Mousy hair - do you go blonde or dark?

[Seenobody]

I have mousy hair, now with a bit of grey at the hairline. I have had blonde highlighted hair for 30 years and so fed up of the roots, I started to grow out the highlights in lockdown.

The hairdresser has dyed it ash brown with a few blonde streaks at the front and I don’t like it. It’s too stripy and neither one thing or the other.

Shall I go blonder (hassle) or dark all over (easier to maintain roots but not sure if it suits me?)

If you are a lovely shade of mouse, what do you do?

I've done both and when I was dark my roots were blonde and when I'm blonde my roots are dark! Pick what you prefer or go as close to your natural colour as you can.

Well closest to my natural colour is dark so I might try it all over.

Light roots on dark hair look like the hair is levitating, it did on mine. I'm back to blonde now.

Following as I'm in a mousey dilemma too. Currently have ash blonde highlights but I think they just look grey and therefore make me look older. I think they need to be more golden but my hairdresser is obsessed with the ashy tones.

I dyed mine chocolate brown for years and I think that's more me. I've spent so much time and money going blonder though, i dont want to admit defeat

Blonde. Boring but suits my colouring best. I was dark for a few years and liked it but looked dreadful without makeup. Blonde is more forgiving.

Blonde.

I have mousy hair that’s quite flat in colour. I found when I dyed it a lovely chocolate shade (which I loved) it was a pain because my roots ended up looking grey next to it. They aren’t but the contrast gave that appearance. I’d stick with the blond highlights- maybe a balayage for less maintenance?

I used to have a lot of ashy highlights, with another colour and went much lighter over the years. Then I decided to grow my hair again and realised I couldn't, if I carried on with the bleach.
So i now have Jennifer Aniston tones of light golden brown plus a few golden highlights, with baby lights around my face. I'm a soft autumn colouring and this looks so much more flattering to my skin tone. My hair is now long and in reasonable condition.

I had highlighted for years and then went darker- a coppery colour. It was lovely initially and my hair was shiny and in much better condition. Eventually it started to look very flat and I started with a few highlights to lift it. The number of highlights keeps increasing and I’m back to being blonder again - suits my ageing skin better. But I miss the shininess of the darker shades

Mine used to be mousy / dark blonde. As I got greyer/ white streaks it is more blonde. I now make a tea up from camomile, turmeric, redbush tea and instant coffee and use that to stain my hair and it takes the grey tones away so it is pretty much blonde now.

I might try darker but knowing me I will gradually go back to blonde within six months anyway!

Blonde. I’ve dabbled with dark and it’s just not me. I’ve been blonde mostly since I was about 13

I was mousey for years I was red but the roots used to drive me crazy so then I tried darker and tried blonder but still fed up with the roots so I embraced the grey.

MY natural is like an auburn colour, but have dyed it all sorts of colours over the years, mainly though, brown, dark brown.

Until recently I decided to go lighter, more of a blonde, simply because I was sick of dying my roots with a dark brown box dye! My roots were beginning to stick out like a sore thumb & as I’m getting older I thought the dark hair wasn’t as flattering.

Now I realise blonde probably suit me as much as brown - nobody has said a word about my hair since I’ve changed it! But it’s still in the transition stage, it’s not yet a clean blonde so it’s a bit brassy as I’m having sessions of highlights, I’m almost there! I’m confident once I reach the right shade it’ll suit me. I do have moments where I think maybe I should just go back to brown but I think nope, just hang on in there! And my roots don’t bother me as they aren’t obvious against the blonde, besides darker roots look better than lighter roots, iukwim? One thing I will say it’s a bit expensive being blonde, unless it’s just because I’m going from being dark as I’m having to buy purple shampoos & trying different ones!

It is definitely expensive to keep up with the blonde! Some of my blonde friends managed ok in lockdown as their hair was coming through grey and you could barely see the join. Mine is too dark to maintain myself.

I have just bought a dark blonde/mid brown hair dye which I am going to try as it looks close to my natural colour.

Just a word about box dyes as you said you've bought one and you may know this already but they ALWAYS turn out darker than the picture on the box! I'd chose a colour a couple of shades lighter than what you want, that way at least it won't come out too dark and if its not dark enough, you can always go a shade down.

What happens if you are light/mid brow and put on a blonde box dye as on the box it often says not suitable so I assume it would not lighten it at all?

It went orange when I did that!

I would say it depends on your eyebrows (and whether you use any products on them).

If your hair is darker than your eyebrows it can make you look a bit washed out.

It depends on your skin type I think. I have had mouse coloured hair all my life but my skin is very pale in a dull sort of way, so I look ill with grey or blonde hair. I've only ever used box dyes which have improved massively over the years. I started out using "golden" blondes to warm up my complexion but they all end up looking like Cocoa the Clown on me, so for "golden" read "red" which is great if it suits you, but again it doesn't suit my comp!exion. So I changed to dark ash blondes because they generally have no red in them. But agree with pp, that colours always turn out darker than on the box, so choose two shades lighter.

Have a look at Josh Wood joshwoodcolour.com/ or E-salon because you go through a process on their websites of choosing the right colour for you. You can send in a photo to one of them (I forget which) and they will advise. L'Oreal Excellence colour is good for me around the 7 or 7.1 shades (I'm not in UK though so check in case numbering differs!).

Sorry op, I've got the Excellence colour wrong; I've actually worked my way up to number 8.1 not 7.1.

8.1 is quite a light ash blonde but comes out darker than that.

That's a good point about eyebrows. Mine are still quite dark with the odd white hair creeping in.

Blonde but it costs me a fortune. Or not if I can’t go to the hairdressers, then I just look a mess.
Boy dyes always go orange on me.
I’m very pale and I look ill with dark hair. I keep trying it. Plus it brings out my eye bags, I find!

Blonde against dark roots a la balayage looks better than dark hair with mousy roots imo.

Blonde

Dark will look like a helmet

Or you could go red brunette - that's quite nice

Absolutely avoid any stripes