Can’t get roots blonde...

I think that color is GOLD or maybe a little orange/gold

http://www.thecreativestudio.com/main.jsp?nav=studio/colorth eory/pigment&file=m_pigment.html

In order to get your hair lighter, you'll really need to bleach. 

"I can't lift my roots. They just turn a funny color"  If your roots are black, then you'll get a lighter color with highlift (Is that what you're using?), but it will be rather BRASSY or that funny color that you don't like.

"I used a extra light blonde on my hair to lift my black roots, they turned reddy"  This extra light blonde sounds neutral to me, and neutral will have red pigments that will be added to your red undertones, creating, you guess it more RED . 

"then went and got an extra light ash blonde"  The ash has some green which neuralized the red, but the dye simply isn't pigmented enough to fight a brassy gold/orange color.  (I think you'd need to get a dark ash blonde to tone this color down)

What is this band that you got when bleaching?  Did you overlap? 

If you want a nice "natural" looking color, you'll need to not use a highlift.  Use permanent ash color, two shades lighter than what your natural color is.  I think you might be able to then bleach highlights on top of that, but don't overlap the sections already bleached. 

Good luck and hope this helps. 

I totally hear ya on the light thing! The only place my hair looks halfway to my liking is at the salon. I get home and I could scream! LOL! I agree, your color doesn't look bad at all but I know how it is -- you want it to be a certain way and it's just not quite right -- the story of my life! I really do like the picture though, where you're calling it "peach." Peach and platinum sounds nice!

I don't understand why your hairdresser didn't want to do the root touchup. Had you already done something to them yourself before you went to her? I don't see why there would be a problem -- how else are you supposed to maintain your color? I mean, they do it all the time at the salons ...

You know I LOVE L'Oreal Excellence Creme Lights, but it's not for on the scalp application.  You could use it to put a few highlights in and break up those rings from overlapping (use foils).  I've done this to hide using a different tone or level of color for my base and it seems to make everything blend in nicely.   

I think the best way to not overlap is to have some help with the back.  Remember that bleach SWELLS so allow some room for it to swell.  You could do some tests with your hair to decide how long the roots should be prior to bleaching and how much the bleach you are using swells.  Does that make sense.  I think you can let roots get as long as 3/4 of an inch before you get what's called hot roots--when the scalp processes faster due to heat than the hair further from the scalp. 

You could try toning the orangey peachy parts with Natural Instincts in Linen.  I think it's over the counter, but strand test first.

Good luck and I hope this helps! By the way I think your hair is beautiful. I sort of like the warm vibrant colors...

Sorry to hear about the cool colors!  GASP!  Strand test the Frost & Tip to see.  I'm not sure what will happen...  It seems like it should, but it's much more damaging to hair to use a highlift, then tone, then bleach, but you could always try. 

Good luck!

Rebekah

Overall you hair looks so nice I'm having trouble getting my eyes to only look at your roots.... sorry not much help i know!

Good luck Bambilee~ I'm sure it will turn out beautifully!

Hope you post a photo too, so we can see how it all turned out.

Well good luck with the frost and tip.  Bleach lasts for 90 min, as long as it doesn't dry out, after that, rinse it out and reapply a new batch. 

A true highlift is when one uses two parts 40 vol. peroxide to one part color--Both L'Oreal and Clairol make highlift dyes.  I think the HL's at the drug store are only 30 vol though. 

I hope this helps and good luck with the bleaching!  By the way, as I said before I like your hair, it's pretty!