Hair colour question -any experts out there?

[itsalarf]

I have naturally very, very dark brown hair. I have a bit of grey now, not excessive, but I want to cover it. I have used 24 wash type colours for the past couple of years, about every 3 months. I think there is some colour build-up and when it fades it shows that reddish tones. I'd like it to look natural and less flat and dark. Any suggestions?

A shameless bump for this. Am thinking of using harsh shampoo and then an ash toned medium brown? Have heard of colour b4 but not sure if it is right for me.

It's tricky - you do definitely get colour build up with the darker dyes, even ones that say they wash out after 24 washes. Apparently it's because they permanently stain the hair, and most do contain a tiny bit of peroxide or ammonia to get them to work in the first place.

How long is your hair? If it's not too long and you don't have that much grey you could maybe just start again at the roots with a colour that's lighter than your natural colour and within a year or so you should have nice natural looking highlights where the grey is.

If you really want to get rid of the old brown then Colour B4 might be worth a go, but in my experience it just fades the dyed hair rather than getting rid of the dye altogether. Your grey hair will still be permanently 'stained' from the dye. However the grey hairs will definitely be a LIGHTER (though reddish) brown, so you might have some luck in then using lighter ash brown on it to get some different tones through your hair.

Otherwise you can go to a hairdresser to get highlights 'stripped out' and a lighter brown put on them. You can then continue to colour your roots at home with a similar light brown to your highlights.

I'm not a hairdresser btw, just have many years of bitter experience in dyeing my own very dark hair!

I'll be doing Colourb4 on Friday, so will let you know what happens then...

I have never had highlights or permanent colour and do not have much grey really. Just want to get rid of the build up which can look flat, and get rid of that slightly brassy reddish tone I suppose. Not much you can do easily with such dark hair. What colour is your natural and dyed hair CMOT?

When I said about getting highlights stripped out I wasn't talking about existing highlights. I suppose I really meant 'have highlights put in'.

Oh right I get you. Don't know how brave I am. I lack courage with my hair!

My current hair colour = medium brown with redness. Real colour = white, with grey at the back.

My theory is that worst case, I'll colour it again