I would like to add two "chunky" highlights in the copper family to my dark brown hair. I had this process down previously by a professional, but it cost me about $80 to do it, and I am now unemployed and cannot really afford to spend $80 on two foil highlights. I purchased quick blue bleach and a demi-permanent color from Wella that is quite close to the copper color that I previously had. Anyway, my question is how much do I need to lift my dark brown color (which is also dyed) so that the copper color deposits correctly? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

If I knew the answer to your question, then I would be a superb professional hair dresser. The only problem with your idea of the Wella colour is, it is just one shade. The professional who did you hair previously probably mixed shades to get the correct copper colour. That is why she gets paid well. They are trained to know what to mix.

No, he only used one shade of color. He actually had me pick from a color chart. I just need to know how many shades up from my current color (dark brown) do I need to bleach my hair so that the highlight color deposits correctly. Thank you.

Was the Wella product used called Colour Touch by any chance? I use Wella at where I work.

If you want a nice vibrant copper, you will need to bleach your hair till it is blonde. Once you've rinsed off the bleach and dried the hair, then apply the colour on to the bleached hair. You get intense colour when you've applied the shade to dry hair.

I don't think that I want to put my hair through that much of an intense bleaching process. I have very dark brown hair (naturally and now dyed), and I used to get platinum blonde highlights done by a professional. I would have to sit with a 40 volume developer and bleach on my hair, under an intensely hot dryer, for close to an hour for my hair to bleach out completely. This caused extreme damage to not only my hair, but the roots as well. It's been well over a year since I stopped doing that, and its taken about this much time for my hair to come back from the trauma. Would bleaching to a reddish orange stage work as well?