei=ciyITrinC6eI0AX_v9wN&ved=0CE4Q9QEwBQ&dur=3757" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">Jen A
but don't know how to get it. I'd never thought about using two different home colour kits before, until reading your other posts, so was wondering if you could point me in the right direction as to which shades/brands to try?

Oh, and I've a few grey strands to cover up too
Thanks in advance....

[fustyarse]

pic on profile for a short time so you can see the colour

[TattyDevine]

Can't see your pic chick, think you need to make your profile public for me to be able to click on it.

Right, JA's hair is essentially warm and still pretty light. There are shades of golden and beige blonde in there but nothing darker than perhaps some dark blonde lowlights.

If you are quite light blonde, you could achieve a similar base shade with Clairol Nice n Easy 105G Natural Medium Golden Neutral Blonde, probably, but in an ideal world you'd have a few highlights and lowlights in a slightly lighter and slightly darker shade to achieve this subtley streaky effect that Jen has.

But if you want to deepen your blonde to that kind of tone, I'd start with that, and if that doesn't quite do it, you could probably try 106B Dark Champagne blonde, but I wouldn't go straight in with that as it might be too warm.

[fustyarse]

thanks - have made it public now

have checked those colours - think i prefer the medium golden; the dark champagne looks really dark?

[TattyDevine]

Agree the medium golden is the way to go, particularly now I've seen your pic. Let us know how it goes! I suggest you do a strand test first - your hair looks long and thick, so buy 2 boxes of that colour, mix a half teaspoon from each bottle together, snip of a strand on an underneath layer, apply the mixed dye, wrap in foil for half an hour, rinse, dry and observe in strong natural light. If it looks okay you can mix up the full bottle of colour and apply to your whole head.

[fustyarse]

sounds good - but can i ask, why would i need to mix the colour from each box together for the strand test? could i not just use one?

my hair underneath is darker than the blonde on top - should i do a strand test for both colours, iykwim?

[TattyDevine]

Sorry, what I mean is inside one box are two bottles. Mix a half teaspoon from each bottle together. The reason you might need two boxes is because your hair looks long and thick and you want good coverage. Sorry, that wasn't very clear!

It wouldn't be a bad idea to do a test on the darker hair, particularly if you have roots of this colour at the front/top - if it goes too "warm" or gingery, you might need a different tone. Should be okay, depending how dark it is.

[fustyarse]

excellent. thanks so much. I never know which shade to get that would suit my skin tone. Thanks again!

[Selks]

Reading with interest. I love Jen's hair colour in that pic, and it's what I aspire to with my hair, by the means of home colouring with varying degrees of success.

One thing I've noticed with hair colourants for these honey kind of shades is that they often come out either lighter or darker than the illustration on the box. The dark blonde / lightest brown ones always seem to produce a duller, darker colour than the illustration. It's so hard to get it right. My natural hair colour is mousy brown (with grey) but is now an underlying brassy shade due to years of colouring, so I find that if I am crafty and leave the colourant on for half or three quarters of the recommended time I'll get a better result than leaving it on for the whole time. Not that I'm saying this as a recommendation for the OP doing it for the first time - it's just my observation - but perhaps a few minutes short of the recommended time might be an idea.

[LaDolcheRyvita]

Tatty.... Can I ask? I've same dark mouse hair (hairdresser says no grey yet) and have a half head highlights done every 8 to 12 weeks depending on what I can get away with.

Thing is, if you use a home kit, how on earth do you get a "several shades" look? Doesn't it just come out all one colour if you home kit your full head of hair. I'd love to find a way of doing it myself.... The last time it was done, I came out with definite stripes which were so far from my hairline, I looked like I had 6 weeks regrowth, immediately. I paid £90 for half head and trim.... No blow dry as I HATE hairdryers. I just cannot justify this kind of cost.

Have pic on profile. Don't mean to hijack but, op has asked MY question, too!

Op, you have lovely thick hair. Would suit the JenA colour, if you can do it. Let us know!!

[TattyDevine]

Full head of dye, whether its done in the hairdresser or at home from a box, is hard to achieve a "multi tonal" look. If you have pre-existing highlights, that can do it, but a second application and they get "lost". Basically, you can't easily. Lots of the boxes claim "multi faceted colour" etc etc but in reality any full head tint will get blocky after a while.

I do my hair at home and these days I use professional dye (Loreal Majirel) however I went to the hairdresser the other day for foil highlights to give my hair that expensive salon look. But if I maintain my "base colour", I still save a fortune, as I am going a bit grey, and can do my roots whenever I want, but let the hairdresser do the hard bit which is highlights. That's what involves skill an expertise and time.

In reality, if you want Jennifer Anniston's look, you will need highlights, and lots of them, as well as lowlights, every 6 weeks, and a blend of probably 3 salon strength colours. However, that general tone is achievable in a solid colour.

[LaDolcheRyvita]

Oh Lordy! Looks like I'll ave to keep shelling out then!

Thanks

[Selks]

I find that with not putting the dye on for the full amount of time the natural highlights in my hair show through to an extent, enough to stop the colour looking flat.