How to maintain a darker ombré on blonde hair

 After having coloured my hair everything from the lightest blonde to pitch black in the last 15 years (and most colours in between, including red and purple!), I feel that I've finally found the ultimate colour for me. Experimenting is all good and that, but when you find a colour that suits you with and without makeup on, you should probably stick to it. The funny thing is that the colour I'm really happy with at the moment isn't too far off my own natural hair colour, but all the same it needs maintaining. 

I've got sort of medium/dark blonde hair naturally, but I don't like being quite so blonde. It makes me look... too nice and innocent :P
What really improves the way my hair looks is darker roots, which creates a natural looking ombré and gives more depth to my hair.

What's annoying is the blonde roots that keep growing out, and this is my little how to guide to maintaining a darker ombré on blonde hair.

 

 Firstly, I've started off by choosing a hair colour that is 1-2 shades darker than my natural hair. I've gone for a 5, which is a neutral medium brown which has neither warm nor cold hues in it.
Rather than using the bottle as an applicator like you would normally do when doing home colouring, I pour the mixed hair colour into a bowl, and I'll use a hair colour brush to apply it with.

Secondly, I divide up my hair into 4 sections. Hot, or what?!

 Starting with one of the back sections, I then divide the section up parting by parting (about 1 cm apart), applying about an inch of hair colour around each parting going from the bottom and working my way up through the whole section.
Repeat the same procedure with all 4 sections, and make sure that you always only apply an inch of hair colour wherever you are in the process. This way you get an even result and a natural looking ombré.

It can be a bit tricky at the back so you may need to ask a friend for help, but if you're used to colouring your own hair you can manage to do it all by yourself.

Use a second mirror behind you and it'll be easier to keep track of where you've applied the colour.

Try to "smudge" the colour out the further down the hair you get to avoid getting a sharp edge.

 Let the colour sit for the amount of time given in the instructions (usually around 30 minutes), wash out, and style as usual.

Moment of truth...!

 Seeing as I've coloured my hair ombré lots of times I've got a longer gradual ombré as you can see. If you want to achieve this look straight away you can apply a slightly lighter hair colour than the roots on the mid section of your hair, and keep the tips the lightest.

 I would probably describe my hair colour as "bronde" - brown-blonde.

What do you think of the result?

About once a week I use a so called "colour bomb"; a coloured shampoo to keep my hair colour looking fresh and radiant in between hair colourings. I've chosen the Color Mask Shampoo from KC Professional which has been developed especially for colour treated hair. It contains plenty of pigment for instant results, and the shade I've gone for is beige. This shade is ideal for dark blonde to light brown hair to remove any yellow shades you may have from old colour or bleach.