from brown to blonde to red- too much?

Hi everyone. I've been trying to save money by coloring my own hair lately and this seemed like a good place to get tips on color situation.

I had my hair highlighted blonde for many years. For cost reasons I decided to go back to my natural light ash brown on my own. I tried demi brown colors, but they faded after a week.

I've since moved on to a level 6 dark ash blonde color (comes out medium brown on me), using a 10 volume developer. It still fades in a a few weeks, but it's better than the demi.

It worked well at first, but now my roots seem much lighter and more orange than the rest of my ends. From what I've read it's because my ends are too porous compared to the roots, making the color very uneven. (i have no idea why they are orange if I'm not using a high level peroxide)

If I use a hair filler, can I switch to a level 6 with a red violet base? or will it just look clownish and unevenly red? Should I add an ash toner to the color? I have a very pale very cool complexion and the ash brown is just kind of bla on me.