Decided what I'll do, now I need some advice!

Okay, so I decided that I'm gonna go for it and try to lighten it myself at home.  Here are my questions:

I went to the store last night and saw a few bleaching kits that looked pretty promising.  They were Clairol Born Blonde Ultra Blue or the Born Blonde Maxi, and a L'Oreal one... I can't remember the name of it, but it wasn't the Feria one.  I think out of the two, the Clairol ones look best.  I've also heard good things about the Manic Panic lightening kit you get at Sally's.  Anyone have any recs as to what I should use?  Also, I'll need to use an actual hair color after the lightening process, right? What base colors should I look for in the hair color I choose?

Okay, now here's where it gets tricky.  My medium brown roots have grown out about 2 1/2 inches.  The rest is alternating shades of cool and warm blonde, which was achieved by using lightener only (at the salon).  There was no hair color used after it.  I know I'm gonna have to do some sample tests to find out how long I'll need to leave the bleach on my roots, but what about the length of my hair?  Will I need to apply the bleach to that too?  Or would I just bleach the roots, then apply the actual hair color all over?  I don't want the length of my hair to end up platinum!  But I want my hair color to match, for the most part.  (I don't mind if I have some darker shades, like lowlights,  from the different shades I have now, but I just don't want the top half of my hair to be darker and the bottom platinum or anything like that!)

Thanks everyone!


Edited by cambria - April 13 2007 at 8:11pm