New color after 9 months

Hi Camundongo,

My one and only call to the Clairol hotline about 10-15 years ago messed up my hair more than I care to elaborate...  (I'll spare everyone.)  Thus began my quest for haircolor understanding!  Suffice it to say you're much smarter than I was - you asked others before listening to them!!!

Their advice sounds rather odd, since "ash" is designed to avoid the red tone.  Since you want her roots to match the length of her hair, which has a red tone, "ash" sounds like an extremely odd choice.

If you want to go LIGHTER than the brownish-red length, you need to remove the dye that's there first.  (Product like Colorfix - you'll see many posts here on that process.)  If you don't remove the dye first, that's where you run into trouble with it going darker instead of lighter.

The EASIEST thing to do is merely touch up the roots and make her hair all one color, using the same medium gold mahogany brown you used before.  The instructions should direct you how to do this - but you want to the apply the color to the roots first.  You'll only pull it through to the previously-dyed portion for the last 10 minutes or so.  (Do a strand test first to check the color and timings.)  That will freshen up the color to what it was when you first dyed it 9 months ago.

If she prefers the faded look that it is now and doesn't want to wait for the medium gold mahogany brown to fade on its own, you'd have to select a color as close to the current color as possible, without trying to go any lighter.   (That can be difficult, trying to go by ink colors on boxes in a drug store - so buying professional color from a supply store like Sally Beauty and holding her hair up to the swatches would be better.)  As with the prior option... you'd apply the color to the roots first.  You'll only pull it through to the previously-dyed portion for the last 10 minutes or so.  (Again - do a strand test first to check the color and timings.)

Good luck!