Going from blonde highlights to brown all over DIY- any tips?

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I can no longer afford to maintain my salon done blonde highlights (sob...) so I'm going back to my roots and want to put a colour on myself that will take me back to my natural mid brown. The colour needs to cover some grey hairs too.

Any recommendations on type of home colour to use? And will it be ok to whack it on over the highlights or is there a risk of weirdly coloured hair? I could get the hairdresser to do it but it would have to go on the credit card is I'd like to avoid that if possible.

Thanks wise, stylish and beautiful mumsnetters!

I went from blonde highlights to brown - just bought a home kit (clairol nice and easy or garnier, one of those) and it was fine.

It's going back to blonde thats the big problem!! My dont you just buy a home kit and keep it blonde if you dont want to go brown. I liked being darker for a while but I felt it made me look a bit pale and washed out so went back to blonde.

I am a bit worried about looking washed out with dark hair and would prefer to be blonde, but I'm not the best at dying my own hair and I worry that if I tried to do my own highlights it would look terrible! Do you think it would be better to just bleach the lot blonde myself, rather than fiddling with highlights? It's fairly short (jaw length) so I'm not too worried about damaging my hair. Only other problem is my hair takes ages to 'take' the bleach (at least 40mins and sometimes up to an hour) and goes through an orange stage before it goes blonde so I might get stuck with orange hair if i tried it myself? Thanks for your help!

I'm in this situation myself OP and am debating the same thing! I have about an inch of mid brown regrowth atm, and then darker blonde highlights. I've moved my parting so not v noticable atm but am getting to the stage where something is going to have to be done. I was thinking about dying it myself but am worried about a vast colour difference between natural regrowth and colour...will be watching this with interest to see how yours turns out if you do it!

I wouldnt bleach it but yes, just get a home kit and dye it yourself...........it's easy!! Dont bother with highlights, just do your whole head - dont get like a golden blonde or anything - I always used to use clairol nice and easy natural baby blonde, it was a nice tone and it didnt go gingerish which sometimes they do!

How much does your hairdresser charge for hilights? I'd rather find a cheaper hairdresser then change the colour or risk a home disaster !! Could you see if there is a mobile hairdresser in your area that is cheaper?

Yep a mobile is a great idea!! I use a mobile now (I started using one when I went from brown back to blonde) and she is great - I pay £30 for cut and highlights although I think she gives me mates rates :)

Yes Betty! I was lucky that after going on maternity leave my lovely hairdresser asked me if I'd like her to do my hair at my house, as she was going free-lance. I live it and it costs less than half the salon charges!

marking my place and watching with interest. I went back to my natural dishwater colour last year after getting fed up with the upkeep of highlights, but hated it (I felt very dull and washed out and none of my clothes looked right any more). I'm now highlighted again but would quite like to start DIYing it blonde - but like the OP I'm just too scared of a colour disaster. Any recommendations for diy blonde on this thread would be fantastic!

My salon charges £70 (London, sigh...), mobile hairdresser is a great idea though, I hadn't thought of that. I might try the clairol home dye suggested, thanks, and if it goes wrong find a mobile hairdresser. I can always wear a hat for a bit! Thanks so much for your help ladies, I'll post again after I've dyed!

My salon charged £85 for full head. My home hairdresser charges £35

Have you looked at your local FE college? They let NVQ students do your hair (supervised) and it is normally very cheap.

At my local college for instance, full head highlights is £20, cut and finish a tenner.

Mine's £50 for T Section regrowth highlights and a cut. I never have it blown dry as I detest hair dryers.

Am watching.....cause I can't keep paying this every 6 weeks or so. I have one darker (mouse - like my own colour) and one light (guess its bleach) put through, so....COULD I HOME COLOUR?

Where's Tatty Devine when you need her?

GetOrfMoiiLand: I did look into the college hairdressers but they didn't do weekend or evening appointments and I don't have childcare during the day in the week- can't afford that either!!

I had this done at the hairdressers due to not being able to afford the £60 every 5 weeks for highlights. If you just put a brown dye over blonde highlights you can end up with a greeny brown shade which is not very flattering! You can do it at home but you'd need a brown dye with warmth in it as bleached highlights strip the hair of the red pigment. My hairdresser actually pre-pigmented my hair first with orange/red pigment and then put a tint on afterwards. I really liked it at first, the condition is lovely and the colour is rich and shiny. I have been brunette now since January but really miss my blonde highlights. More so because I'm going on holiday in a couple of months and need to be blonde!!Even though my natural colour is med/dark brown I want to be blonde again!!! I'm now looking at using a product called Colour B4 to try and remove the dark dye and get a lighter base for highlights to go back in. My advise would be to be certain you want to be darker because it's very difficult to get used to.