Hair - I'm going to have to go in with a home colourant *shudder* help me!

[redandyellowandpinkandgreen]

I normally have blonde highlights on my naturally quite fair hair. However I'm just at the end of my mat leave and poorer than a very poor thing and I can't even afford my cheapy mobile hairdresser at the moment. I have about two inches of roots which don't look horrific as the highlights aren't that bright but it doesn't look great.

What can I do to cover it myself? What will happen if I buy a home colour in a light blonde shade? I am scared. Every time I've ever attempted to colour myself it's been terrible but I just need something to tide me over a few months until I go back to work.

Can anyone advise what would work best?

I would get a Scott Cornwall Foil Effects cap and either a high lift tint (is that what your hairdresser uses?) or some bleach and a semi to go over it just in case which you can return if you wash the bleach off at the correct moment.

The foil effects cap is a cap you can reuse, over and over, and the bleach or tint doesn't bleed into the scalp line so its dummy-proof. Read the booklet which is very informative, pull the hair through, apply the bleach, rinse off when it is the right colour with the CAP STILL ON, dry it off, then apply a semi permenant tint to tone them. If you are fair enough you can skip the bleach stage and just use the tint. How fair are you, and what colour are your highlights? Are they baby blonde, or golden blonde, or ash blonde?

I wouldn't slap an all over tint on your roots, it might go wrong, they might go ginger, there are lots of things that might go wrong although not necessarily.

Give me more info of your natural base colour, what you have had done by your hairdresser and what colour you want your highlights and I'll tell you what products you need.

You can be a succesful credit-crunch blonde at home, don't worry!

what colour is your natural hair colour?

I have a slight reddish through my hair and was terrified of doing it myself as I've always had it done at a salon since a teenage disaster but home colours are really good these days.

I had to revert for the same reasons as you and I use the Perfect 10 Ash Blonde which is supposed to reduce red tinges and it comes out beautifully. Looks really natural.

I guess it would depends on how your hair is?

Sounds like we have similar colouring - I'd been having highlights for several years and had vowed to never use a home colour again but recently felt guilty about how much it was going to cost, so I bit the bullet and used Nice n Easy foam in Light Blonde, felt sick as I was doing it and was really regretting it but it turned out so well that I'm thinking of doing it again.

Thanks ladies, these are desperate times! I have had highlights since I was 16.

I am naturally dark blonde I would say, or mousey with naturally blonder bits around the front. The kind of colour that goes blonder in the sun. My highlights are very blonde and definitely involve some bleach. They are white blonde and I have some darker, sort of mid brown ones through too but I think they have mostly faded. I've got that problem where I've had repeated highlights so it's very blonde at the ends and looking a bit blocky.

I am scared of the highlight kit as I'll have to ask my mum to do it and last time that happened I was about 20 and it was terrible! Maybe I can find a handier mate this time. I would like the overally effect to be either baby blonde highlights or an all over sort of golden light blonde. I read you're not meant to attempt two shades lighter than your natural colour with home colourants and two shades lighter would be fine.

Right. If you are looking "blocky" anyway and your main problem is roots, I would suggest you live with a "block" colour and use a permenant Blonde colour. You are a good candidate for one, as a very fair person naturally (anyone who is still "dark blonde" naturally in their 20's/30's/40's or beyond is pretty fair in my opinion)

My suggestions for colour would be as follows:

Clairol Nice N Easy Natural Extra Light Beige Blonde (can't go wrong, not too golden, not too ash on your ends, just a bog standard "blonde") or 103 Natural Light Beige Blonde.

Why "beige" - don't be put off, its in case there is quite a difference between your natural roots and the white bleachyness of your highlights. There is enough "colour" in these to be able to both lighten your roots adequately and deposit colour, and deposit colour to match in the bleached ends. You shouldn't end up with "root glow" or a muddy colour to your ends.

I suggest you have on standby (or be prepared to buy) some Lee Stafford "bleach blondes" shampoo or his "hot shots" to "tone" your colour if it comes out a little brighter than you like. Don't worry though, this will fade.

Its also not so light a colour that you can't then go to the hairdresser in the Autumn when you are more flush and have some highlights and lowlghts threaded through to do a more multi tonal look if you wish. But you might like it so much you wont bother!

Please do a strand test. Snip a small section of hair from the underside (say somewhere above your ear on either side), secure it with a sticky label or sticky tape, paint some of the colour (mix a teaspoon of each bottle as Clairol is equal parts), place the hair on top of some aluminium kitchen foil, fold it up in a little packet, wait 30-45 minutes, rinse, dry, and observe.

If you do this strand test you will not be shitting yourself when you are sitting there with the colour on your head! You will have a good idea of what it will look like, and you can sit there and stare at it if you like. When you choose the piece of hair for your strand test, please try and choose one of the baby blonde streaks that has been bleached, and try and snip it close enough to the root that you also get a section of "natural" hair - secure the hair at the end instead of the root with the sticky label so you can observe any difference in colour between the bleached blonde bit and the natural root bit.

Good luck, let us know how you go, and if you think this colour is wrong, say so and say why and I'll see if I can suggest an alternative.

Excellent thank you. I've used those Hot Shots before so will pick some up. Eek! I hope I love it as it could save me a blinking fortune! Imagine just paying for a trim, I'll be rich. Failing that I can wear a scarf and then beg my hairdresser to come back and colour it for me.

I am quite excited to try it now, off to the chemist tomorrow. I am glad others have had liked home colouring results too.

Excellent! Please bump the thread to let us know how you get on. And please do the strand test - its really important, as I haven't seen your hair, so if I'm way off the mark, you've only wasted less than a fiver but don't have a disaster to sort! x

I have the dye in my hot little hands!

Strand test it done, I'm not sure. It looks fine, not orange or anything terrible but the roots didn't seem to lighten enough compared to the ends. I left it on 45 minutes. Would you follow the guide for roots so you leave the colour on longer and then take it through to the ends only for the final bit of time? I am going to use it definitely anyway, in for a penny and all that. I wish I had used more colour on the strand test as I'm not sure I mixed enough.

Also was a very good girl and did a patch test so I should be ready to colour Friday night. How exciting.

My hair sounds the same as yours OP and everytime I've used a home colour it has come out orange. So just be careful! Perhaps TattyD could explain why? (I've been reading your comments religiously...your knowledge of hair colour is nothing short of amazing!!)