<p>I agree that it may take some trial and error to find your perfect color. When I was in my 20s I had light brown hair with gold and red highlight. I wanted my hair to be a lighter shade, so I colered it with a permanent color for a couple of years. I liked the result. My hair was a lighter shade of golden brown and retained its gold and red highlights. But, I got tired of having to color every 6 weeks or so and after a couple of years I stopped.</p>
<p>Fast forward to my 40s. I had vowed that I would not have mousy gray/brown hair and that I would start coloring it before I became noticeably gray. When I started to see a lot of gray around my temples, I decided it was time. I went to a beauty college and asked for a shade slightly lighter than my own. The instructor warned me that going lighter would bring out the red tones in my medium golden brown hair. I said that was okay because I’d always had red highlights, and besides, I had lightened it myself very successfully when I was younger. The instructor chose the color and the student applied it. The color turned out a ghastly, very unnatural looking shade of auburn. I hated it and suffered with the ugly color for months as it grew out.</p>
<p>I decided I’d color my hair myself the next time. I started with the color I used when I was in my 20s. My hair turned out looking auburn. It was a natural looking shade of auburn, unlike what I got at the beauty college, but it was not what I wanted. After thinking about what might have gone wrong, I realized that my hair had darkened more than I had thought between my 20s and my 40s. Therefore, the shade that worked when I was younger was now too light. </p>
<p>Over the next couple of years I tried a succession of hair colors. I kept going a shade darker each time. My hair looked better with each experiment, but it kept looking redder than I liked. A Clairol consultant told me I should use a color that had a violet base. Good advice. However, you can’t tell by reading the boxes which shades have a violet base. I had been using ash brown shades to try to tone down the red, but not all of the ash shades have a violet base. Eventually, I hit upon Hydrience 48, dark brown. The model on the box, has very dark, ash brown hair. When I use the color, I get medium golden brown with gold and a few red highlights. I know the color definitely has a violet base. My plastic gloves turn a pretty shade of violet! I leave the color on my roots for 15 minutes, then quickly apply the color to the rest of my hair and immediately rinse it out. If the ends of my hair start looking too faded after a few months of that procedure, I’ll leave the color on the ends for 5 minutes before rinsing. I’m very happy with the results I get. Stylists are always surprised when I tell them what shade I use. though I use a dark brown shade, I do not get a dark brown result with my method.</p>