Need Hair Color Advice!!

N.--you are correct, ash is the "cooler" end of the spectrum, anything "golden, bronze, warm", etc are warmer tones and will have the warm or red in them. Sounds like you're on the right track--Clairol's website has a great question and answer site, even if you're not using their products, they also have a toll free line so you can talk to a live person if need be.

I am a hairdresser so heres what I can tell you. Ash always has a grey or green base. Find one that says beige blond or champange. Those are very natural without the red tones. Hope this helps.

I always have trouble with the "ash" thing. So this is what I can tell you from MY experience. I color my hair with Miss Clairol 93DN-Dusk Blonde(Medium Natural Blonde). There is a bit lighter version that is Daybreak Blonde (92DN Light Natural Blonde). The DN stands for "drab neutral" - isn't THAT lovely sounding:)! When I spoke to the professionals at Clairol, I was told going "drab" would cut out the gold/warm tones in my hair. It really worked well for me. I am so in love with this color. If you want to stay away from any warm tones, I would stick with the blue or the blue violet base.

This is a link to some color swatches-
http://www.clairolpro.com/files/swatches/miss_clairol.php

Good luck!

If you want a cheap hair cut or color go to the Aveda Institute and get one of the students there to do it. The cost if really reasonable. Their tutors are there supervising and can change the cut etc if you don't like it. I used them a few times and was always happy.

S.

N.,
I color my own hair also and I stay away from "ash" because of the green affect. To avoid the warm colors, stay away from colors that say "golden". I have recently tried "Perfect 10" by Clairol and was very pleased with the color. It only takes 10 minutes to do and it's not harsh on your hair.

Good Luck

Those women were wrong. Ash is a green based.. auburns are warm (red=warm, ash=green/cool). If you have used ash in the past and it has worked, then you are fine. Some women are bleached too much and when they use ash, they turn green. Hair colors have gotten better about that, and it ususally the darker shades of light brown that are the worst culprits of going green. Anyway, for sure... Ash blonde is NOT warm, far from it.

I'm not a hair dresser, but my hair dresser friend has taught me how to color (highlight/ lowlights) hair. I've been doing it for 8 years. I do weaves with foils just like they do at the salon.

I haven't been textbook taught, but what I do know is that every hair color has either a blue, green or violet base to it (thus imagine a bunch of senior citizen ladies sitting together with all shades of pink, blue or green hair).

By the way, it is rare that you get an actual hair dresser that works at Sally's (from my experience). She was probably repeating something that she had heard.

The purpose of ash is to take the redness out. If I use ash on a blonde, the hair will not process with a "gold" or "honey" tones, it is much whiter and and more gray. You have to be careful with ash because it can make you look more gray if you use too high of a level, but it works great for others. If you like what you are doing, keep doing it.

I've never done a "box" color, so I'm not sure how all of the levels process there.

Regardless, what color and level you use, it is pretty much an educational guess because you never know how a persons hair is going to process exactly. For example, I am a brunette (my base color is a level 5 if that means anything to you). I use an 8 ash in my highlights. But it doesn't make me look gray, in fact it processes with a honey color, but leaves me with no red.

OK, was that confusing enough? Good luck. I would take the advice of going to the hair school to get it done if you are worried. Nothing worse than a bad hair cut and color (at least for me)!

A.

Uh, my experience has shown, they were wrong! Ash is the cooler version, and in fact, assisted in turning my over processed hair green once! Nope, from my 20 something years of home coloring experience, ash does NOT have red in it, at all!!

Just remember, us girls who color from a box will usually not get the "exact color" that we are looking for.....have to pay mucho $$$ at the salon for that!! :)

It's all about your skin tone and what looks best on you. Maybe the woman in the store needed red in her color to match her skin tone. If using "ash" works for you, then continue doing so. I spend a ridiculous amount of money at the salon for blonde highlights and they are very 'ashy'... because that is what looks best on me. My natural color is an ashy mouse brown.

Ash is actually green color. If you want neutral use a color that doesn't have a letter at the end, i.e. 4A is a dark ash blonde. Use 4 or sometimes they will put N at the end for neutral like 4N. The people at Sally should be able to explain the color wheel that is the basis for haircoloring to you.

Seems like as I get older I too am struggling with "getting the red out". Thanks for your posting, the responses are helpful to a lot of us who aren't ready to "come out" on our coloring issues and can't afford a salon (I went once last year after a box disaster that left my hair with such red undertones that it seemed to change my skin tone at the price of $150!) If I make a mistake again, I'm just going to have to grow it out. :)

N. they were wrong completely! Ash is the color you want if you DON'T want red tones. Warm is the color you get if you DO want red tones. I have died my own and my mother's hair since I was 15 (36 now)and I know the truth! I use the warm because I have natural reddish undertones and I want to keep them and have them picked up when I color my hair. My mom does too but doesn't want them picked up so we use ash on her hair. If you want more BLONDE in your naturally blonde hair then you should look for the ash blondes or the golden ash blonde. Do not go for the warm blondes as those will push you towards strawberry/reddish blonde. I hope this helps!

All I know is anytime I had ever used ash, it turned my hair green.