Question:
I have been to two diferent salons so far in the past 5 or so weeks and both HD's seem to use semi. When I asked them why they said because I'm going darker brown and my natural color is dark blonde, it's better for the color to fade than to have nasty light regrowth. This is all well and good but my problem is that semi washes out of my hair in two weeks or so (well not completly but it fades to an ugly color). It just seems pointless to pay $100 for 2 weeks worth of nice color
Just wondering if it's a normal practice to use semi when going for an all over tint?

Answer:
I'd like to know too!

Answer:
I've noticed this too - maybe its to make you come back more often??
How about the next time you do your hair insist on permanent colour and see what they say - I'd be curious to know

Answer:
Yeah that is very frustrating. I don't know what my natural hair colour is but its been highlighted for years so if I ever feel like going dark a semi fades too quickly.
If you are going darker though why don't you just use at home permanent colour? Going blonde is best left to the professionals but I feel that I can achieve the same result going darker at home as I can in a salon.

Answer:
Hi Blue Eyed Girl, I sympathise with you.
Hmm I just had a semi tint too... my hair was a natural dark blonde - it hadn't been coloured for a couple of years. I really only wanted something to rejuvenate my natural colour, give it some shine, and camoflage the grey hairs that are popping through now. They said they were giving me the same colour, but it is darker and seems flatter. It also has more red tinge than the ash I wanted. It doesn't resemble the dark blonde samples that are given with hair colour selections.And the promised shine is not there.
I have had this problem before with hairdressers - when I say ash dark blonde, they all make me much darker. It is frustrating which is why I hate going to the hairdressers.
Don't want to do the full blonde thing (I was blonde as a kid), just want a kind of dark blonde pewter colour, with some naturalistic variations...seems beyond their comprehension.
I also told them I had been cutting my own hair because I have been disappointed with the way it has been cut in the past (my hair is fine and there is lots of it - so blunt cuts are really the only thing that work). He reassured me that by cutting down the hair vertically that the hair would be manageable and have movement. Wrong!
So now I am stuck with it for a few months. Why does it all have to be so hard.

Answer:
I just think it's not worth it going to the HD unless you are going blonde. I think I will just a semi through every 4-5 weeks myself untill I get sick of brown hair.

Answer:
Yeah It's weird.
I had been dying my hair brown for years and years (progressively getting darker I might add). I decided to go to the hairdresser and get it professionally done as I was struggling covering the regrowth. Despite only putting the colour on the roots, I still had much darker ends because of colour build up.
My hairdresser said (as the first post), it's better for the colour to fade, than have the regrowth. I'm still not entirely convinced. The colour is nice though, and I have received many compliments (something I hadn't heard for a couple of years - I think I had abused my hair for too long). I still have darker ends, and I'll just have to wait till I cut them off I suppose.
Debating whether I should do semi's myself? It all gets a bit expensive visiting the hairdresser all the time.

Answer:
I'd personally rather have to touch up regrowth than have unsightly faded hair. Ew.
Each to their own, but if you're having semi's do them at home. Far less money to spend & it's pretty hard to f**k up using a semi

Answer:
Well i used to colour my hair alot with permanents and they'd fade as quick as a semi on me. It would look nice for 2 weeks then turn an ugly rusty brown.
My mum often complains too about permanents fading fast on her.

Answer:
After regularly repeated permanent salon colours (blue black for several years) I wish my hairdressers had used semis. The gloss and lustre seems to fade to the same extent on my hair, regardless of whether I use a semi or a permanent, but the colour build up and regrowth was a nightmare - it's only been in the last six months that I've lost the last of my dark ends.