Welp, that was a fail. Used ION Medium Intense Red Blonde

Actually, you'd be far better off using something like Special Effects reds over bleached to ginger hair. They last far longer 🙂

i wouldnt use touch hicolour over processed hair at this point. Its made for virgin hair only. I have seen some real issues when people ignore that recommendation!

I would go with Janineb's advice, Special effects really does last, much more vibrant and shiny than permanent colour. i know you arent looking for that firetruck red, but semis leave a beautiful colour that doesnt need to be neon 🙂

thanks you two! I will be looking into that instead.

I'm going to ask since you two seem to have a lot of knowledge - how do i avoid that NEON effect that most semis/vegetable dyes ect leave on bleached hair? I really hate that

I think your best bet if you want to avoid neon hair is to mix a red such as one of the special effects reds with a dark brown semi dye like one of adores natural shades. And strand test until you get the right mix!

Or I think you could add a tiny bit of the opposite colour on the colour wheel to tone the red down and make it more brown.

Edit: also you can edit posts instead of double posting. It looks like I edited this to prove my point but I genuinely thought to add this point after! 🙂

You can also dilute the dyes for a softer effect, direct dyes definitely don't have to be neon!

Thank you, and sorry about my excessive posting. Yall have been very patient with me and I *love* this forum. I have been able to learn a lot from hairdyeforum.com! TBH I wish I found it years ago.

Anyways, im going to stay away from anything that involves bleach (IE Loreal Hicolor). The brown demi idea is genius, thank you friends. 🙂

Just to be clear, NOT demi. You need true semi/direct/veggie dyes. If the dye has two bottles to mix (one being peroxide) it's not a true semi.

Thank you. I think I'm going to go with Direction's Lavender.

What colour is your hair now? you need quite a light base for Lavender, it isn't a very strong dye.

Very very pale yellow. Almost white but a little bit of brass.