When I lived in Huntington Beach Ca some years ago a great hair stylist who worked for a movie studio told me to always use the lightest ash color of the color of my natural hair. Always put the dye on clean dry hair and apply at the roots and brush through with a plastic brush. Never saturate the hair with the dye, just streak it though until the all the hair is damp with dye. The color will be more unevenly saturated and that's the result you want. Not the all over dyed look but the natural hundreds of different lights and darks of the hair strands so it looks natural. You won't use all the dye unless you have very long and thick hair. I used the foam and it works great. I didn't use but maybe 1/8 of it for shoulder length hair and brushed it through.