In Reply to: my honest advise posted by clovis on Friday, 4. June 2010 at 11:46 Bali Time:
A major change like you are contemplating is best left to a highly qualified hairdresser that you know & trust & is very experienced at colouring.It is an involved process that is best left to professionals who have been highly trained & use reputable & reliable branded products that have been developed by a research team.If not you can end up with a lovely shade of green hair & even if done with a red filler incorrectly your new colour can be very uneven & unnatural looking.Worse case scenerio - your scalp can be burnt if the wrong level of developer is used &/or your hair can fall out in handfuls because it is so damaged by the process.
If you want to go to a medium - dark brown(what hairdressers call a base 5) you need to have a red filler/toner used to replace the pigments that bleaching has stripped out of your hair.If your hair is naturally brown I would suggest you go to a shade close to your own base shade & maybe consider getting the highlights done at a later stage once your hair condition has recovered a bit.
More than likely your bleached hair is some what porous,brittle & dry & probably needs some protein fillers/treatments before you go ahead with colouring.Porous hair also doesn't "hold" a colour well & you can have a lot of fading especially if you also don't look after your hair properly after it has been coloured.You will need to use a good quality shampoo & conditioner,try not to wash your hair on a daily basis or have too much sun exposure on your hair.Depending on how much fading you get it might be worthwhile every few washes to used a coloured shampoo & conditioner,speak to your own local hairdresser about this & for further advice.