How to go from black hair, to a dirty blonde?

I've got dark brown or black hair. I really want to go an dirty or ash blonde. I've done some research; but still not the information I've been looking for, I didn't get much responses from my last question, therefore I'm going to be asking this...

again.

(a. Should I strip my hair, put the ash blonde color in; without it turning orange?

(b. Should I strip my hair, bleach my hair, then bleach my hair again and then wait, and then put the color in?

I read that if I dye my hair a ashy blonde that there will be a less chance that I will have yellow or orange tones in my hair.

I would like to do this myself. I don't want to go to a hairdressers; where I live there is only one hairdresser and the money is tight. They are going to charge me $670 to get my hair bleached and stripped.

I don't have a hair college near me; if I did I would've gone by now.

So I'm in a no win situation, thanks for your answers.

Best inexpensive way to go from dark to light is slowly do it over a few weeks- that way you won't damage your hair too badly. Start by dyeing it with an ashy brown... And just keep going lighter with the shades until you get the color you want.. But make sure your giving your hair a atleast a week in between each coloring.and if you have medium length or thick hair you'll need more than one box of coloring per treatment. (I speak from experience- :D )

from my own experience... I am naturally dirty ash blonde and then bleched my hair platinum blonde to almost black. My family didnt really like the look so my mom payed to get my hair lightned to brownish red for $500. I thought it was a lot of money for such a little difference in color. I couldnt wait any longer to be blonde againg so I stript my hair twice so its lighter then the color I was gonna dye which is dirty ash blonde. after I bleached my hair twice it fell out like crazy. I would brush my hands thrught them in the shower and the whole chunk of hair would come out. sence I stript all the pigment thats in the hair I couldnt dye it any ashy colors because it doesnt have any red pigment needed for the color staying in. so I had to buy a golden blonde. it turned out looking pretty natural but im sad that my hair is so damged and looks dead. if you dont mind going thrught all that ull get what youre looking for. but if you havent bleached your hair before and it hasnt grew out yet and your gonna bleach it againg which is what I did youll get the same eeffects as I did. if your hair is natural and hasnt been dyed a lot then you have a better chance of it still looking healthy. hopefully your only gonna have to blech it twice to get iit lighter then the color you want to dye it. goood luck I hope it will help you

I have natural darkest brown hair almost black and also wanted to go dirty or ash blonde. It is a problem as there are lots of red in dark hair.It naturally goes orange or yellow when you bleach it. I left bleach on for so long one time and it was very strong peroxide and it went white blonde my hair but also burnt my scalp and made hair fall out later. Ouch.! So not recommended.I dyed my hair loads of times over the years and visited hairdressers galore. There is no way on earth your black hair will go ashy blonde without bleaching it first sadly. But bleach really damages the hair and makes each strand appear more course and thicker. I would not suggest you do this at home I would suggest you save up and go to the hairdressers to have the colour built up gradually. I would suggest getting it done in batches of highlights to get the effect you are after. Remember it may take two or three visits to get the colour you want.
Good Luck!