To think I should give up on the salon and dye my own hair?

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Just that really.

Been getting a salob dye to cover greys for nearly a year now. Tried 3 different salons.

My hair is red which I know is hard to do. But AIBU to think that £70 (the going rate where I live) for colour which fades off the grey hairs after 2 washes in mild colour-safe products is just nonsense?

Am starting to think of doing it myself, any recommendations for brands? Shades?

I have been trying to find the perfect shade. I had enough of trying to get to my old hairdressers & had a quote for colour which ordinarily would be fine. I just don't have that money right now. I usually have really light tint with 2 colours on foils so it doesn't go too blocky.
My last visit to the salon was a disaster. They had gone bust & my hairdresser did it at her friend's salon. I think she got confused,poor thing had had an awful day & used bleach on roots. When rinsed it off it was canary bloody yellow. She toned it so it was ok but v light.
I bought a couple of colours to do patch test. Neither light enough. Going to try the blonde ultime lxx.
I used to colour my hair,with a herbal essences colour. The colour was one of my favourite colours ever but discontinued now.
Tatty Devine does jewellery,bit confused over that?!

Just to put in a nod for Daniel Field colours, which are almost as natural as you can get but still do a good job.

I used to be a salon regular but got fed up of the time and money spent there.

I do both! I am completely grey and have been since my 30s. I am very short sighted so find doing it all myself is a chore but I go to salon about twice a year and use root touch up in between. Sometimes I will get a friend to do an all over as well. Give it a go....

I used to be red for years and never found a salon that did my hair any better than what I could do at home. In fact home colouring was often better...

I'm blonde now and again, a salon just can't get it right. So DH does my roots for me and I over dye it with Nice n Easy. I also haven't found a salon that doesn't cock up my fringe so I've taken to trimming that myself in between actual cuts

Sorry, TattyDevine is also an MN poster. Not sure if she's still around, actually.

I think you have to be careful with red.

Brown, black, blonde can all be done ok at home.

This is probably a personal preference but I think a lot of red colours, particularly on more mature women, scream "cheap home colour". The maroon ones especially.

Sorry!

Have a gobut I would start with a semi-permanent firstless scary.

Agree, yerwha. Red is hard to get right, particularly as nobody seems to make ginger dyes anymore. Most of the boxes are too artificial red and not gold enough for my hair.

Can't recommend Majirel highly enough. It's the stuff they use in hairdressers.

I was just thinking the opposite of you, OP. I colour my hair at home, medium brown, and can never cover all the wispy grey hair around my face. I was thinking about trying a salon next time. Maybe the real truth is just that grey hair is hard to colour no matter where you do it. Might as well do it at home and save money then!

Just tried Olia 2 days ago for the first time. Awful. Bottle is round shape and I dropped it twice, very hard to squeeze it too. Plus didn't feel like enough product to cover my medium length hair and left my hair feeling brittle. Never been unhappy with any others though.

I used to get it done in a salon but now I've switched back to home dye! Obviously much cheaper.. and quicker as I don't have to go to the salon and sit there with them pulling my hair about!

I use nice n easy, light auburn.

I empty the bottle and the colourant into a plastic tub, mix them up and brush it on in small sections like the hairdresser does. That way I can do the fringe and wispy bits the face first and they get an extra 15 mins by the time I've done all the other roots an inch, then after 20 mins I use up the rest of the colourant to blend into the lengths. Surely this must be on Youtube.

burrito why do you combine two? What is the outcome ?

yerwha I agree about a lot of the reds screaming 'cheap home colour'.

The problem is that a couple of times in the salon I've come out looking like I had a bad home dye job.

The first time, it looked AMAZING. Completely like my natural colour. Since then 2 disasters, 1 meh and 2 ... Yeah 2 more 'mehs' and I'm pretty much over it.

I do my own hair, Red mostly, trick is to find a subtle red if your already going over red.

Can you post a picture of the colour you are trying to achieve and I will give you a mix of professional dye that will cover your grey and save you hundreds of pounds!

I cover my own grey using Loreal majirel.

Professional dye is better because you can use 20 volume peroxide which is stronger than a box dye for opening up the cortex of grey hair (it won't damage your hair if you don't run it through each time)

It is very easy to apply (not drippy like box dyes) and you can use as little as you need and can choose when to do it (so before a night out etc) without having to make appointments and faff about.

You say your hair is red, do you mean ginger read, light ginger, deep red? Another benefit of professional dye is that you can get a more realistic colour.

Give us a pic! I can help!

The reason why a lot of box dyes scream "home dye job" is a lot of them have mahogany in them because its very "safe" in terms of redness, but most complain that they come out too dark or not red enough, or not ginger (if you are ginger, the key to getting the shade right is recognising that you are mainly deep gold with a touch of copper, and not "red"

In effect ginger hair is more blonde than anything else, with the full whack of warm tones.

My natural hair colour was coppery. I think at my age though (50) replicating it with dye just looks fake and unnatural. I have moved on to a warm chestnut colour with much better results

I cannot praise Tatty's talents highly enough- she's BRILLIANT.

Thanks Tethers. We got you sorted right out hey?

I think one of the main reasons Nice n Easy is so popular and successful is that they describe their colours as what they are "light golden natural brown" rather than "Havanna Moonlit Nights" complete with bullshit picture etc.

But once you are able to decode the international colouring system, it gets easier.

First there is your base. 2 is pretty much black, 3 very dark brown it may as well be black, 4 brown but still quite dark, 5 mid brown, 6 dark blonde (still perceived as brown to a normal eye), 7 deep mid blonde, 8 blondish, 9 blonde, 10 very blonde.

Then the other numbers mean a main tone and a reflect.

1 is green ash, 2 is violet ash, 3 is gold, 4 is copper, 5 is mahogany, 6 is red.

So if you have a 9.23, used with the correct peroxide, you will achieve a strawberry blonde on mousy hair.

Anyone wanting to be ginger needs aa 7.34 with at least 20 volume peroxide.

Etc etc.

Some of the blonde blends and ginger blends are simply not available as a box in the shop because idiots would put them on highlighted hair and wonder why they look like Ronald Chuffing McDonald. Etc.

In the few years since I ditched the salon and did my own roots I have probably saved hundreds if not in the thousands, plus have been able to do my roots when it suits me, not waiting an agonising 6 weeks etc.

I do have highlights sometimes, but even dabble in these at home with 30 volume peroxide, bleach powder and a toothbrush, because I only like a few at the front to break it up.

Tatty's explanations have been brilliant for helping me decode box dyes and knowing which ones to avoid