Dyeing blonde highlighted hair brunette at home - does it work?

[ilovejonty]

I am finding it too expensive to maintain highlights on my darkish hair which is 80% grey {white} at the front (tricky combo). I was wondering if a home colourant to match my natural shade - fairly dark brown - would work OK. It seems to say on all the packs not to use on previously coloured hair, but I'm sure people do!

Has anyone else attempted this and if so was it OK?

mmmm may go a bit greeny... have you offered to be a model, you can get it quite cheap...

When colouring pre-bleached hair, to avoid the green tinge that RumMum pointed out use a colour with added red, I mean, not just a "mid-brown" go for a "chestnut brown" as it has red pigments in.
I have done this many times. L'Oreal, Recital do a nice warm "chestnut brown".

And "previously coloured hair" is not the same as bleached.

you really need to use a dye with a reddish tinge to it, otherwise its gonna turn green
dont go for a cooler brown tone, go for a warm brown colour iykwim

x-posts

Mmm interesting, glad I posted as I was going to opt for a cool brown (reddish tints not really me) - will it still look reddish or do the red bits just cancel out the green [confused icon]?

PS what does x-posts mean??

can you do a strand test? Safer than ending up with a green head

X posts = cross posts, 2 posts saying the same thing.

Chestnut brown is not red to look at, go have a look at the shade on the top of the box, it covers well and lasts without fading.

chestnut brown.

Igot mine dyed back to brunette at the hairdressers and now just top it up at home every so often. Don't have any grey though.

yep def getone with a red tinge, toehr wise it will look all mouldy coloured.

i did this once. had to wash my hair in tomatoe ketchup about 6 times before i could go out in public to find another dye!!

ahem, I used chestnut brown on my bleached hair and it turned it pink.
I now only use ash brown.

id be really worried about this - i think if you are chaning colour quite drastically id go to a salon - for roots and top ups later on maybe diy then

you could miss bits and it could look well dodgy

I have had past experience with going green when trying to cover up highlights with an ashy colour (my natural hair colour is certainly more of a cool ash brown).

Whenever i have got my hair done darker at a salon they suggest a more "chocolate" colour, so it is brown but has a more red base IYSWIM.

I would point out though that i have always found home-dyes to appear darker once they are applied. If i wanted a rich dark brown i would opt for something that looks maybe a shade lighter on the box. Whenever i've gone for the darker brown shades my DP makes jokes about Goths.... (although might be very on trend!)

Thanks for all your advice ladies. I went for a chestnut brown as suggested and it looks ok-ish I think, no green or pink that I can discern, more auburn tones! Bit of a shock being so much darker than I am used to - everytime I look in a mirror I don't recognise myself.