red/orange colour selection?

What you actually need to do, is dilute the red with cheap white conditioner. Just enough so the colour isn't changed, but it's definitely got a good dollop of conditioner in it. This will take down the excess dye that runs off when you wash off the dye as this is why it's all coming out red 🙂

Using a yellow orange would help a lot too, if you want a definite, obvious ombre effect.

So, to get it now, all you need to do is fade it with shampoo. It actually shouldn't take much for the orange to show again. Do the above when you want to top up 🙂

What about getting the darker top portions to a brighter red, will I get there eventually just dyeing or will I need to lighten my hair? X

If the base was brown you won't get a bright red without lightening it. It doesn't need to be blonde though, you can get a nice red over an orange base

Oops, yeah, I misread your post a little. Yes, you need to lighten the top part to get a brighter red.

It does look like you'll need to bleach bath the brown parts as they look too dark to show an orangey red, as for the rest of it diluting should give you the gradient effect you need - I found Mandarin used to start bright red on me then fade to orange within a couple of washes so diluting it should take you straight to that colour. If you want the ends very yellow though you may need to invest in a yellow dye for them, I've found a lot of Directions oranges have a funny mustardy brown tone to the fade that probably won't look very firey if you dilute them down to that!

Thanks for the advice guys! I have ordered stuff to do a bleach bath and also a few more colours to experiment with but I love the way it's fading so I'll leave it a while before I mess with it again!