Help me find a brown hair dye that won't fade to coppery red

[MrsMigginsMate]

I have naturally mousy light brown hair with a slight hint of red tones. Still growing out a professional dye job, which had been medium brown with blonde highlights but is now very faded.

I want to try home dye to save money but I've never done it. I'm also not happy with multiple hairdressers promising to give me Ash brown and having the colour immediately fade to coppery red tones within a couple of weeks.

Does a brown hair colour exist that doesn't have a red toned base?

I also don't want it to look too flat so that's why I've had highlights in the past. Do home dyes really produce multi tonal colour now or is that all just marketing?

Photos of the absolute mess I'm working with - pale roots, gingery middle and really blonde ends. All from a so called "Ash brown" job by the hairdresser in February.

My apologies for the lanky looking hair, I got caught in the rain and its due a wash.

Ime steer clear of anything with chestnut in the name - far too red toned. What about Clairol Nice and Easy Light Ash Brown or Light Golden Brown?

The Dark Blonde may also work for you - there's a review video on the Superdrug website that shows the result on someone with dark roots with the rest of it bleached. I found home colour tended to come up darker than the packaging suggested.

The only Brown dye I’ve ever found that doesn’t immediately fade to orange is Josh Wood. I use no 5 Which is mid brown, with one of their ‘cool shade shots’ that you buy separately and add to the dye before you apply it. My natural colour is mouse with red tones too and I have tried every single hair dye out there to try to avoid the orange problem, including salon dyes - josh wood isn’t perfect but it’s by far the best.

Watching with interest as I was just about to post the same thread!

Try dark blonde dyes

Thanks for all your replies! I've looked upon the international numbering system for hair colour and that helps a lot, as I can now work out what tones are in the dyes. Although some brands use their own random numbering system, a lot of them seem standardised. So I'm highly tempted by the Garnier olia ammonia free range, and they have neutral tones like 5.0 or 6.0 but I'm still up and down about how dark to go.

Will need to do a patch test and a test strand first but I will try and update the thread with results / review in a few days.

I think my hairdresser always steered me away from cool tones as I'm so fair skinned so I'm hoping the olia one isn't too orangey brown. Im just taking a punt really as the reviews are good!!!

Another one to suggest the Josh Wood with a shade shot. I think I tried 4.0 with a cool shot and it was great (but way darker than you describe your hair to be). Would be doing it again myself if my hair wasn’t so long...

Lots of dyes come out darker than expected, so go with the lighter shade if you’re undecided. It’ll be easier to put a darker shade on top if need be. It’s much harder to go lighter. All permanent dyes use some bleach as a colour developer. It’s this that makes your hair orange. Try using an anti orange shampoo such as Fanola Blue.

Hi all, just an update to say i used garner olia 6.0 and it worked well. It seems to have neutralised all my existing red and looks a nice cooler shade of brown.

It remains to seen whether it fades to red over time but I'm happy with the results for now.

One thing I would say is it doesn't seem great for my hair, it feels dry and straw like despite using lots of the special conditioner that came with it. I bought it based on the reviews of how soft it made everyones hair afterwards but I didn't get that result sadly.

That looks like a lovely colour! I’ve used Olia before and am currently sporting orange ends from my last try.. I think I used 4.15 though so fingers crossed you avoid the orange 😀