I am a thirty year old who got her first gray hair as a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL. :eek: I've been dying my hair for a long time. After college, I went blonde to help blend in the gray, but it got too expensive. I've done shades of brown, and even went red so I could be annie for halloween about three years ago. I've grown tired of the red, and went back to brown, but want to lighten it up a little for the summer or just go back to au naturel and have brown with gray streaks. However, at this point I have NO idea how much gray I actually have. :p OH, and once I tried to use a highlighting kit at home, and the roots turned white and the rest was an orangey-blond. Won't ever do THAT again!

In the least, I want to strip my hair of all dye color, and use a slightly lighter shade than my non-gray natural hair color. My problem now is that if I try to use a lighter color and I have gray roots, they end up dark blond while the rest of my hair has no change.

Additional info: I generally use semi-permanent color, but have used permanent this past time and occasionally in the past. Use a deep conditioner once a week. Cost is an issue (I'm on a tight budget at the moment). photos of the gray (http://evite.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=ev8b28j.aj7mx79v&Uy=5w2466&Ux=0) from last October (hair color is different now).

What exactly do hair color removers do? Most of them say "strips hair of color for immediate retinting"... what if I just want to go back to natural? Will it remove even built-up color? Will it affect my natural hair color at all? How easy are they to use?

Any other advice on what I can do with my hair? I would love to do a gray streak (think rogue from XIII or stacy from what not to wear) but unfortunately, I think the gray has spread... :D

Thanks in advance for your help!

Adding an ash color to your red hair will get rid of the red and turn your hair into a brown tone. But if you want to go lighter, you have to pre-lighten the hair, then apply your desired color. What a color remover does is remove permanent or semi-permanent color from the hair. You will not go back to your natural color if you use a hair color remover. It will make the hair orange or even yellow, and you will need to re-color your hair.

Thanks! Definitely DON'T want orange hair...

You're welcome. Good luck with your hair.

Hi I had light red blond hair and I wanted to have more red. My husband put ruby red on my hair and the roots and crown turned purple red and the rest was a much lighter shade. So I used the Loreal hair color remover which left the crown an red orange and the rest blond. I tried to use a light red-blond and the crown/underneath hair is still red orange. I waited 24 hours then tried the color remover again,this time NOT adding the puroxide and just using water. I tried using the same red blond,and my hair is STILL red orange at top and underneath,and much lighter on the rest. I have been using a protein treatment in between what I did above. I just want my hair too look normal again, and now I am scared because I know my hair is damaged. What do I do?

Tweety, red shades come in several base colors. Your husband used a red-voilet base, which turned your hair a red-purple color. If the hair color remover left your roots an orange/red shade. Using a Golden Reddish Blonde on the roots may make it more of a strawberry blonde. But since you've colored your hair more than once, I'm afraid that if you put another color on your hair, it could make matters worse. Please consider going to the salon and have a hairstylist do a corrective color on your hair.

Thanks for your reply. I really appreciate it. I did decide to go to the salon,and she was able to fix my hair. I had to have some cut off sadly due to the damage that was done though. Oh well,it will grow back!

I dyed my hair brown it came out as brown with redish tint did not like so I tried to bleach it blond and it came out with whitish blond with orange highlights. My natural color is dark blond what would you suggest to give me livable results. Thanks