I have been coloring my hair for years, and am very familiar with the how tos and not tos of hair color instructions. I followed the L'Oreal instructions carefully as it's not my usual brand - I bought it because I had coupons and it was on sale. After the whole process I was utterly disappointed in the color, light ash blonde turned a horrible shade of blondish grey, and the condition of my hair thereafter was horrible - dry and straw like. I actually had to cut at least half the length because there is no way I could style my hair to hide the damage! I am extremely angry and will never use ANY L'Oreal product again.