Orange hair - not deliberate!

[poohbearrocks]

I would really like some help. I have coloured my long thick curly dry hair for years. The usual brownish dyes started making it black ( even at very expensive hairdressers where I then had to spend hours having it stripped ). For last year I have been using lightest golden brown with ok results (better than bloody hairdresser anyway). But it has become increasingly orange and having dyed it yesterday is very orange. Maybe because I am so grey? Anyway I want to be brown. Naturally I am (was) a very dark brown with a little reddish in it. I think I need to be a bit lighter but one of the problems ATM is that my roots are dark and show badly even with all the grey.

So how long do I need to wait to put colour on top? I used nice n easy permanent yesterday. Can I use a semi to tone down in meantime? And (this is the big question) what colour to steer away from both orange and black?

You really need to use 'ash' shades, and steer away from golden, or warm tones. If you can find a medium ash brown, that would probably tone it down somewhat. Ash colours do tend to look a bit darker, as they're not as 'bright'.

Can I do anything about it this weekend or should I wait. I have a movies light brown that does not look warm in the cupboard. I have used lots of the colour 'fixing' conditioner though.

Ooh I'm probably not qualified as such, just very used to experimenting.

My hair went increasingly orange before Christmas, and the light colours didn't do too much.

I found that a demi-permanent, such as Castings, quite good, as they don't lighten the hair, but you'd need to go for a slightly lighter colour, as they do tend to go very dark, and may just end up darker with red tones.

I wouldn't worry too much about the colour fixing conditioners, you can quite easily get rid of them with either clarifying shampoo, or anti-dandruff shampoo.

If you've got a colour you could try it, but I'd probably do a strand test first, just to check that it works.

yy to using an ash brown, medium or even light, nice and easy is the best IMO, and you can use it straight away, I've done this lots of times. If you have time leave the conditioner on for as long as possible after dying and your hair should be lovely and shiny afterwards.

What colour are you using? What brand, and are there any numbers?

If you want to tone orange, you need ash tones as the previous posters have said.

If you are having trouble coloring your roots its probably time to start using a professional dye.

I would use Clairol Nice n Easy Light Ash brown to tone out the orange you have now, and then start using a Majirel deep basic like 6.0 or perhaps 5.1 if you still feel you have a rusty root glow.

You need 20 volume peroxide which is 6% and you mix it in a ratio of 50ml dye and 75ml peroxide. In every other regard its the same as box dye just better, and easier to use because its thicker. Don't run it through each time, it will last a lot better than box dyes.

Many box dyes have a warm undertone because if they use violet or green ash people end up having disasters if they use it over highlights etc so its "safer" to give them a warm base or "reflect" but many people don't enjoy the way they fade to orange.

Hmm, I like the sound of that Tatty I might try it myself. I use the light ash brown, even though my hair is medium/dark brown, the light ash is the best match. I HATE the orange glow but even the light ash goes a bit orange after a few washes.

So which Majirel will give a medium brown with no orange?

Well, used movida. It is a bit dark and a bit orange but not too bad. Now to choose something to use on a couple of weeks. Have been looking at eBay for the professional dyes but not sure how to choose a trustworthy source. I will need the measuring stuff etc as well. I suspect as this washes out I will need to do full colour and then roots after. I would normally use two packs of nice and easy and that only just covers hair. So how much should I buy? Can't decide colour either. Much happier with it a bit darker, but need to avoid too dark as prone to looking witchy anyway!