My hair's about 50% grey but when I get it coloured at a salon it fades to orange. What can I do?

[grenedeer]

I'm 46 and have thick (as in lots of it, and each strand is thick and wiry), slightly wavy hair. I don't need to dye it but it's really aging if I leave it. At the moment I don't have a regular hairdresser but each time I get it coloured (permanent dye) it starts off ok but after about 4 weeks fades and gets a rusty looking tinge and looks obviously dyed. I'm perimenopausal and my hair and skin is getting drier and drier so my hair is also quite frizzy and the opposite of sleek which makes it look and feel even worse.

A couple of years ago I had a really good hairdresser (who moved, curse her!) and my hair didn't seem to react in the same way. From memory she also seemed to have more sample colour charts so maybe I need to go to a more expensive salon who have different products???

Any advice would be very welcome. I don't feel ready to embrace the grey quite yet but am sure my hair can look better than it is.

Thanks a million!

I would recommend using three colours for a blended look.

are you bleaching the hair at all? if so that might be why it goes orange?

Maybe choose a darker shade, one very similar to your natural and a lighter shade with minimum peroxide. then when grey comes back through the lighter shade hides it a bit.

Try Woucher or Groupon for a good offer. I got a £180 colour for £50 a couple of years back.

I meant to say that the lighter bit will lighten in the sun but you can go back to get just this bit retouched.

Ooh thankyou for that. It's like those threads where you get to ask an expert! Love it.

I'm always a little apprehensive using Maji on grey, I tend to use Luo however on Tinker's hair I'd be fine using Maji.

NK - can I ask why you're apprehensive of using Majirel on grey hair when it covers 100% white?

I found on some peoples hair (very thick and very grey) it doesn't take as well- especially on roots compared to Luo.

I ended up having to change the vol and mix it to be more resistant e.g. 50g 5.0 and 55g 6%.

It only happened 2 or 3 times- (might have even been the same woman) but it put me off! So, nowadays I tend to use Luo when completely grey.

I have the same problem with orangeing hair.
I've started using the L'Oréal purple shampoo, it seems to be working well. Using Touch of Silver conditioner as well.
DD is also using both on her bleach blonde hair and she's very pleased with the results.

I have same sort of hair and also had problem with fading to red as it doesnt suit me but hairdressers always had a thing about adding some warmth to my hair colour but actually I suit cool tones, my natural colour is very dark. Anyway I have lowlights rather than block colour as it is easier to deal with the grey routes showing through and i think can be less aging than a block colour. My hairdresser uses 2/3 different cool colours, normally a sort of hazel colour with no warmth and that seems to work for the time being until i bit the bullet and go completely grey

Your best bet with grey hair that you want to achieve a natural ash tone is to have the third tone as a gold. You do need to have a warm element as grey is colourless.

For example - 5.23 would be a light brown with a secondary ash tone and the third number would be the element of gold for warmth. This is enough to add a natural hue without changing the ash tone.