<p>I use Redken Shades EQ, a professional product. My old stylist gave me a combo of two shades to mix in order to make my ‘highlights’ turn a nice reddish auburn shade lighter than my dark brown, but the same colour to which my hair naturally sun bleaches. A short time later I left the country, so I found a way to obtain the pro products and experimented myself. My niece has a license so I had someone to ask the lame questions! I began by leaving it on too long and being too dark, but over time have gotten to about 15-20 minutes and I redo it every 5-8 weeks depending on fade & root growth (seems to differ seasonally) </p>
<p>I have maybe 5% gray scattered evenly throughout like the best highlight job ever so the colour wash is good. Maybe if I had solidly silver hair that looked good I would go au natural, but right now it would just look frowsy</p>