I have bleached hair with bad roots, can I dye straight over this?

Hi,

I have bleached highlighted hair with really bad roots. As it’s getting into the winter season I don't really want to get it bleached again, so I would like to dye it a medium brown colour.

I was just wandering if you would recommend a home-dye? I would prefer to have the advice from a professional than do it wrong. Also, what colours would you say not to get e.g. Ash colours or warm colours!

Thanks for your help, PLEASE get back to me soon.

Lauren, Norfolk

I would never recommend that anyone colours their hair at home as the results are always so unreliable.

In your case, the hair will have to go through a double process to get it to the shade that you want. This is because if you just apply a colour over the top of your bleached highlights then you might get anything from green, mud, pink to orange.

You need first to pre-pigment the hair to the desired level with a warm shade then apply your chosen colour after this. Hair colour is not rocket science but it can get pretty complicated quite quickly so I strongly suggest you have it done with a colourist who enjoys colour correction work.

John Clark at Brooks+Brooks, London