Hair dye advice for naturally dark hair

[Diablo82]

I've been getting my hair dyed for years at a salon and love the colour, but can't afford the £60 a month it is costing. I'm thinking about moving to home hair dye. I need your tips! I have black hair with a bit of grey - I want to go a mid brown colour - sort of Aishwarya Rai colour. So ladies, what colours and brands have you tried and what would you recommend?

I think all brands are much of a muchness tbh

I've just used Nice and Easy Medium brown 117 and it was a as dark as anything I've used before. I've used Nutrisse, Casting

I think they are all the same colour!

I want something that will lift my hair to mid brown and cover the grey - no idea what to try!

I get good results with the L'Oreal colours. Have a look here for some ideas

I have used various over the years. I have dark brown hair, with a tonne of grey.

My fave brand, one i tried the other week, for coverage and being gentle on my scalp is Belle Colour, and i used the dark brown number 4.

Nice and Easy 118, burnt my scalp, the very first time my hair has burnt form a home dye in yrs.

Casting, the basic one (superdrug), although a semi, used to work on my hair until a few years ago but i am not sure how much it will lighten your hair as it's a semi.

Macdog - thank you very much, just took the quiz! Ended up with a recommendation for "Feria" in "bronze shimmer"

Good luck!

I'm no expert but I don't think a hair colour won't lift dark brown hair to a mid brown. My hair was very dark brown and I wanted to go lighter so I had to have bleached highlights to get my hair lighter, the hairdresser then put a caramel toner on top of the highlights and I now have a lovely mid brown colour which I'm very pleased with and suits my colouring better than very dark hair.

John Frieda Precision Mousse but make sure you go a couple of shades lighter then you think you need. My hair is dark brown but I use shade 6N.

Sorry messed up the link again! Here it is again:

John Frieda

I know the shade they use in tha hairdresser - I've just googled and you can buy it online - I wouldn't be sure how they mix it though. Has anyone tries using professional hair dyes at home?

If you are dark from an artificial dye (i.e your hairdresser has been colouring you) then you cannot go lighter or "lift to mid brown" - you have to remove previous colour and colour build up first before choosing a mid brown colour, or you have to bleach highlight and tone the body of your hair whilst you make the transition at your roots.

A lighter colour, even one that contains peroxide, will not lift or cancel out darker colour molecules.

If you use one, the body of your hair will remain the same and your roots will be, well, probably ginger, or the mid brown you mention.

You can strip out colour with a product called "ColourB4" which is very effective, I used it last week, and I used it on my friend's dark brown/black bob last night). You can then think about mid browns.

Or get your hairdresser to highlight you up to a mid brown all over effect with bleach and toner and then match your roots as best you can and carry on from there.