Any hairdressers out there?

[mrsm22]

Hi,

I am naturally a nice medium brown colour but have highlights and low lights. The highlights aren't bleach and the lowlight is a sort of golden/copper colour. Overall I would describe the colour of my hair as a bit like 'tea' if that makes sense. I don't like the colour and want to go back to my natural colour, at the moment I have an inch and a half of re growth so what I would like to do is have something put on my hair to get rid of the highlights and lowlights and so I can grow my natural hair out.
I went to the hairdressers today as I had made an appointment to have this done but sadly have come away without having had anything done as my hairdresser seemed very confused about what I wanted. He talked about toners and permanent colours etc... He showed me a swatch of colour on a colour chart book which he said he thought was close to my natural colour and he said this was a toner and that it was best I went for that in case I didn't like it.
I feel a bit confused about it all and wondered if there were any hairdressers on here who might be able to explain to me what all this means and if a toner sounds the right thing for what I'm trying to achieve. Will the toner fade and if so, how quickly and do you need to keep having these done? Is the toner likely to cover the highlights I have? He did a sample test underneath my hair of the toner and it looked close to my natural colour and nice.
Any help appreciated
Many thanks

[ElsiePartridge]

Go for the toner.... All it does is deposit colour onto the highlights & lowlights to restore them to that colour. So essentially it is still a colour but alot less damaging and much cheaper. Sounds like the best option to me!