I've done LOTS of haircolor in my time, and dealt with almost every situation imaginable with color. But I think this time I need some advice from the professionals! I had a question for those who are experienced in using vegetable dyes (such as Special Effects) and bleaching/lightening hair. I have medium brown (level 3) hair naturally. My ends have the remnants of a past bleaching (to around a level 6 orange color) and on top of that is fading out Special Effects Cherry Bomb. I have about an inch of virgin roots. I want to dye my hair Special Effects Deep Purple, but I'm not sure how far to lift the color for the best result. I'm wondering if a bleach bath on the ends might be enough to lift them light enough and be gentler on the already bleached parts? The roots however I'm not sure how to deal with. If I knew how light I needed to go for the best results with the Deep Purple, then I could formulate a plan. Would a high lift blonde take the roots light enough to put the purple on? Or is it advisable to use bleach? I want the dye to be a true purple and not muddy or with a brown undertone. Will the purple cover orange or gold tones brought out by the lightening, or should I use a toner before using the Special Effects to tone down the brassiness?

First of all I am not an expert when it comes to using vegetable colours, but I personally prefer to use hi lift colours on my clients when I can, as I feel they are less damaging than bleach. However you can not always use the hi lifts on clients who have previous colour on the hair as tint wont lift tint (colour) also most hi lifts will only lift from up to a level 6 (dark blonde) and give you up to 4 shades of lift. I use Ion hi lift colours in the salon and they have a booster 000 series, which gives your hi lifts and extra 2 levels of lift, but only use 40 vol developer. Personally with working with Ion hi lifts for some time now , I just love the lifting capability the give you, with great results, another bonus is the come in 100ml tubes so cost effective, they are only available in Sally's beauty stores however.

As you have bands of different colours in your hair, you will need to use bleach. I am not sure if you are talking about colouring all your hair, or just parts of it, (really need a pic to see what your hair is now) but sounds to me that bleach is needed to lift out previous colour.