Does anyone color their hair at home? For years I have gone to the salon, but I can't afford the cost anymore. I have colored my hair at home in the past. I was mostly happy with the results, but in the sun my hair looked too reddish. (I have lt. brown hair).

I read somewhere that you can mix ash and golden tones to reduce the redness from the golden and the greenish from the ash.

Does anyone know anything about mixing hair colors? Is it safe? Any other advice? Anyone???

I don't think I'd be brave enough to mix colors. I've seen too many hair-coloring accidents just with one single color to even think about mixing two, but that's just me! They have at-home hair colors now that are kind of a two-step process. So you color your hair and then you kind of comb through high-lights. I've not used them, but a friend has and she has gotten good results. I used to color at home but my hair now has so much mousy gray that I get better results at a salon.

I saw this link and I am with you. I asked at the Wal-Mart salon how much it would be to do all over color of my hair and they said 80-90 dollars because of the length! And that is Wal-Mart! I have a box of $7.50 blond sitting in the bathroom, but I'm afraid that I'm going to miss a big hunk of hair or have pink hair when I'm done. Still, I guess that we can always go to the salon if we mess it up. My hair stylist friend hates it when I mention "sun-in" because of how it damages your hair. Still, it has gotten me nice results in the past.

If you have really long hair, you'll need 2 boxes of color. I mix ash blonde and strawberry blonde (3-1) and get good results.

smilesandsunshine- I haven't had any upsetting tragedies from coloring at home. I wouldn't be afraid to try a color. I can tell you not to expect that your hair will look like the model's on the front of the box. Your resulting color depends on your current color and treatments and Jerseygirl is right, it will be darker at first.

Jerseygirl-The last color I tried was Revlon lt. brown (#40????). I am more pleased with it than the Loreal's I have tried. I guess "brassy" was the word I was looking for instead of "reddish". I'm beginning to look brassy again, but then again, my roots are starting to show. Maybe it's just time to color again.

windchime-I'd love to do highlights at home, as this is what I have done at the salon. I'm afraid to try streaking on myself. Afraid of looking like a skunk or zebra, or worse, like I tried to do my own hair and horribly failed.

Thanks girls. Any other coloring or highlighting at home thoughts???

Hi Quilter! When you say 3-1, how exactly do you measure the amounts out of the bottles? Have you mixed other colors? Any tragedies to report?

I color all the time. The last hair color I used was Perfect 10. It was awesome....it took 10 min. I've never mixed colors, I am not that brave. I too stopped paying $90 for weaves and all over color as it seemed just a huge waste of money. I would also recommend 2 boxes if you have long hair and do it in sections that way you wont miss any pieces.

Good luck!

I still go to the salon, but I do all of the touch ups at home. My hair grows fast and since I dye dark the gray peeps out really fast. I was going to the salon every 7 weeks for touch ups, but it seems dumb to pay that much when you can do it at home. I use an old toothbrush and my husband has to help with the back.

Oh, I should mention--I go to the salon for color every 6 weeks. Every-other time she touches up the highlights. My hair grows really fast, so around week 3 or 4 I have to get a root touch-up kit and do the roots at home so I don't have a gray skunk-stripe going down the top of my head. I only do the roots that people can see; the underneath stuff can wait till I go in to the stylist.

When my stylist does my color, she does a complete color on all the roots. The rest of the hair has permanent color, so it doesn't all need to be colored every time.

I am a licensed cosmetologist-do NOT mix a golden and an ash haircolor unless you know what you are doing!!!!!!!!

What you want to look for instead, is a NEUTRAL hair color...one that does NOT say ash, or golden. Actually...ones that say golden to not have red undertones to them at all-they have GOLD undertones. Ash has cool undertones-which might be blue, green, or gray-depending on the actual shade. Auburn, Red, strawberry, copper-THOSE are the ones with red tones.

If you are wanting a neutral light brown, simply look for the box that says NATURAL light brown...not ash light brown or light golden brown. NATURAL means neutral.

More thoughts from someone who has worked in/managed a salon:

**If your hair is LONG...buy two boxes of color!!!! JersyGyrl said she can get hers covered with one, but this is going to vary depending on the THICKNESS of your hair! You don't want to find out that you need two halfway through the process!! Also, if you use two, MIX THEM at the same time...don't mix one and apply, and then mix the other and apply-SAME TIME.

**There is a REASON why it costs more in the salon. We are trained to do this.
With me, I can apply the color much faster and more efficiently than you can-which means your color is going to be more even. I can see if your ends are damaged, and I can put something on them to keep the color even...where if you do it yourself, you might end up with the damaged ends soaking up more color and ending up a shade darker than the roots.
With me I am trained to go by your CURRENT hair color when deciding how to mix color. In the back room-we do not have little individual boxes! The hair colors themselves, and the developers, etc. are SEPARATE. If a redhead, a blonde, and a brunette all come in wanting the same color...I will mix each formula DIFFERENTLY for each of them. Boxed store haircolor is NOT meant to change your hair from blonde to brown, or from black to red, or other big changes. If you look at the box-it will say "for best results, do not go more than a shade or two away from your natural hair color". The formulas are not correct for a drastic change!

**If your hair is long, and you color your hair with the same PERMANANT color every few weeks...when you touch up, do the roots only. Do the rest for just the last 5-10 minutes. Do not put it all over for the full time, every single time. It overprocesses the rest of your hair. If you ever see the women with golden hair at the roots, and it keeps getting lighter and finally the ends look like white, fuzzy, baby chick stuff....this is what has happened...or the woman with brown hair that keeps getting darker until the ends look almost a fuzzy textured black...same thing.

I also do it at home and I wanted a reddish brown. I used a medium brown color. Then I noticed my hair was getting a tiny bit reddish and I wanted a bit more red but not outright red. The 800 people told me to use a box that is labelled medium golden brown (chestnut). I use it and like the results quite a bit. Of course, I have missed spots and it is not a salon quality job but it is totally adequate. (and I can do it at 11pm or 6am).

Did a totally awesome color job at home this last time. Looks like the $150 salon job I used to get. BUT - it takes help. And a fair portion of a day.

I used an overall color of a light brown. Then I used a highlight cap, and went through 1/2 the holes and colored with an auburn. Then went back through the other set of holes with golden highlights.

A few days later I went to get a haircut, and the stylist asked where I got my color done - she couldn't believe I'd done it at home!

It was a pain in the neck. But even after paying the teenager who helped me, I saved $100 (which I would NOT have spent right now).