Tutorial - DIY Ombre Hair

This post talks about going to an ombre look, starting with hair that is dyed all over a lighter color than the roots coming in are.  The basic idea is to extend your root color farther down the length of the hair, and leave the tips the lighter color they are already dyed.  If you hair is dark all over, and you want light tips, this tutorial will not work for you.

I recently DIY-ed my hair to an ombre, with dark at the crown, fading out to auburn tips, with highlights of auburn throughout.  I started out with dyed red hair, with roots coming in.  I had dyed it red twice, and was getting tired of the upkeep.

To start, here was the red when it was first done:

The fade out.  This was so pretty; I loved it!:

 

Then the second application of red.  Oops!  That got darker than I wanted!:

 The fade out... It lost a lot of copper in the front, but the back and tips still had a lot of auburn in them:

Then, I clarified my hair with a baking powder and shampoo paste.  It got rid of a lot of the darkening, which was an unexpected result.  However, that left my roots even MORE noticeable.  It also showed a strange area at the crown that took the dye in a different manner from the length, and it was more of a burgundy red than the rest of my hair, which was now a coppery dark blond.  Yes, it looks fine in the picture.  In real life, though, it was driving me nuts! (Yes, that is my natural hair texture, and yes, that is in my bathroom, and YES, I AM wearing a towel.)

Now!
  

What do you think?  I loved the red, but the upkeep was killing my hair.  Since the roots were coming in so dark, I thought I'd try to work with it.  Also, since I already had the length of my hair red, I thought I'd try out the ombre look.  I did it a lot more subtle than some of the looks out there, and I think it looks pretty natural.

I did it by using a box dye that seemed to match the color of my roots (dark brown).  I mixed and applied the dye as if I were touching up my roots, and then pulled the color another 5 inches or so through my hair.  For this application, I made sure as much of my hair within that 5 inches was colored.  

I left that on for 10 minutes, then put more color on and pulled the color down another 7 inches or so.  For that section of hair, I was less thorough about making sure the color was all over.  I knew I wanted to leave some red highlights throughout, so I did not saturate the hair.  I left that on for 10 minutes.  

Finally, for the final 5 minutes, I put more color on, and pulled it through to nearly the ends.  Then, as the clock ticked down, I pulled the color randomly to the very ends, two symmetrical spots at a time.  For example, I pulled the color through to the tips on the two pieces that frame my cheeks.  Then about 20 seconds later I pulled the color through the two pieces that are on each side of the nape of my neck.  The goal is to mimic the natural color variations that occur around the head.  On me, they tend to be symmetrical.  So, what I did to one side of my head, I did to the other.  To ensure that it timed correctly, I did the corresponding pieces at the same time.  Wow, it's confusing to try to write that out!

Total processing time on the box, for touch-ups, was 25 minutes.  I was sure to not exceed that time.  Then I just rinsed it out, conditioned it heavily, and viola!  No more visible roots!  Yay!