Help please - hair colour tomorrow & just don't know what to ask for

[Honey1975]

My hair is naturally dark mousey brown. I'm gradually getting more & more wiry greys coming through so I've been having a tint every 6 weeks or so to cover them. I've always said I want the tint to basically resemble as close to my natural brown as possible. When they first do it it looks ok but then as it grows out the tint looks orangey and so creates a big contrast to my natural brown.
On top of that I still have some highlights in the bottom half if my hair from ages ago.

So, as the delightful picture shows I now have highlights followed by orange followed by dark mousey brown/grey roots!!

I'm booked in tomorrow & just do not know anymore what to ask for. Whenever I ask for their advice they confuse me with the options. Also why do they use such an orange tint when I ask them to use a tint close to my natural colour?!

So does anyone know what I should ask for? Tint, highlights, lowlights.. etc? I just want my hair to look nice. When I look at other ladies my age they all seem to have nice coloured hair, highlighted I think but certainly not multicoloured!

I would ask for an all over light ash brown tint. The ash is key - makes it a cool colour. I'd live with that for a while, chop off the highlights then see how you go.

I agree with Tatapie. The colour you have put on is quite warm whereas your natural colour is cool. When your roots come in, they warm colour looks brassy/orange and your natural colour looks dull and flat.

Something like this would work with your roots.

The different colours stop it looking flat.

Or if you want some more blonde.

THey are the professionals. If it were me I would be asking them how best to dye your hair so when your natural hair comes through it doesn’t look so noticeable. If they look clueless I would be trying a different hairdressers.

Thank you. Tatapie if I ask for an all over ash tint will that be strong enough to cover the current orange colour do you think? If I were to have that done and a few highlights over the top should I be asking for ash toned highlights too?

Lucky, thanks for those pictures, that's exactly what I've always had in mind. When they first do the roots they don't look orange, it seems to be after a few weeks the dye they use changs colour? The very first time they did it I told them it was too 'reddy' so they said they'd use a darker shade the next time. It still looked the same he next time after a few weeks. I'm going to show them this actual photo of the top of my hair so they can see how wrong it is!

They are meant to be experts in colour, they are a very popular salon for this where I live. It's not cheap either but tomorrow I am getting a discount so I want to make the most of it and get it right! I will give them one more chance.

It's not necessary about it being a darker colour. If they are giving you too red a colour, it will always be "wrong" however dark or light it is.

Take some pics, tell them you want it ashy and cool rather than red and warm. Definately take your root picture. Also take some pics which show what you don't want.

Reds are infamous for fading and changing colour quickly.

Ok thanks Lucky, do you think an all over ash can cover what I've got or will It be a case of letting the orange grow out?

If they start talking about golden highlights or caramels and butters they are going warm again.
Ask about silvery ashy blondes.

They should be able to colour over it I'd have thought. It looks like it's faded quite a lot.
Report back!

Hairdresser here op, just ask them to neutralise the red, a cool tone and maybe darken half a shade, that's what I would do if you came to me with that problem. Tell them absolutely no red, copper or golden tones and that you want it as natural looking as possible

Do you know what brand of colour they use?

Ok thanks Lucky, I'm rubbish at this kind of thing.
I have brown eyes and olivey skin so I've always assumed that I must suit warm hair colouring.
As a result I have always gone for golden, caramel highlights but actually they never quite looked right against my skin tone and often looked brassy or orangey. I'm sure someone told me once that with my eye and skin colour I would suit warm tones but looks like they were wrong.

No I don't know Loreal - thanks for that advice, that's helpful.

Browns that are too light often wash up orangey looking. I'd ask for something cool on the lines of a 6 or halfway between a 6 and a 7

Do a self assesmemt thing online. Things like the colour of your veins and whether you tan or burn will give you an idea.

Get a purple shampoo to make the brassy tones go away x

Olive skin is usually cool. I agree with the others- very light ash brown would work better. Look at a level 6.11.

POssibly this actually