Best dye for greying hair?

[trulyscrumptious43]

My real colour is mid brown, I've been getting away with different deep brown permanent dye kits to cover the grey hairs, but they tend to wash out to orangeish hues which look appalling next to the emerging greys. I loathe this look and now I've got it.
One of my clients is in her sixties, and is enviously trim and petite with a dark brown bob and never a grey hair in sight; but frequent visits to Cheltenham occur, where, I suspect, lurks a prohibitively expensive colourist. I dare not enquire after the fountain of youth in this case as it would surely break the bank.
A friend told me to use semi permanent dyes as they don't wash out to orange; however they don't seem to tackle the grey very well.
Any suggestions gratefully accepted (but I'm not going blonde!)

sorry just reread the op and seen that you already use perm colours - duh.

well worth asking TattyDevine for some help with colours as she has mucho knowledge of all the various browns in this range - having experimented with them lots. she's also brill wrt advice for ongoing maintenance of roots etc.

if you use henna make sure you do a strand test as henna can react badly with the dye on your hair.

I will ask Tattydevine - how do I contact her? Not sure how this all works ...x

i'll ask her now if she'll have a look at this thread

I'm here!

Right, OP in an ideal world you would do a one-off visit to a hairdresser to sort your roots and give you a t-section of highlights to lighten the overall effect, if you are feeling "blocky" and dark, otherwise known as "a bit Pauline Prescott "

The reason your hair is fading is simply because box dyes use a fairly pissweak form of peroxide suitable for home use by novices. What you really need to open up grey hair is 20 volume developer (peroxide) which is 6%

A good mix for you to maintain your roots, particularly if you have a few highlights to break it up but want to keep your base colour a mid fairly neutral brown, is 1 part 4.3 Majirel with 3 parts 5.0 Majirel which you then mix with 1 and a half times 20 volume developer

So if you measured in half teaspoons, you would have half a teaspoon of 4.3, 3 x 1/2 teaspoons of 5.0, and 3 whole teaspoons of developer. You paint it on and leave it on for 35 minutes.

This would be plenty to cover roots in terms of amount.

Buy a tinting brush or even a foundation brush for very precision application to the roots only and a big pack of latex gloves.

This would allow you to maintain your roots at home with professional grade dye which will not fade ginger at the temples, will completely cover the grey, and give incredible shine. It smells lovely too!

Credit to beloved style and beauty queen otchayaniye for this info - it was her that got me into professional dye (though I use a mix to achieve auburn). Now, it could be that this mix is not right for you but it sounds like it will be - in an ideal ideal world you'd visit a hairdresser first, have them do your roots with whatever they suggest and a t section of highlights, and try and find out what they used (!) - if they bring over a swatch book memorise the numbers!!! And try and use someone who uses Loreal because Majirel is best for covering grey, it is said. But I honestly feel compared to what you have been doing if you buy this combination outlined above and do your roots only, you will be much happier with your colour and then you can go and have highlights if you want to lighten up a bit. You could get away with a few highlights 3 times a year which will not bust the bank.

Just a few points to add:

Don't be daunted by professional dye - the are essentially the same thing with a more ballsy developer. They need to be mixed very thoroughly, but apart from that they are very easy to use. In fact, they are easier, because they dont drip or bleed so much, and are far easier to apply to roots only with a brush.

They are not dangerous in any way as long as you follow the development time - 35 minutes. Same with box dyes really.

Don't be put off by the 4.3 being a brown medium gold - there is a world of difference between "gold" and "ginger". You need to replace some of the warmth that all hair has when you go grey, which is actually white - or you will look green or flat. And its only one part to the other three that is a "warm" shade.

If it all sounds daunting doing roots only - dont be daunted, even if you only ever do your parting and temples and hairline and above ears and crown in a fairly cack-handed way, you will cover the grey without having colour build up, it wont wash out and fade, and you can get a professional job done 2 or 3 times a year to get the bits you missed and have some highlights to lighten it up a bit. Its way better than slapping on box after box of dye from Superdrug that doesn't really do the job and in the meantime you are getting darker and darker but your roots and temples are grey/ginger...

I found some Lush caca brown in the cupboard (bought it for DS last xmas but she decided to go blonde instead!)
Popped that on and spent a day in the garden baking my mud helmet on, lovely! But after two washes my grey temple is back.
Bah.
Any ideas for just dying the temple?

My apologies TattyDevine, I came back to this page after a few weeks away (a job to find it, MN thinks I'm not interested if I go away for a bit!)
The page didn't load properly and your wonderful advice didn't appear when I wrote my previous post.
I submitted my message and then your posting appeared, doh.
Thanks so much for the good advice, I will definitely follow it!

Bit off topic, but does this salon do training nights? the really expensive colourist might be a teacher also.... My hairdresser is also the salon "educator"

Also would it be cheaper to go their if you only have a colour but no cut or blow dry? some salons are a bit sniffy about that kind of thing but others are not.

Where do you buy the proper stuff from. My grey is terrible and my hair grown so fast I have a line of get hair in my partin 3 weeks from colouring. I could really do with something other the box colours

Tatty!!

If I buy the 'very light iridescent golden brown' Majirel - do I also need to buy developer and if so how much? I'm in the 'white stripe' category too and the frequent home dying is a) nearly useless and b) damaging my hair and scalp

Thanks in advance

It's on amazon here
www.amazon.co.uk/LOreal-Majirel-Light-Iridecent-Golden/dp/B0012XAPJK/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1317731912&sr=8-14

Ah have replied to your other thread x

Reviving this thread!

Need some advice - I want to try the Majirel dyes for doing my roots. I have probably around 30% grey at the front, rest is ok I think. My natural colour is a mid brown with warm tones. I have been using a light brown shade of home dye kits but they do such an awful job at covering the grey and I've had enough of them.

Tatty, Quite like the idea if getting highlights to break up the block colour. I follow your advice above re highlights then touching up the roots, won't it look odd as the highlights grow out?