Hopefully you can see the photo I attatched...
So, the top of my hair is naturally brown, and as you can see, the bottom is almost white-blonde. The middle goes from brown to blonde in a sort of Ombre. This is due to me painting permanent brown dye over orange roots back in February. My natural hair colour has grown in and you can't actually see where the brown dye ends and my natural brown colour begins. The dye has faded quite a bit, but it's worth noting that under the dyed brown bit, the hair has been bleached before, but turned orange due to... I dunno? Poorly-chosen toner and an incomplete lift?
Anyway.
I live in Asia and am going to communicate with my hairdresser using my poor language skills and translation software. Because of this, I need to know as much as possible myself, rather than leaving it up to him, iyswim.
I need some wisdom here. I don't want an all over bleaching, but I want to blend the roots. I also don't want toner. I like to tone my hair at home and I think hairdressers use toner to cover up their mistakes.
Can I just get some highlights, do you think? What would you ask for? I don't want a harsh regrowth line. Really, I guess I want a good balayage, but I don't want any toning. I want all the dark colour in my hair to come from my actual natural hair colour, rather than lightening and then adding darker colour back over the top. It just goes orange after a few washes when they do that.
Does any of this make sense?
(also, I know my hair looks a state. It's 34 C and humid. And my hair is damaged. It was almost down to my waist this time last year. I am steadily cutting off the damaged parts, don't worry!)