Home hair colour-help, I'm a novice

[Kaloobear]

I used to get hi lights done at my salon but haven't had them for years and can't afford them now. I've just started going grey and I'm really too young! If I get a semi permanent home colour (am too scared to use permanent without my hairdresser's watchful eye) how often would I have to re-do it? And does it fade evenly or would I get roots? And if the latter (sorry!) do I reapply just to the roots or do the whole head again?

Make sure you get a semi that will cover grey hair, as some will make your greys go a different colour!! Only go a couple of shades different to your natural colour unless using permanent colour. You won't get roots, it'll have faded by then, most last between 2-6 weeks depending on your hair, the brand, the shade and how often you wash your hair.

Personally if just trying to hide the grey hairs, I'd use a permanent dye that's very close to natural colour, you won't be able to see if any patches aren't evenly covered once you wash it off. As you get more confident you could always experiment with other shades. Also, it's usually easier for someone else to apply it for you if you can arrange it, just so they can see what they are doing

Thanks RockChick, that's really useful. Would you recommend any particular permanent colour or are they all much of a muchness? I'm tempted by the John Frieda mousses if I go down the permanent route, though mainly because I like the boxes

I'd add go for a shade or two lighter than it says on the box. Both semi permanent and permanent colours always seem to come out darker than they look on the picture ..especially the shades of brown, and it's easy to come out with an 'OMG I'm a witch!' look (done so many times myself:() Semis are a good place to start as they don't feel quite so drastic if you aren't happy with the results!

I've tried mousse hair dye and found it loads harder to apply than normal stuff, although I've been dying my hair for nearly 15 years now so may just have been because it wasn't what I used to

My favourite is garnier nutrisse, I like being able to get ammonia free as it doesn't smell anywhere near as bad!!

I found that darker shades go very much darker than the pics on the box. I always try a lighter shade first as it never turns out to be false economy, you can always go darker but never lighter.