Hair colouring questions!

[PenCreed]

I think the time has come to stop colouring my hair myself and to pay a professional to do it! I'm happy to throw some money at this and I'm overdue a haircut anyway, but I realise I don't know where to start.

My natural hair colour is brown with a fair amount of grey and it's currently dyed red. I think I'd like to grow out the whole head dye and maybe have red highlights instead (I had natural coppery highlights when I was younger). Should I be asking for highlights or is balayage the way to go? And does it all get done in one appointment? My hairdresser's online booking currently makes it two separate appointments, but I'm assuming if I rang them then I could get it as one - if that's how it's done!

What else should someone who's never had their hair coloured professionally know before they book? I'm sure other people are similarly clueless so I thought a thread asking the more knowledgable might be helpful!

You'll likely have to go in for a consultation and also a patch test before the appointment. This is a good chance to describe exactly what you want, so it's a good idea to take some examples of the kind of look/hair you're aiming for and this helps the hairdresser, plus they can be realistic about what they can achieve if the model's hair is very different to yours as well as how long it will take and so on.

I'd also say take food with you if you're having anything drastic done - I had my hair professionally dyed back to it's natural colour which involved stripping out years' worth of dark box dye, and including a cut and blowdry I was there for six hours