Blonde Home Hair Dye - recommendations...?

[babysaurus]

I have a half head of highlights once every year six months or so and now have quite a bit of regrowth and quite a large overdraft. Hence, getting said roots sorted isn't possible right now but was wondering if home dye is an option...?
I have blonde hair anyway, and have always been wary of roots (hence the highlights instead of full colour) and other hair dying potential problems but am wondering (its over 20 years since I last dyed my own) if dye's have got better.
A semi permanent would be okay (if possible for blonde?), if not better, too.
Any suggestions? Hair is in good condition, but blonder from about 4 inches down (not too obvious, but obvious to me!)

If you are cool toned then Stockholm by L'oreal is a great colour.

What is your natural colour?

The Semi/Permo thing is a red herring. If you are going blonde, you need to lighten, therefore your hair needs a certain amount of hydrogen peroxide, therefore whether the colour pigment lasts a few washes or a lot is almost irrelevant...you will need to re-dye when you get roots.

Loreal have Blondisemes or something range which is high lift, there is the Stockholm one as suggested which is ultra highlift, Clairol have a couple of ultra high lift. You could probalby get away with one of these if you can get away with once a year / twice a year. Let me know your natural colour and I'll see if I can suggest one. Either way you should either strand test or patch test.

Coolish toned - tends to go very blond in the sun, but mousey when its not if that makes sense

Hmm you could probably do the old Loreal 911. Hold on I'll find some links.

I'd patch test this one on your roots halfway between ear and parting, see what it does

You can always get some purple shampoo if it looks "bright"

You should be able to get that in any large Boots

Hi Babysaurus:) your hair sounds a lot like mine and I use L'Oreal Couleur Experte - 8.0 Light Blonde. Its comes with a base colour and a high lighting colour that you put on afterwards using a small brush that comes in the kit.

It does tend to look slightly brassy until you've washed it a couple of times but its great after that.

Its normally about £9.50 but if you have a Savers store near you they're doing it for £4 at the moment :)

Nark, how do you know where to put the highlights? I keep thinking that if I tried it, it would look streaky.

I just pick up centimetre thick strands starting at the front and working my way round. I was really careful the first few times I used it but over time have got braver and put more highlights in. I've never had a problem with streaks and I've even had people ask me which hairdresser I had it done at.

Its really easy to use, the highlights aren't so obvious that they'd look awful if they went wrong iyswim :)

Sounds really good. I might brave it. :)
Thank you.

I have light brown/auburn hair, and I use L'Oreal natural mid blonde every three months ago. It does lighten it - just a couple of shades - and looks very nice and natural. The roots aren't a problem because it is quite close to my natural colour.

I have dyed my hair for 30 years, and always use L'Oreal now. It's a couple of quid more, but is much better than most home hair dyes I reckon.

Sorry its taken till this long to reply, have been unable to get to the PC till now.
I am kind of running out of time, but may have to see if I can squeeze a colouring session in. As I am doing it myself I have to be very careful though, my DH wouldn't be much good in a crisis and I have a wedding to go to on Saturday!
Thanks for the replies. Will do some investigating!