lighten up

I think that I may already know the answer to this question, but just in case I`m wrong:

I have very dark brown hair with lots of dark red in it. My hair has quite a few layers of colouring products on it due to a severe hair colour change addiction. When I was younger my hair was a nice dark honey-ish blonde, and I`ve been noticing that my roots in the front have been growing in in a similar shade, which is news to me because I usually colour right over it before I even notice the roots. I normally like to keep my hair darker, and I`ve tried going to lighter shades of blonde before with less-than-stellar results. However, I`m thinking that I would love to have dark blonde/light brown hair again for a change. So my question is: would it be absolutely necessary to strip my hair completely with bleach and then colour it with the shade that I want? I think that my only other option would be to grow my hair out for ages and see if it turns out to be what I`m after. That idea is a good one, for sure, but I`m fairly impatient. :) Can anyone give me some guidance on this matter, please?

Thank you,
~Amy

Part of me quite likes the notion of growing my hair out - `new`, relatively undamaged hair? - yes, please. But it`s the amount of time involved that bums me out. It would likely be very worth the wait at least. I`ll wait for as long as I can. Maybe a cut would make it more bearable. Thanks for the input.

I`ve been thinking this over, and maybe it would be a better idea to do highlights. My only fear with this option would be that I might end up with orange rather than light brown streaks. The last time I tried highlighting I used semi-permanent colour; I don`t know if that`s why I didn`t get the desired light brown colour that I wanted. Or perhaps it was the specific kit that I used - my hair was pretty orange-y after bleaching with the Frost and Tip. Um...I`m rambling. Does anyone else have suggestions?

First of all - I don`t know why there`s an e-mail address and signature which doesn`t belong to me that gets displayed each time that I reply, but I`ll never figure that one out.

Moving along...I`ve done cap highlights twice before and I didn`t find that they made my hair feel any more dry (than it already would have been). Mind you, I didn`t pull a whole lot of hair through, either. I`ve also had foils done at a salon once and the stylist placed them all over my head. I liked the way the colour looked for the first little while, but my hair was so brittle - that wasn`t really the stylist`s fault, because I had bleached myself blonde a few months previous to that.

I am really keen on a combo of dark blonde and light brown and I`m pretty much on a mission to find out how I can achieve that range a.s.a.p. However, if I`m only going to wind up with a bunch of red streaks, then what`s the point? Just more hassle to say the least.