I've been dying my hair myself for years and it does not look like a home job, fortunately. I have a sizable amount of grey (probably 70% - who knows!) so the red dyes take lighter - I do the roots first and have figured out the balance.

I was using Clairol 44R for ages and started mixing it with a drop of 204RR. That stopped being so bright after a while. So today I mixed Clairol 204RR with a drop of 45R and used a 10 vol cream peroxide.

I want to get the color a richer, deeper auburn red and lately it is taking in a light auburn/strawberry blonde way. (I tried a different deeper red color last month from Loreal with a 20 vol peroxide and the same thing happend, a blah wishy washy light auburn.)

Should I be using more dye, less peroxide? A different volume of peroxide? Just use the 44R again like I did for years and see what happens? I am using a 1:1 ratio of dye and peroxide right now.

Any advice would be great. I just want a rich deeper coppery red than this washed light auburn I am getting. Thanks!