I need an idiot’s guide to getting my hair professionally coloured please

[SenoritaGrey]

I have finally bitten the bullet after years and years of box dyes from Boots!

I have found a new hairdresser who I’m comfortable with - she has cut my hair twice now - and I have asked her to sort out my crispy brassy hair in my next appointment.

I’m dark with shoulder length thick wavy hair. But increasingly grey.

So if she just colours it dark brown all over that (I hope) will get rid of the brassiness - but the grey will be showing in just 3 weeks. So she was talking to me about foils and things but I just nodded politely as I had no clue what she was talking about.

Can someone please explain. I want to look as natural as possible.

I would be really grateful for some advice! Thank you!

Was she talking about highlights or lowlights maybe? Just to break up an all over colour

Yes I guess so - but I’m worried it might look completely different and I’m a bit scared!

I need to know what to ask for I suppose.

I have very similar hair to yours and tackling the greys is a full-time job.

Basically, you can have an all-over tint (various shades of brown, no bleach, broadly the same colour as your own). It will make your hair look lovely, but after a few weeks that annoying grey stripe will start to emerge.

If you start with the tint but then add a few lighter bits, it kind of blends in the greys as they grow in so that they're not quite so obvious. It's more flattering as you age, too (in my experience) to avoid the all-over blocky colour and have some lighter bits to brighten things up.

These lighter bits are largely called 'highlights' or 'foils' and you can have a full head (loads), a half head (not so many and concentrated on the upper layers and around your face) or just a few (my hairdresser calls these 'flashes'). They do involve bleach, but the hairdresser will leave them in for a limited time then will also put a toner on afterwards to stop them being bright yellow or orange, but a more flattering caramelly colour (or whatever you decide - the lighter bits can be very subtly lighter). Lowlights in my experience make no difference if you're actually trying to camouflage the grey regrowth.

So on your first visit, you'd get tint and foils/flashes, then on the next visit you'd not need the whole lot done again, but would just get the tint reapplied to your roots and taken through the lengths of the hair for the last ten mins to blend everything in.

I usually ask for "tint plus a few flashes round the front" or "tint plus a few highlights".

Thank you for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated!