What colour is my hair and how do I cover the grey without going ginger or too dark?

[sawdog]

I am really struggling to get a good colour to cover my greying brown hair. This has been going on for years now. I initially went to a salon and I just wanted my hair dyed to match the colour of my natural hair and to cover my few greys. The hairdresser assured me that this would be fine but the colour came out way too dark with my greys still looking translucent and noticeable against my now much darker hair. It did wash out to a lighter colour but then the lengths of my hair went gingery and this got worse as I returned to the salon for touch ups. This is because even the mildest developer bleaches the natural colour of your hair and in my case it seems to lighten it to a gingery tone and the only way to keep on top of it seemed to be to keep going back for yet more expensive hair treatments, roots touch ups and toners. Even though I had olaplex treatments my previously healthy course textured hair became brittle and prone to breakage because of the chemicals and developer.

Eventually I had it chopped and and let the dye grow out. Next time I opted for daniel field water colour hair dye which is deposit only no bleach. Again it made my natural coloured hair way too dark and barely covered my grey so they were very obvious at my parting. Reapplying just made my original hair colour even darker with no decent grey coverage. On the plus side it did not damage my hair.

So again I waited a year let my hair recover and grow out and again tried with Henna and Indigo to get a brown colour, I did so much research tried various products on test strips from my hair brush. Again it seems quite hard to get a reasonable grey coverage while not darkening my natural hair too much. I don't actually have a ton of grey (more like pure white) hairs but they all seem randomly to sit along my parting and hairline and it looks awful and it just seems so unkempt on me. I've seen women with lovely grey bits but mine just aren't.

So with the henna I followed some expert advice and did a two step with henna then indigo mixing the indigo with cassia and leaving it on for 30 minutes. This was supposed to give me a chocolate brown hair colour and my test strips seemed good but it has gone so much darker on my head. I have managed to strip some out with oils, vitamin c and honey but that has also removed the colour from my white hairs so I'm left with a very dark ashy brown (that flares orange in the light) and gingery / whiteish hairs!

Why is it so hard to just colour my hair a basic brown? I am not even sure what colour I would call my hair I'd say a mid brown but have had hair dressers call it very dark blonde (it was blonde when I was a child) or even say it has a muddy greenish under tone, it seems to have blonde or reddish tones depending on the lighting. I know lots of women are embracing the grey but I don't want to, not yet. I just want a solution that works! I also don't want to go blonde or lighter or get highlights as it just isn't my style, I prefer as natural a colour as possible.

I have attached some photos of my natural hair colour before any dye was used (feel free to say what exact colour you think it is) and to offer any advice you can about how I can obtain close to my natural colour (without bleach if possible) and to properly cover my white hairs!

I'd say it's a nice golden mid brown. I can relate to your dye woes. It is really hard to get it right. I would try to find a really good colourist who can advise you.

I don't know what indigo is, as a product. Is it what's otherwise known as black henna, by any chance? I don't know about salon dyes (because they can maybe put it on so it doesn't touch your skin) but you shouldn't home dye if you've used black henna at any time in your life because it can cause you to have a serious (possibly fatal) reaction to PPD (paraphenylendiamine) in hair dye

@IndianSummer78 Indigo is just a powdered herb like henna it has no chemicals in it at all. I know some compounded black henna has these dangerous properties but I only used the pure organic henna and indigo.

Hi op I don’t have a solution. However I would say your hair is golden brown.
I home dye my hair and it does cover the grey, although I don’t have many grey hairs. I’m the same though, my hair tends to go gingery or too dark.

A toner shampoo (I use Milkshake, very purple but don't be scared!) it gives a lovely natural highlight effect as the darks stay dark and the gray/orangey bits look like blonde streaks. The effect goes if you stop using the shampoo so worth a try to see if you like it.

It looks a rich chocolate brown to me but more golden in the last one.
I have what people call 'golden' hair and it's much lighter than you.

I’d recommend the Leganza colouring conditioner. You can get it on Amazon for about £8. I have mid/dark brown hair with some greys and it covers them - it’s not got any bleach, doesn’t damage the hair and it’s temporary (lasts a couple of weeks on me). As it’s temporary it requires doing more often but it’s simple to apply so I don’t mind. They have lots of different shades.

I had similar problems to you OP, I had mid brown hair and when I dyed to cover grey it was far too dark. The problem is you get a build up of dye even with semi permanent/wash out dye and then the more dye you put on the darker it goes and your grey roots will just stand out more. I tried blonde highlights for a bit but didn’t like them.

Have grown my grey out now so don’t have these problems any more.

Try this naturvital.co.uk/buy/hair-care/colour-shampoos-for-coloured-hair/naturvital-value-pack-chestnut/. Used the shampoo & mask for years. I use the mask like a regular conditioner and leave on for a few minutes but every wash. I don't have loads of grey. Don't want to go through the cost/effort etc of dying and it's enough coverage. Generally only people who dye their hair very regularly have less visible grey than I do at similarly ages.

@notquitesoyoung This sounds interesting but the chestnut sounds like it may be a bit red? I have tried several colour conditioning shampoo/masks and they all seem to have a red/purple tinge, especially in sunlight?

You have to be careful putting dye on top of henna and indigo. They don't react well.

I've had very similar issues. I'm naturally a medium brown with an aubern/chestnut tint as the sun highlights it.

I started dying my hair to cover greys but every time I used boxed dye it went really dark and redder then my natural colour.

I did find that the areas that had been naturally bleached by the sun went very dark and I have just had to wait to let them grown out while continuing to dye. I kept buying lighter and ashier dye that looked nothing like my natural colour in the photo but looked much better on.

Your hair looks naturally very warm so you should choose the ashiest colour as you can or the natural warmth will turn it red imo.

You've got warm tones of brown. You'll need a warm brown semi permanent colour and only apply to the roots. You can rub it through your hair in the last 5 mins to blend it but it shouldn't need this.

I was naturally once your colour and now I'm about 75% grey. I choose a slightly darker semi permanent colour as I find the lighter ones can leave grey hair a bit washed out.

Only on the roots so you don't get build up. I learned by trial and error and having to use colour stripper.

My hairdresser commented how well coloured my hair was. My only issue is I have to touch up the roots every 2 weeks as it's fast growing and very white.

@superstar63 I wouldn't say so in this case. They also sell mahogany & burgundy versions. This is my hair colour.

@notquitesoyoung Your hair looks a lovely colour, I think I will give it a try. Thank you.

I have the same issue! I was dark golden blonde when younger but now mid brown. After years of going much darker and getting fed up with the red tinge, finally realised that shade 7 works. The greys cover initially and then fade to look like subtle golden highlights. Some brands call it darkest blonde, others lightest brown.

I like Josh Wood dye. I don't think it damages my hair because I only ever touch up the roots (v dense and would need several packs). There's no need to top up the rest of the hair anyway because I'm not really changing the colour of it.