Making bleached ends darker to blend with natural roots

Bonus pic...last night I was playing around with a few apps because I fancied seeing myself with brownish hair, here's a half and half image I made, the top being my natural colour, the bottom being the kind of shade I was thinking of, roughly (I couldn't get it exact as the colours worked funny over my different tones)!

I believe some of the adore browns are more ashy/ cool toned and could be diluted to a light brown, I think you might have to dilute them quite a bit though. I've only used the warmer browns so can't be more specific, sorry!

For the record though, I have friends who dye their hair to look exactly like yours is at the mo! I like it 🙂

I believe some of the adore browns are more ashy/ cool toned and could be diluted to a light brown, I think you might have to dilute them quite a bit though. I've only used the warmer browns so can't be more specific, sorry!

For the record though, I have friends who dye their hair to look exactly like yours is at the mo! I like it 🙂

Hah thanks! I don't mind the front so much, but when I catch the back of my head in a changing room mirror or something it gets on my nerves and I have a sudden urge to do something about it. I think the roots at the back are quite a lot darker than my roots at the front.

Yeah I think that might be my best bet at the moment, perhaps I might SUPER dilute and then build up over time, I'd rather it come out too light than too dark to begin with.

Medium brown is the ashy adore brown shade 🙂

Medium brown is very green toned, diluted it looks khaki. I like to mix it with Mocha for neutral or warm blondes (about two parts mocha to one medium brown), a dash of blue black makes it more ash/cool toned.
Getting very ashy light browns is tricky, apart from the above formula I like Nirvel grey mixed with an orangey shade, Mocha would work. Obviously all dyes heavily diluted with conditioner
If you don't want to mix, Wella colour fresh has natural shades. IME they don't last as well as adore though, even when it is diluted it has pretty good staying power.

Medium brown is very green toned, diluted it looks khaki. I like to mix it with Mocha for neutral or warm blondes (about two parts mocha to one medium brown), a dash of blue black makes it more ash/cool toned.
Getting very ashy light browns is tricky, apart from the above formula I like Nirvel grey mixed with an orangey shade, Mocha would work. Obviously all dyes heavily diluted with conditioner
If you don't want to mix, Wella colour fresh has natural shades. IME they don't last as well as adore though, even when it is diluted it has pretty good staying power.

Ah yes this is something I was a little worried about (it going green instead of light ash brown).

Might experiment with a few Adore shades on paper then & see what I come up with.

I tried Scott Cornwall's Colour Restore Cool Ash Hair Toner over the weekend out of curiosity, but the result was far too subtle as I suspected so I think a diluted dye will definitely be needed. It might be a nice maintainer though. I find my purple shampoos often leave me with a purple colour, and whilst I like it it's not what I'm aiming for right now.

I think you're right Hanrutmoe that your hair is darker at the back, your natural colour looks similar to mine from those photos and I find my front strands look properly blonde at times whereas the back is far from blonde! I think the issue of it going green/ khaki is probably your biggest concern - (even my natural colour looks khaki under certain lights, which is why I think I always go for warm red toned colours when I dye it) and when I had professional colour corrections done on mine when I last grew out bleach I basically seemed to have a choice between it looking vaguely khaki or vaguely pink!
I've not tried any of the ashy Adores but I think you might have to dilute them quite a lot, I use Mahogany at the mo and I mix it with conditioner to thicken it up for ease of application and it doesn't seem to affect the colour at all!

I think you're right Hanrutmoe that your hair is darker at the back, your natural colour looks similar to mine from those photos and I find my front strands look properly blonde at times whereas the back is far from blonde! I think the issue of it going green/ khaki is probably your biggest concern - (even my natural colour looks khaki under certain lights, which is why I think I always go for warm red toned colours when I dye it) and when I had professional colour corrections done on mine when I last grew out bleach I basically seemed to have a choice between it looking vaguely khaki or vaguely pink!
I've not tried any of the ashy Adores but I think you might have to dilute them quite a lot, I use Mahogany at the mo and I mix it with conditioner to thicken it up for ease of application and it doesn't seem to affect the colour at all!

Hah you've just reminded me, for years I used to buy a khaki eyeliner to use as my eyebrow pencil, because anything remotely described as blonde would be bright orange on me.

Probably best I start with a container of just conditioner and then adding Adore literally drop by drop. I've read about them coming out just as vibrant even when diluted. Hoping that doesn't happen! I'll err on the side of caution and try to come up with something too light to start with.

Worst case I guess I'll be fading out brunette for a while. I must admit my brunette inspiration totally came from Emilia Clarke anyway, and she's really quite dark at the moment.

So after mulling it over for a while I gave it a go last night. The results are somewhat unexpected. I ended up using about 75% Adore Medium Brown, 25% Adore Mocha, diluted with a touch of conditioner.

When I tested various shades on paper, to be honest I couldn't see the cool khaki green people had mentioned as being in the Medium Brown shade. In my hair, my natural roots have gone a lovely colour, but the ends of my hair (that were previously platinum blonde) have gone a purple brown, which isn't really what I was expecting.

Is this what is expected of a cool brown? What could I add to make it more like the top half? Perhaps even a yellowy-green? Or a diluted black? I'm not entirely sure!

Try washing it a few times and see how it fades.
To see the base tones in the colours you have mix a drop in some white conditioner, then let it sit. Unless Adore have changed the formula, Medium brown has a heavily green/ash toned base.
I have never had any purple tones from this mix. I think the purple will disappear as you wash it, if not then adding yellow/gold would cancel them out. Using more Mocha in the mix would help too

Try washing it a few times and see how it fades.
To see the base tones in the colours you have mix a drop in some white conditioner, then let it sit. Unless Adore have changed the formula, Medium brown has a heavily green/ash toned base.
I have never had any purple tones from this mix. I think the purple will disappear as you wash it, if not then adding yellow/gold would cancel them out. Using more Mocha in the mix would help too

Yeah I've washed it twice now and it isn't quite fading as I first worried, I thought it was going to go a pale maroon colour but so far that's not the case. I can definitely still see quite a lot of purple in the colour though, although it's early days having only been washed twice. It's very similar to the final swatch on paper I posted.

I mixed in conditioner for the swatches, but probably no where near enough, and I didn't leave it to sit either so I'll try that out. I'll use more mocha in my hair next time to see how that fares too. Thanks for the tips!  🙂

That's the colour my 'vaguely pink' colour correction turned out all those years ago! It's so hard to match natural ash blonde.

You really suit your hair a little darker though, it makes your skin look really fresh!