Hi, everyone! First time poster...

I have medium/dark brown hair naturally, but am plagued with a good degree of gray. I have been coloring my roots on my own with a semi-permanent color at home to match my natural shade, and that has been working well.

Since the gray in coming in more, I asked a colorist to do a full foil, so I could get some nice highlights, and then start lightening the base a bit. Well, she did the highlighting, and it came out pretty blonde (well, more like a honey blonde, as since it is full highlights, there is still a lot of brown in there, so overall it isn't terribly light). I decided to keep the blonde, rather than have her darken it with toner.

So now my question is this. I normally have to color my roots every two weeks. Now I will have gray growing in, along with some of the natural brown. Ideally, I'd like to keep the roots matching as close as possible to the rest of the hair. I know the gray will be covered with the dark blonde haircolor, but that the brown will not.

Am I kidding myself that I will be able to maintain this blonde look? Is it better to just go back to dark brown, or to bleach the roots on my own to match the look?

My thought right now is to do a patch test with the new dark blonde semi-perm I bought, and see how that blends in. If it doesn't look right, I am not sure which direction to go. I'd like to keep the blonde, but I honestly cannot afford the salon upkeep.

Thoughts?