Hair colour - do you DIY or go to the hairdresser?

[chocolatefondue]

I am having a dilemma. My hair is quite grey and I have recently gone from lowlights (to try and disguise the grey) to having a permanent colour. I have this done every 7 or 8 weeks at the hairdressers - at great expense!

What I can't bear is that from about 4 weeks after the colour, I have a "white" parting. I can't afford to have my hair coloured more often than I do currently, so am debating whether to start colouring my hair at home. Scary!

What do you do, and what home colouring products can you recommend? My friend, who has less grey than me, uses a Boots semi-permanent colour.

What colour is your hair?

I don't know anything about blond hair, but I've learned a thing or two about dying brunette hair.

However I'm shattered and about to go to bed, yes at 8.20, living the highlife here

So if your a brunette I'll share my hard won knowledge with you tomorrow!

I do my roots at home every 6 weeks or so, then when it all looks a bit rubbish I go to the hairdresser and get them to sort it out! Much cheaper that way - I can't bear the roots (or the three hours at the hairdresser) otherwise.

i do mine when i get bored

Sorry, have been at work and don't have access to Mumsnet. My hair is a medium to dark brown colour, but probably 30% (maybe more grey).

I colour my own hair, but it's the same colour every time and very near my own colour. There's no way I'd be able to go 7 weeks between colours!

This time though I used one of the root touch up thingy from clairol and it worked really well. I'm really pleased with the result and will definitely be using again, much cheaper than the hairdresser!

I colour my own at home. Tis easy.

I do mine at home. Am really quite grey judging by roots and should do it every 3 weeks but it's such a faffing pain the arse that it's often longer. But did use a new one last time that develops in 10 minutes (used it on roots only) and it worked, it did cover the grey well in that time. I only use semi-permanents. Can't remembr the name though but it was a green box

I've had a box of hair colour in the bathroom for two years never the right time to have a go. My lovely sister, who is not a hairdresser, got so fed up with my grey hair. She came over to stay last week and before I had a shower, she got out her little bowl & brush and coloured my hair back to my natural colour. it has taken 10 years off me and my hair looks glossy and healthy. Going to the hairdressers in a bit so it will look fab with out the huge cost.

I have a smiliar hair colour and I do mine myself at home, I use permanent dark golden brown.
It is easy to do and far cheaper. I am the most clumsy messiest person and if I can manage it...

A friend did it for me and it cost £5 for the colour - she did it for free! so a lot cheaper than £60 at hairdressers!

I do it myself but it's fairly close to my natural colour and it's always been fine

I'd love to have a go myself but am frightened after the mess I made with Wella Viva. I bought a coppery blonde one. After 5 minutes, my head looked orange. I washed it off and was a pinky orange colour. I bought the de-activator to fix it. That burned my scalp, didn't really fix my colour and I had to pay the hairdresser about £50 to put it back to it's natural colour. Would love to dye my hair pillar box red but would get too easily hacked off with dying the roots.

You definitely need the Clairol root touch up thing. It's fantastic, looks really natural

Thanks for your comments. I am stil not sure whether to go for DIY semi-permanent or root touch-up between appointments.

I was hoping macherie might be back to share her secrets!

I went to the hairdressers for the 1st time in months last week. It was a huge relief and my hair looks a lot better than it did all the months I coloured it myself. I'm dark blonde (aka mousey), but go lighter to cover the grey. I think the problem is that I choose the wrong shades. The ash blondes suit me, but look so dull & boring in the shop, so I go for something golden & just never look right.

I had my hair coloured at hairdressers every 6 weeks for year, but have started doing it myself to save money. I have mid-brown hair with at least 30% grey. I think brown is easier to do than blonde, less peroxide to worry about.

I usually use Garnier Nutrisse permanent and have bought a proper tinting bowl and brush as I find them easier to use than the squirty bottle that comes in the kit. I always apply the colour to the roots first and then to the length and it always looks great.

The Garnier one is cheap but good, however last time I used the new L'Oreal 10 minute one (Excell 10 I think) and it was fantastic, really fast, easy, and came out lovely and shiny.

I used to pay NZ$240 for cut&colour every 6 weeks to my hairdresser, now I pay $75 every 3-4 months for a cut (with free fringe trims in between) and $10-18 every 6 weeks for home colour.

Sorry I didn't get back earlier!

My hair is dark brown and it's taken a lot of trial and error to avoid my hair going either black or brassy. Last year I cut off my long hair as it had gone so dark, and I I've managed to keep the new growth a nice medium brown, but you really have to be careful...

Firstly always go one shade lighter than you want to be, if you use dark brown you'll end up with black, but medium brown will give you a better result.

If you like auburn tints in your have a much easier time, but I don't so it can be hard work keeping them out! A lot of people here use Boots own brand medium brown, but I find it too orangy. The one that works best for me is Clairol nice & easy medium brown 118. If you look on the side of the box, there's a graph with cool shades at one end, warm shades at the other, the closer you go to the warm end the more orange in the dye. 118 is the 'coolest' shade they do, and definately the best I've found.

I have tried the 2 new dyes that take 10 minutes Perfect 10 and Excell 10, and while they left my hair really shiney, they did not cover the grays, so I had to redo it all again.

The actual process is easy, and not that messy, so the first time you do it, just follow the instructions. My roots show through after about 3 weeks, and this is when you must be careful. I find the root touch up kits don't cover my greys, so I just use my usual dye (costs the same) to touch up my roots.

For a good result, use a brush.

Be very careful and take your time, only do the roots, not further down the length of your hair. Even though the instructions say to do the roots for 30 mins, then dye the rest for the last 10 mins, I DON"T do that. That's what led to a build up of colour on my long hair.

If you don't mind the slight auburn tinge, ignore this bit! My secret weapon is Aveda Black Malva Conditioner. I mix it 50/50 with the conditioner in the box. I get a purple goo which I put all over my hair and leave for 20-30 mins. If I have time I condition it like this every, or at least every second, time I wash it. This is what makes the difference betwen hair that looks like I dyed it myself, and hair that looks like a spent a fortune on in a salon

I'm probably making this sound way more complicated than it really is, but I am VERY, VERY fussy

If a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing well...

macherie, many thanks for that. I don't want orange auburn in my hair so that is really useful to know. I might need to rope in a friend to help me first time though

Have always been a bit worried (daft I know) about upsetting my hairdresser by colouring my own hair, but I can't wait the 7/8 weeks between colours that he suggests (mainly to save me money).

Wish me luck!

macherie's advice is very good about avoiding the "older" hair getting darker and darker. This even happens with semi-permanents. Roots show through way before you'd ever have had a chance for teh colour to have all disappeared/faded. Avoiding going grey is such a pain.