If you dye your hair yourself come and talk to me!

[Whataboutno]

I have highlighted hair but it's no longer affordable for me and only seems to look good for 2 weeks then it grows out. My natural colour is a mousy brown.

Does anyone have any success with dying their hair at home, and if so what colour do you use and how often?

I would not attempt blonde myself, too much to go wrong. I have really dark roots, it would actually be better if I went grey because then I could easily dye it box blonde.

Any tips welcome

My colourist gave me the 'recipe' for my hair. It involves a roughly 70/30 split between 2 revlonissimo colours. I get it, and the 20vol, from Chris and Sons.

I do my roots only and about every 6 weeks.

I'd far rather have someone do it for me, but to be honest, the result are exactly the same (and about £100 cheaper!).

I'm probably not much help as I just go for it I've currently got a home made toner on bleached hair from red box dye.
An Ashy blonde might work over it, Garnier Belle Colour do one that lightens rather than going for bleach at home.

@dilldanding I know of Chris and Sons haha! That's really nice of your colourist to do that, I'd be too embarrassed to ask!

@perpetualstateofchaos at least you are brave enough to try. Every time I've tried I just end up ginger.

I am considering an Auburny brown as I'm very pale with light eyes but that could also be a disaster 😂

I use Garnier Nutrisse baby blonde (Holly Willoughby.) Beautiful colour, my hair looks multi tonal, rather than one flat colour and it feels soft and silky. Takes half an hour to develop. I’m not completely grey and it covers my mousy roots very well.

@Whataboutno the plan is to go silver. Don't let the ginger discourage you, it could as simple as not enough time to develop or there's not enough bleach on the hair. Brown and black hair both contain red.
pigments which is why it goes red then ginger before going blonde. Just keep a very close eye and separate the stands so you can see colour change. Ideally a strand test the day before.
An auburn colour should cover mousy brown very easily just keep in mind where your highlights currently are the colour will be slightly different as the hairs a different colour but it should add to a make a more multidimensional colour.

@perpetualstateofchaos what home bleach would you recommend? I think my hair needs quite a strong volume to take

I've used the Jerome Russell bblonde very limited with shops in my town. They do a kit with everything in or can be brought separately. Use the lowest peroxide possible. I used 30 volume as all I could get but I diluted it with conditioner a bit. It did mean I had to rebleach it but I was happy to do that and probably would have has to anyway because my hair was so dark.

I use the same colour (Goldwell 5NN) that my hairdresser uses. I mix it up just as they would in the salon and use it to cover the roots. I have highlights but don’t do anything to them at home. The grey hairs start showing through in about a week or so - I could not keep going back to the salon every two weeks. Am happy with the colour at home.