I don't really know how far to go back with this story.  Also, as a regular poster on another (not hair related) message board, I know how annoying it can be when new people keep coming in and asking the same questions over and over and over and over again.

I have searched archives, and I have read articles, but I just can't find this exact situation.

As a child, I was blonde.  By jr high it was darkening and I began highlighting.  I'm 31 now and have had highlighted hair my entire adult life, but when I turned 30 I just got this hankering to uncover my natural haircolor before it turned grey and I never got a chance to know what it even was.  :)

I wanted to do it really natural, none of that dying to match stuff, so I just had my next highlights put in very lightly and began waiting for it to grow out.  Which it was doing.  Sure, it looked a little neglected, but it was important to me.

Then my grandfather died and he was my favorite person in the world and I just sort of flipped out.  I didn't want to go to his funeral with two-toned hair, so on a whim I went to a salon and asked if my hair could be dyed the color of the roots.  No problem, the girl said.

We put swatches up against the roots.  I begged her to step outside in natural light so we could really tell, and she actually did so.  So she said "You're definately ash" and she commenced to mix up this bright, intense blue haircolor and put it all over my hair.  She called it "dark ash blonde" but I don't know the brand.  I did ask while the bright blue stuff was on my head if it was permanent, semi permenant, or what.  She said permenant.

Well, when I first saw it, I LOVED it.  But, I did see just a hint of brassiness at the roots.  I said, Oh, I love it, thanks, it looks great.  But... is it a little lighter at the roots?  She said no, I used deposit only.  She seemed nervous though and I suspected she wasn't telling the truth.

Can permenant haircolor be deposit only?

So now on to the delimma.  The color has faded (its been about a month) and i'm left with VERY brassy hair.  I just don't believe that that didn't lighten my hair.  So all the roots I worked so hard to grow out are now brassy.

My question is where to go from here.  After all the reading I've done here (and what a wealth of information!) I'm thinking of going to sally's and getting a demi-permenant dark ash blonde, and just putting that on there, cutting it to chin length, waiting for it to grow out, then stopping the color and letting it eventually wash out to natural.

I'm just not sure if I need to do anything special to counteract the brassiness.  It's a deep brassy, not orange.  More red brassy.

I also don't know if I need a "protein filler."  My hair is not really light now, nor does it seem to be in bad shape, really.

Well, if anyone actually wades through this novella of a post, I would love advice on where to go from here.  Thanks!

P.S. for all you professionals out there, I don't really think the stylist was stupid.  I just don't see how deposit only turned my roots brassy. 

Pictures: 1) blonde (but it doesn't show my roots well, I guess it;s an old picture) 2) right after haircolor 3) now that color has faded(clickable)

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/amanda9989/hair%20woes/PICT0121.jpg">
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/amanda9989/hair%20woes/PICT0138.jpg">

amanda9989 wrote: Can permenant haircolor be deposit only? ) blonde (but it doesn't show my roots well, I guess it;s an old picture) 2) right after haircolor 3) now that color has faded(clickable) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/amanda9989/hair%20woes/PICT0073.jpg"> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/amanda9989/hair%20woes/PICT0121.jpg"> http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/amanda9989/hair%20woes/PICT0138.jpg">

Permanent color is NEVER deposit only. Semi, demi and temporary are all deposit only. If the cuticle layer of the hair is badly damaged some semi & demi can stain the cuticle enuff to the point where it lasts a very long time and would in mny cases last like a permanent color. Semi and demi colors won't lift any levels of hair color because they dont contain bleach affectionately referred to as lightener in the hair. Hope that helps to clear things up.

What color arre you striving for? In that last pic your hair looks more brown than Ash blonde.

Thanks for the reply!

So when she said it was permenant, and then that it was deposit only, one of those statements couldn't have been true?  It's just annoying because now my new growth has lightened to this brassy color and I have to start over, ugh.

That third picture was taken this morning.  In person it looks more red/brass than anything.  I like the color in the middle which I was told was dark ash blonde.  My ultimate goal is just keeping it looking some color that exhists in nature while waiting for it to grow out to my natural color.

I think you look great in the darker color! 

I don't think your stylist was intentionally trying to lie to you. Deposit only colors usually do end up being permanent, especially on hair that's been lightened as it is usually quite porous. But I'm intrigued as to why you are left with the brassiness, especially if she used ash! 

As for how to fix this, maybe you can go back and explain why you are unhappy and see what she has to say about toning down the brassiness at the roots?  This might be a quick fix.  See what she has to say first before you do anything.

Thanks, I think the darker color looks a lot better on me.  Everyone says they like it except my grandmother.  She liked the blonde but she just isn't very open to change so that's ok.

I didn't call the girl back at the salon because I really do feel that she did lie to me.  I believe (because she told me so) that she put on permenant haircolor which lightened my roots to brassy (and I had long roots from growing it out) but it didn't show up that much because of the dark ash blonde color.  I could see a little brassiness underneath though.  Then, after a few weeks as the color washed out, I was just left with the brassy roots.

That would be OK.  It's just hair.  But what bothers me is that when I asked her about it, she said it was deposit only but I could tell the way she said it that she seemed to be lying, which is what led me online to take a crash course in haircolor 101.  (Something I really should have done before hand!) :)

Anyway, I did go to sally's and get a dark ash blonde in demi permenant and put that over it, and acheived a result I can live with.  It looks like it did when I left the salon.  I guess I will just have to continue to put it on every month until my hair grows out.  Thank goodness my hair grows like lightening!!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.  I appreciate it greatly.