Do you colour your own hair?

[Chuffinnora]

If so which color brand do you buy and do you have any tips for a novice? I can no longer spend this ridiculous amount of time and money on my hair. Going natural is an absolute no. Can't remember the exact natural colour but I know it wasn't pretty.

I put semi permanent glossing colur on, don't care about the brand, as long as it has those 2 things on the packet!

Put plenty of vaseline around your hair line and ears so none of the colour 'bleeds' onto your skin.

What is a semi permanent colour. Will it lighten hair?

Semi permanent will last up to 24 washes. I don't think its suitable for going lighter (I have the opposite problem and need to hide greys) You'll need permanent I think.

I may well have greys Maidamess. As I said I have had a long relationship with the colour bottle.

I used to be complete hair snob and pay £100 for cut and colour but now use Nice & Easy 117 which costs £5 and pay £40 for cut... but thats a secret obvioulsy

I tend to buy whats on offer my hair is very dark brown naturally and i dye to cover the wonderful silver highlights i keep getting

It's safe Octo.

Now, Nice and Easy 117, What sort or a colour would that be and is it permanent?

what sort of a colour

I spend money going to the hairdressers - I am scared of looking like I did when I was at college and tried to look like the Tori Amos and ended up bright ginger hair and looked very ill!

117 is darkish brown
116 is medium brown

easy to apply, good coverage for natural highlights

I use Nice and Easy light ash blonde. I don't actually have light ash blonde hair but it lightens it a bit (but not so much that I have hideous dark roots) and covers the grey. Ash blonde is good because it's less yellow than regular blonde.

Obviously that advice is utterly useless if you're brunette

A second vote for nice and easy.

My current colour is a dark blonde/ light brown with all over lighter high lights. I think my hairdresser uses something ashy on it as she says I have quite a bit of red in it (can't remember that, I would not have covered up anything nice I'm sure).

You are scaring me back to the expensive arms of my hairdresser Jen!

I use L'Oreal. I have dyed my hair since I was 13 (I'm now 31). 'Recital' is the best but the conditioner in another box (can't remember the name right now - too much wine) is great.

My Mum taught me how to do it and all I have had to do in the last 18 years is apply dye to my roots every 4/5 weeks. Easy-peasy.

Clairol's Nice'n'Easy here, too. I find as I get older my hair has become more porous and if I'm not careful I end up looking like Snow White - hair as black as ebony etc. This is despite using light ash brown! It's especially a problem in the summer/ after sun sea and sand on hols.

I did once try a herbal one because I was worried about poisoning my system/getting cancer but I just couldn't get it to go on evenly.

I am ahem! covering up quite a lot of grey now, so colour it every 6 weeks.

chuff - ignore me I am just a scaredy cat! I would love to feel that I could do it at home

another vote for nice and easy 117, how bizarre that there are loads of mumsnetters out there with the same colour hair

its really easy doing your own hair, have been doing mine for 25 years and only had one minor disaster, tried to go blond but went a space 1999 shade of blue instead , even managed to sort that one out myself.

just make sure you wear an old dressing gown or something cos its very easy to drip and not so easy to see until the colour starts to develop

so how do I find the right shade - am blonde- not platinum - not ash -

Nice'n'Easy 118 for me. Just coloured it this morning. Easy to apply, although you have to be careful not to get it on grouting, flooring or other porous surfaces in the bathroom. Otherwise a doddle, and cheap too.

JJ - I change my shade every time. I believe (my Mum told me so it must be true) that using the same shade each time can lead to that horrible yellow colour.

L'Oreal Recital or Excellence are great - any of the blonde shades.

Yes, this one in cyber purple, but have to do it every 3 weeks as it fades quickly.

I buy whatever shade I fancy at the time - usually when my then-bf made too many commnts about me being grey.

I once ended up with about six colours in my hair since I put a blue one-off rinse on top of purple mousse and then a perm red colour. It wend an odd burgundy colour but everyone who spotted it, loved it. I had red hair for months.