Advice on how to pick the right type of medium brown colour please please please!

[cerelia]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and have come desperately seeking advice on understanding how to fix my hair For about 10 years I coloured my hair at home (med brown), then started going to stylists every 5 weeks so I didn't have to deal with colouring it myself. She used Paul Mitchell Color XG. So far so good - my hair always looked shiny and beautiful.

Then I moved to Colorado, and I've had a TERRIBLE time finding a good stylist that doesn't leave bands in my hair when touching up the roots! As there are no Paul Mitchell stylists near me, I first went to an Aveda salon. They did an okay job of matching my roots to my color. Second time they did my roots, it was darker than the previous time, which gave me 3 bands. My stylist wasn't sure what happened, apologized, and tried to even it out by pulling color through. I ended up much darker (med/dark brown), which I really didn't want, but the color also gave my hair a red, brassy look when the sun hit it - instead of the usual beautiful cool gold tints in the brown, it was reddish/orange.

I decided to go to another stylist (Joico). A very similar experience happened. Over 3 months and I ended up with 3 different bands that I could see when I held my hair up to the mirror. So, I spent 5 weeks repeatedly clarifying my hair to lighten it all up so that it could then be coloured all over - one color (at least, that was my logic!). I went back, and finally my hair was colored one solid color of medium brown (she added a bit of ash to cool the orange tones in it). I thought my problems were fixed. Then, I go back to do a root touchup and suddenly have a dark band! I mean, like very dark brown. The stylist was surprised, and said my hair must have "taken differently this time" but she also said "Joico naturally lightens as time goes by, so you want to always do the roots darker anyway." Well... it looked awful. I'm SO frustrated that I'd like to just go back to coloring my hair at home, and have it all one medium brown with cool gold tints if the sun hits it, instead of brassiness. I really miss my hair back when the Paul Mitchell stylist used "color xg" on it, and I tried to reach her to find out my formula - unfortunately, I can't find her. I went to look at the colour swatches for color xg and now after this long-winded story I finally get to my point:

I don't know whether to buy "4n" (medium natural brown), "4nn" (medium natural natural brown), "4g" (medium golden brown) or "4a" (medium ash brown). My hair is 100% gray, and has a tendency to have quite a bit of red in it when the sun hits it. I much prefer a cool gold than warm gold, so stylists have always tweaked the color with ash (I "think" ).

I would really, really appreciate any feedback on... if you were me... which color would you buy. I'm so tired of having horrible bands and really hope someone can advise me

Thank you SO much!!!

[Laurab]

I've never colored by hair, but I'll do my best to guess based off of what I've learned from youtube videos.

So first my guess about why your hair would always go red: What I've heard basically when you've got brown it's made up of a lot of different colors, and it goes through a lot of them when you lighten it. It'll go from brown to orange to yellow to white, getting through all of those pigments. When you want to dye grey hair, you've got to put all of those colors back in, since grey hair doesn't have any pigment to it. You've got to give grey hair that strong bold color to look like much of anything, and I imagine some stylists go too far with the reds and yellows, or maybe the dyes made for it are made too warm.

And then for the color you pick, it's all about the color wheel. To cancel out warm tones you need cool tones. Toner and purple shamppos seem to be what fixes this, or adding in those ash colors you descriebd.

I don't know what the difference would be with those colors (What on earth is natural natural???? ) other than assuming you would want ash brown over golden, since you want the cool tones.

I really like Sam Vey on youtube, she's a hair stylist. Here's a video of her doing ash brown hair for someone who kept getting warmer colors than she wanted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sardc2js9Q

And here's one about toning (it's sponsored, but all of the info still seems good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7cFUkFLzE8

Hopefully something in there was useful. Good luck!

[cjk]

I would really, really appreciate any feedback on... if you were me... which color would you buy. I'm so tired of having horrible bands and really hope someone can advise me

Thank you SO much!!!

I don't think the problem is your color. I think the problem is with your desire to color match a previous dye job.

The likelihood that you'll match the color after multiple dye jobs with multiple products is almost negligible. It comes down to the skill of your colorist, but matching that many dye jobs perfectly is going to require a very high degree of skill.

And that'll be very expensive.

Instead I suggest this. Stop trying to match it exactly. Blend it to another color with an ombre. That will soften the line and allow you to grow it and touch it up, easily, into the future.

[Dark40]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum and have come desperately seeking advice on understanding how to fix my hair For about 10 years I coloured my hair at home (med brown), then started going to stylists every 5 weeks so I didn't have to deal with colouring it myself. She used Paul Mitchell Color XG. So far so good - my hair always looked shiny and beautiful.

Then I moved to Colorado, and I've had a TERRIBLE time finding a good stylist that doesn't leave bands in my hair when touching up the roots! As there are no Paul Mitchell stylists near me, I first went to an Aveda salon. They did an okay job of matching my roots to my color. Second time they did my roots, it was darker than the previous time, which gave me 3 bands. My stylist wasn't sure what happened, apologized, and tried to even it out by pulling color through. I ended up much darker (med/dark brown), which I really didn't want, but the color also gave my hair a red, brassy look when the sun hit it - instead of the usual beautiful cool gold tints in the brown, it was reddish/orange.

I decided to go to another stylist (Joico). A very similar experience happened. Over 3 months and I ended up with 3 different bands that I could see when I held my hair up to the mirror. So, I spent 5 weeks repeatedly clarifying my hair to lighten it all up so that it could then be coloured all over - one color (at least, that was my logic!). I went back, and finally my hair was colored one solid color of medium brown (she added a bit of ash to cool the orange tones in it). I thought my problems were fixed. Then, I go back to do a root touchup and suddenly have a dark band! I mean, like very dark brown. The stylist was surprised, and said my hair must have "taken differently this time" but she also said "Joico naturally lightens as time goes by, so you want to always do the roots darker anyway." Well... it looked awful. I'm SO frustrated that I'd like to just go back to coloring my hair at home, and have it all one medium brown with cool gold tints if the sun hits it, instead of brassiness. I really miss my hair back when the Paul Mitchell stylist used "color xg" on it, and I tried to reach her to find out my formula - unfortunately, I can't find her. I went to look at the colour swatches for color xg and now after this long-winded story I finally get to my point:

I don't know whether to buy "4n" (medium natural brown), "4nn" (medium natural natural brown), "4g" (medium golden brown) or "4a" (medium ash brown). My hair is 100% gray, and has a tendency to have quite a bit of red in it when the sun hits it. I much prefer a cool gold than warm gold, so stylists have always tweaked the color with ash (I "think" ).

I would really, really appreciate any feedback on... if you were me... which color would you buy. I'm so tired of having horrible bands and really hope someone can advise me

Thank you SO much!!!

Hi....I used to color my hair medium brown or black/dark brown. The best coloring product I use is Clairol Nice N Easy. They have some beautiful shades of medium brown. I would visit there website at: www.clairol.com and Nice N Easy is not damaging to the hair at all. Because, I've been using it for the last 30 years, and it always leaves my hair looking very shiny!

[SleepyTangles]

I don't think the problem is your color. I think the problem is with your desire to color match a previous dye job.

The likelihood that you'll match the color after multiple dye jobs with multiple products is almost negligible. It comes down to the skill of your colorist, but matching that many dye jobs perfectly is going to require a very high degree of skill.

And that'll be very expensive.

Instead I suggest this. Stop trying to match it exactly. Blend it to another color with an ombre. That will soften the line and allow you to grow it and touch it up, easily, into the future.

I agree with cjk, there are too many products and different color blends in your hair right now...
Can you give us a photo of your current hair situation? It's difficult to give advice "blindly".

[Faraniel]

My roots always look darker because the head emits heat. Peroxide works better with heat therefore it works a bit too much. Anyway, with so many different shades on your hair either just blend it or remove the colour and redye all of it again.

[lapushka]

Maybe I read over that part, but are you looking to do your hair yourself from now on? Because dye can't "lift" previous dye. All you can hope for is a better result on the root area. And if you like the root area after the color you put on, stick with that box dye, and also don't go salon hopping because they all use different brands and no color can match the previous one exactly.

[helluin]

Can you put a photo? I die my hair brown, i use a caramel brown, it's a little bit orange, because my hair turns orange always!

[cerelia]

I don't know what the difference would be with those colors (What on earth is natural natural???? ) other than assuming you would want ash brown over golden, since you want the cool tones.

I really like Sam Vey on youtube, she's a hair stylist. Here's a video of her doing ash brown hair for someone who kept getting warmer colors than she wanted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sardc2js9Q

And here's one about toning (it's sponsored, but all of the info still seems good): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7cFUkFLzE8

Hopefully something in there was useful. Good luck!

Thank you, so helpful! I did figure out that nn has more pigment for stubborn gray that's difficult to colour 🤔.

[Wendyclaire]

I’d try a light brown root touch up product and use on roots and hairline, it will blend it all until you decide what color you want for a total dye job. I also comb it on the back of my hair which seems to go gray faster!