Going grey, fuck sticks

[Gapants]

That is it, my little smattering of grey hair has gone mad. It is all wirey and grey and a big thick wedge of it in my parting.

I have very little money, and my days of spending £££ on my tresses are over for now. I need to know the BEST shop stocked semi-permanent hair colour. My natural colour is a mid brown and I have a mass of blondey highlights that I am growing out. My hair throws out alot of red....can anyone help me?

I need a bat phone for TattY Devine!

It is really getting me down, I am only 30....something and just want this grey to piss off.

i'll fetch tatty for you but she might not be able to get online straight away

Here! You say semi? Would you consider a "professional" semi (available online) or do you need something you can buy at Boots? (price similar)

Regardless of the answer to the above, I would say anyone who describes themselves as "mid brown" should not go below level 6 in terms of depth, or 5 at a pinch, or they will suffer build up and the "Pauline Prescot" effect (getting dark and blocky and looking OLD for your years).

What is your undertone or reflect? Gold/red? Neutral? Ash? What colour were you when you were a girl? Any pet hates in terms of hair colour or hair fade?

Sorry to jump on your thread.

I keep seeing numbers referred to on hairdyes. Where does one find said numbers on the shop bought boxes.

Spoken from the woman still smarting from colour b4 and desperately trying to avoid colour build up.

Oh tatty god bless your soul! And seasons I could kiss you.

OK, when I was a girl I was a deep dark brown--why oh why I decided to highlight I will never know. It is hard to say what my natural undertone is, but going on what hairdressers of old have told me, I would say a warm/redish tone. I do know when my colour fades, and that is any colour from the super expensive highlights with no bleach to the shop bought all over ones, my hair tends to go brassy quite quickly. Which I HATE.

I want to steer away from a permanent shop bought as I tend to end up re-doing them again and again over the weeks and tend to end up with ahir that has a more Henna'd tone.

I would like a semi to tide me over till the summer months where I will have almost out grown my old highlights and can put some new salon colour in- more like <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?hl=en&biw=1024&bih=643&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=lHCYsgIaWvlVIM:&imgrefurl=www.milanihair.com/blog/if-you-got-it-flaunt-it-celebrities-with-long-hair/&docid=Ms4u9DOgrG2C9M&imgurl=www.milanihair.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/sarah-jessica-parker-celebrities-with-long-hair.jpg&w=360&h=460&ei=uv-BT7iQBMin8gOUpfmqBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=610&vpy=160&dur=425&hovh=242&hovw=190&tx=80&ty=154&sig=110156061700372755941&page=1&tbnh=128&tbnw=109&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0,i:102" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"> this which is just lush

I do want to be dark, more like a safe mid brown that will tone out my badger stripe and fade off in afew weeks without looking brassy?

Does that all make sense?

A Million thanks x

dont want to be dark I mean!

Sorry to barge in on the thread Tatty would you mind answering a similar question?

I can no longer afford the time to go to the hairdressers due to commitments etc. However, my lovely hair colour is created with Clynol colours 50% 7.0 and 50% 7.03 with 6% peroxide. Could I buy these colours myself, mix up and apply to my regrowth? My hairdresser puts the colour on the regrowth using her finger with fabulous results.

Silver - yes, you could do this. The ratio of peroxide to colour will be on the box of colour. Mix the 2 colours together before you add the peroxide. 6% peroxide is also known as "20 volume". Any brand will do, they are much the same thing. Buy from Capital Hair and Beauty or just eBay

Sassee - Loreal use the international colour numbering system, Clairol do not. I can "translate" for you though if you want.

Right, Gapants, if I were you I would try a Diacolour Richesse 5.31 Praline Chestnut which has a gold reflect but wont fade brassy due to a violet ash secondary tone. Its not too light, not too dark, and semi, so see how that goes. You need 3% or 10 volume peroxide to mix, which is this stuff

There will be mix instructions on the tube.

If you can only contemplate a shop bought one, I would go for Clairol Nice n Easy 117 Medium Golden Brown or 116 Natural Light Brown. Technically they are permenant but only use about 3% peroxide so in effect are like a salon semi.

Thanks Tatty

I have a l'oreal casting creme gloss in the drawer. It's no 415 iced chocolate. The only other unexplained numbers I can see on the box are 1:1.5 since I can't spy a 6 in there I'm guessing I'm getting this wildly wrong!

Ok, I'm mid-dark brown naturally, a few grey hairs around my parting. I don't want to go darker and I need to avoid colour build up. My hair sometimes has a tendency to go a bit mahogany with hair dyes which I like to avoid where possible. What brand and colour do you recommend?

tatty you are the business, thank you so much. I might dobefore and after shots!!

Thanks Tatty. I have it written down from my hairdresser. It says

35 mls 7.03
30 mls 7.0
72 mls 6%

Does that mean I mix together the 35 mls and 30 mls of colour and then add 72 mls of 6%?

I'm not sure how long I need to leave this colour on for. Does it matter? Does it sort of get to its maximum effect and then doing nothing from then on?

Thanks so much

Watching this thread with interest as I am in the same position with mid brown hair as well.
Last weekend I used Nice n Easy 116 Natural Light Brown on my hair and I think it came out with reddish/goldish tints - which will be too light when it starts to wash out.

Tatty, could you recommend a colour for me please as I don't want to end up like Pauline Prescott!
I'm mid brown with plenty of grey, very fine hair. The ends are steeped in many mid brown dyes and the roots have a golden brown to them (see above) which probably looks apalling in the sunlight.

Apologies for thread hijack Gapants

I was about to hijack the thread with a question, but see lots of others got there first!

I'm wondering about the colour buildup thing, is that an issue if you have very dark hair anyway? Mine is dark brown, very nearly black, but starting to get some noticeable greys. Was thinking of quite a dark shade, possibly something with a bit of red (like this, not sure if that would make the grey bits look too red though...

Oh tatty you need to start charging for your advice!

No worries about the thread hijack, tattydevine is super knowledgeable about anything to do with grooming, we are very fortunate that she can help us at all.

cuttedup you sound like my hair twin.

at hair twin
Appalling isn't it?

How did you get to be so wise about colour Tatty?

My hair naturally used to be mid-dark brown, with a lot of natural red in it, with a few greys and I just used to get it died to match my roots. But over the years my hair is a bit more grey and I think the brown emerging at the roots is also is a bit lighter as maybe it's leaching colour as I get older? And with all the colouring I also get build up at the roots.

So I said I wanted to go a bit lighter in colour, so that the grey wasn't so stark. Hairdresser said that colour didn't lighten colour and she put part foils, part colour in it and it went all red at the roots, dark at the ends - nothing 'caramel colours' about it!

She has since now died it dark again using a 6 and 5 (so back to being mid-dark brown - sigh) and suggested putting highlight through again.

Am not convinced this is the best approach!

OH FUCK IT ALL

I used the wrong colour 114- golden light brown. I now have orange hair. Anyone help me? I am an IDIOT. A very sad one at that.

yikes! i'll see if i can get tatty to come and advise.

Sorry to hijack but can I get some advice too? I've got naturally mousy hair (with a touch of grey ) which I had highlighted for years. I went to the hairdresser and got it dyed a mid/dark brown when I fell pregnant because I thought it would be easier (and cheaper!) to keep up. After doing nothing to it for about 8 months and ending up with mouse roots and fading ends (nice!) I dyed it myself but went a bit mad and got a red brown permanent dye. I deliberately went a bit too dark and red as my hair normally leaches colour. Only it hasn't. It needs doing again (roots) and I'm really thinking I should go back to my natural colour for ease, but am too skint (and stingy!) to go to the hairdresser. Bearing in mind I am an idiot, is there any way I can strip the colour and dye it my natural colour myself that won't end in disaster, or do I need to suck it up and go to a professional. Thanks!

Yes, you can buy a colour remover from ebay which will strip the colour out. Remember to have your new shade handy in case the colour removed colour is foul and you cant leave the house!

Thank you! Suspect I will have about 6 inches of highlights at the ends and the rest mouse! Classy.

I'm here

Oh shit now you are orange then?

If its not too bad but just a bit warmer than you wanted (114 is the chestnut one isn't it, so you used one with copper? Is that right?) I would wash it a few times with either head and shoulders or dishwashing liquid, which will help rinse out some of that copper colour (its hard to keep in when you want it so in theory this should lift out some of it) and then get yourself a box of Clarol Nice n Easy 114 Natural Light Ash Brown. I suggest you do a strand test (Clairol use equal parts of developer to liquid colour so you can get a medicine spoon and measure out tiny equal amounts to mix together from the 2 bottles and paint on a small snip of hair you have cut off and secured with a sticky label, paint it on the hair, leave for half an hour wrapped in foil, rinse it, dry it and observe it under natural light, preferably some reasonbly strong sunlight, to see if the ash neutralises the orange to your satisfaction without making your hair colour too dark. If the result is okay then go ahead and dye your whole head using it and see how that goes.

OK, thanks tatty you really are the best.

I will do a flipping stand test. I am such a tit.

GaPants I have had the Nice n Easy 116 Natural Light Brown in for three weeks and sure enough I was a 'slightly orange in the sunlight with grey temples and parting' by this week. Attractive.
Yesterday I used Nice n Easy 117D Natural Medium Brown and so far I'm pleased. It's a decent mid to dark brown (a bit darker than I am naturally I think).

However since there is no sunshine it's hard to be sure there's no orange in there. But when I washed the mixture out it was violet so am hopeful.
Fingers crossed.