I've been coloring my hair with Natural Instincts Cinnaberry (and occasionally Rosewood or Malaysian Cherry) for about 15 years. I haven't really seen my natural hair color in all those years but the last time I got a look, it was a light to medium ash brown. I'd estimate that now I have about 30-40% grey which the Natural Instincts covered completely.

I wanted a change so I decided to try to get back to a dark ash blonde. About a month ago I used Color Oops twice (waited a day between applications). It faded the color a bit but the red was still there. I then used Color Zap - a much stronger product, in my opinion - and it worked much better except without thinking I applied it all over. My roots came out a yellow/orange, and the rest was much lighter but still had some red. I applied a semi-permanent Champagne (level 7 with a neutral base) and the result was close to what I wanted but still the ends were darker than the roots - actually the color of the roots was exactly what I was shooting for.

About a week later I went to a salon for a haircut and the operator was confident she could get my hair close to the root color all over, and blend it so I wouldn't have two-toned hair. Well, she got it closer still but the stubborn red would not go away! She suggested I wait a couple of weeks and come back and she'd 'try again'. I'm not sure I like the sound of that, plus I honestly do not have another $80 to spend.

Amazingly, after all this my hair is in good condition. The operator said it was "stressed" but not really damaged. I've been conditioning every 2-3 days and it's in good shape. Right now the top 1.5 inches are a beautiful soft neutral blonde - I'd say Level 6? and the rest is a light reddish brown. I know 'color does not lift color' and I'd have to bleach the shaft before I could get the ash/neutral blonde I want. I don't want to do an all-over bleach, so I was thinking about doing highlights instead. I'm not that proficient with foils but I do have a cap and before I went red I frosted my hair for years with no problems. I think it would be safer and less damaging to do a 'frosting' and tone with a Level 7 or 8 neutral medium blonde to get an all-over effect than to do a whole-head bleaching. I was also thinking of adding a bit of red/gold corrector to the color. In the past I'd used Loreal Drabber and it made the color a little more ashy with no brassiness.

I didn't respond because I do have thoughts about it, but no strong opinions. I was just leaving town when I saw your first post and didn't have time to respond. I didn't see your second post until I got back.

You seem to understand enough of what's going on that you haven't ruined your hair. Also, you know some of the basics (color doesn't lighten color) that many people simply are unaware of.

Heavy highlights is probably a good idea, but you have to understand that in spite of the fact that your hair appears to be in good condition, there is underlying damage. You used color remover twice, including Color Zap -- a bleach (Color Oops is a reducing agent). So, your hair has already been damaged. So, whatever you do, you need to do a strand test with the bleach and color that you're going to use -- to make sure your hair can take it. You don't need to clip a strand from your head to do the strand test. In fact, for this strand test, I recommend you keep it on your head. Then, after doing the strand test, wait three days to see if the strand has excessive breakage. If it does, you should not proceed. If it's too dry, you should think about it again.

Finally, you may not want to tone the highlights unless the color looks too brassy overall. The toner will increase hair damage and you don't want that.

keep it up.