For people who colour their hair at home

Up until 7 months ago I was using a medium brown box dye about every 6 weeks. I saw a photograph taken of me at a family gathering and realised my box dyed hair wasn’t looking natural any more. Since then I’m going “cold turkey”. I have a chin length layered Bob and am just getting it trimmed every 6 weeks. My hair feels healthier already.

I too had lovely auburn hair. Didn't appreciate it enough at the time! Never used colouring so now am largely grey with slightly darker hair underneath. I wear it up so often so Iook two tone like a badger!

I'm with Camilla's hair colourist - grey hair is so ageing! Sorry to those that love their grey/white hair. I started to grow my hair out during lockdown and got to about 3 inches and it looked horrible. Not the gorgeous white that my DH has, but a dark unflattering peppery grey. I popped my usual blonde dye on (9) at home and lost ten years in age (DH and good friends all commented). I colour it every 6 weeks or so as the white at the front blends in and I can't see the back!

I go to the hairdresser to get my hair coloured. It’s easier. I go about every 6-7 weeks.

* Twinnytwin*, your hair colour sounds like mine, would you care to share what product you use please? I’m on the lookout for a new colour but there are so many and I’m nervous of making a huge mistake.

I could do my roots every week but usually do them every two weeks. I have a parting so it is really obvious when my grey roots show through. I do it myself as the hairdressers is too expensive.

My natural hair colour was mid/dark brown. I dyed it a similar colour when I first started going grey 25 years ago.

A couple of years ago I did try using one of the products that is supposed to take the dye out of your hair. I was hoping this would work so that I could go a lighter colour. I just ended up with orange hair.

A couple of years ago my hair was lightened quite a bit by the sun whilst we were on holiday.

Because of this I thought I would try a lighter dye - Nice and Easy Number 8 - Medium Blonde. It comes out a light brown colour not blonde as it looks on the packet.. A bit like Fiona Bruce's colour. It even looks highlighted as the grey takes the colour differently. I am very pleased with it and am always having positive comments from other people.

I dye my hair with Nutrisse and it's a rather racy red colour !

I've tried other dyes and everyone said that they preferred the red .

In theory , I do it every six weeks , but sometimes longer .

I find doing the roots hard and sometimes am impatient .

If I'm going somewhere special - I colour my hair a week before and give it three washes and it seems to calm down and looks more natural .

Every since , I've used Nutrisse - it seems to colour towels ,pillowcases and collars
.
For the last couple of years - I've been thinking of allowing it to go grey .
The front is white .

I've also thought of getting the electric clippers out and just cutting it really short !
At the moment , I feel that my face is too fat to carry a cropped look off .
One of my friends looks terrific with this look , but she is super slim .
She also wears lots of heavy eye make up .

Maybe one day ...

Lladmados13 - Hi. I've just had a rummage in the cupboard and have L'Oreal Excellence - 9 Natural Light Blonde. I also have Garnier Olia 9.0 Light Blonde. I always get whatever's on special offer in Boots, as long as it's colour 9. I used to use colour 10 which is very blonde. My twin still uses this one. My hairdresser always compliments me on my colour and the condition of my hair. In fact she's told me not to bother conditioning it at every wash as it doesn't need it. I do use the conditioner it comes with after washing out the colour. I now only do the roots. Good luck - I'm sure you'll love it.

Garnier Olia golden ash blonde seems to work for me, easily applied by DH. Roots don’t show for up to 2 months.

Pressed post too soon. Some if the young staff in work colour their hair more often than the more mature among us.

Thank you Twinnytwin

Most box Colours are permanent now which I wouldn’t use, there are semi permanent boxes bug you have to hunt for them which slowly fade over 28 washes which are gentler.
As we age dark hair isn’t the best look so I am grey/blond but was mouse brown many moons ago.

I didn't realise this thread was still going. I have only now been notified and there are a few I hadn't read.

@PinkCosmos
My hair sounds the same as yours. My natural colour was mid/dark brown too.
I was using Nutrisse number 6, now I use 6N, they both give me subtle highlights and I (or my daughter rather) only does the roots everytime.
My parting and the whispy sides being the worst.
Like you said I could colour those every 2/3 weeks! It's a real pain.
I was thinking on trying another shade lighter and that would then take me into the blondes.

My hairdresser told me that hair colours are numbered according to shade with 10 being very light, . 9 is light blond, 8 a bit darker 7 darker still so 6 is fairly dark I woukd think, which if you use as a permanent you will get grey roots very quickly.
Try a shade lighter, I was brown years ago but am happy and used to the blond shade I am now, no regrowth to manage which is great.

As a natural red head my hair is going white around the edges and faded golden red in the middle. When I feel it is too white and I look washed out I use a very light blond on it which seems to lift all the golden red that is left and blends it all in.
Hairdessers have often said how natural it looks.
I think some shades of hair are easier to manage going into grey than others.

@silverlining48

Do you get you colour done at the hair salon though?

Welshy I do it myself. AlwaYs semi permanent colour though so there is no regrowth it just fades gently so I do it again.

Does anyone use a blonde that doesn't bleach / lighten? I'm quite white in places and mousy brown in others and just want a blonde dye not a lightening colour. But they all seem to 'lift' or 'lighten'.

Something I use is a 4 minute wash in shampoo which I get in Superdrug for £2. They have a choice of colours. Small but I don’t use a lot so it lasts,
Hair was looking white and 4 minutes doesn’t do any damage and it works well,
I recommended it a while ago on GN

I no longer colour my hair but used to use a semi permanent so it just faded and no root growth showing. I used Clairol nice'n easy which lasted better than some others.

GagaJo, any permanent colour that lightens contains a bleaching agent. I'm not sure about semi-permanents, but I think these will just colour the whiter hair but not lift the colour of the mousy brown. Perhaps this will "blend" the two colours? As it's semi-permanent, the effect will wash out over about 20 - 28 days, but worth an experiment as it won't be as drastic as a permanent colour.

I've tried all and every colour/dye since I was about 16 - even went Khaki green at one time, but that was accidental!!!

Thanks AskAlice.

I'm looking for a blonde dye. Not a bleach. I'd just like the white dyed without bleaching the rest of the hair. But I can't tell which are dyes and which are bleaches.

Me too! Blue, pink, purple. Purple was my favourite. Crazy Color. I used to leave it on for hours to get a really intense colour. Loved it!

It used to be such a faff and the bathroom looked like there had been a massacre so I finally embraced the grey! I was doing it every 5-6 weeks.

Since my hair is long and I usually wear it up in a messy bun it didn’t look too bad growing out but I can understand how some women with shorter hair don’t like the look.

My Mum’s hair was pure white and always looked beautiful so I hope I go the same. I do wear a tinted moisturiser when I go out so I don’t look too pale and pasty. 😉