lightening permanently colored hair

How can I lighten my permanently colored dark brown hair? I want to have it frosted. I have had bad experiences in the past with orange tones.

KB is right. Highlighting at home is a disaster waiting to happen! Bleach highlighting kits are very unpredictable -- it's hard to get the colour you're looking for and they can really fry your hair. Last week I lightened my med. auburn hair to a really nice honey blonde using hi-lift (NOT highlight) products; I should have stopped there.

But then I highlighted with Natural Essences Cool Blonde Highlighting kit. The highlights were a pale, cool yellow -- very unattractive and unnatural looking. I tried to ash them down a bit with a toner, but my hair turned the colour of apricots. I used a darker toner and my hair turned peach! I finally had to dye my hair brown to get rid of the weird colours. Bye bye to my pretty blonde hair colour for now.

Here's something you could try at home. Do a test strand with CLAIROL HERBAL ESSENCES HI-LIFT BLONDES XL0, XL2, XL4 or XL10. (XL4 would probably be best for you if you're trying to avoid getting orange-y results -- it is a very light ash blonde which should counteract the orange.) I used XL10 and got my hair about 3 shades lighter (no bleach involved). I had my sister apply it as a highlight colour (using foils); you could also use a cap. Don't try it without doing a test strand first, though. L'Oreal makes some hi-lift blonde products too, but I've done test strands with them and gotten no lightening at all.

Good luck.

P.S. I just noticed that you said your dark brown hair is coloured. If it's semi-permanent, wait until it washes out. If it's a permanent colour, you will have to bleach or use a colour remover like ColorFix. Permanent colour won't lift or lighten permanent colour.