Drk Brown hair to Dirty Blonde?

Hey. I'm a guy with drk brown hair. Now, Im alittle sick of my natural color, I was just wondering if I can dye my hair a dirty dirty blonde? I mean, would I have to bleach my hair first then dye it dirty blonde???....or, can I just dye it dirty blonde? Please reply to this, anyone!

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but dirty blonde is just about the hardest shade to achieve and maintain. Not even professionals can consistently get it right each and every time, or on the first try.

Why?

Natural hair color mainly depends upon two subtypes of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin appears yellow in small quantities, and brown in large quantities. Pheomelanin is orange-red. Someone with "dark brown" hair generally has lots of pheomelanin and lots of eumelanin. Someone with "light brown" hair generally has lots of pheomelanin and less eumelanin. A "redhead" has lots of pheomelanin, but little eumelanin. A "natural blonde" has eumelanin, but little pheomelanin.

So what about "dirty blonde?" Naturally dirty-blonde hair has lots of eumelanin (often, more than someone with "dark brown" hair), but very little/no pheomelanin. That's why it's so hard to describe what it looks like. It's a fairly rare genetic combination (like blonde hair + brown eyes...) because the set of genes that tend to produce lots of eumelanin are usually accompanied by genes for lots of pheomelanin as well.

OK, so we've got two conditions for dirty blonde hair to appear: no red, lots of yellow-brown. So the first step is bleaching to yellow. Then you've got to add *just* the right amount of violet to neutralize much of the yellow and darken it to brown. There's not much room for error. Too much violet, and your hair will take on a reddish-mauve cast. Too little, and your hair will be too yellow. And we haven't even considered the exact level of darkness we want... at this point, we're just trying to get the shade right.

Basically, there's a very, VERY narrow ratio of pigments that will get the right effect. With lots of experience, you can get better and better at getting the shade right, but you'll always be chasing after a moving target and find yourself perpetually frustrated if nothing short of consistent, repeatable results are acceptable to you.