Planning on leaving the hair club when my contract is up and going it on my own and feel a bit overwhelmed.

I found choosing a hair color from a hair sample set really difficult. I felt like there were a few options that were close to my color that I couldn't see any difference in. Yet not one of them seem to match perfectly. Someone said that while I don't have any noticeable grey in my dark brown hair, I have some small amount of hair starting to lose pigment which makes my hair not all completely one color. But it's not very noticeable unless you really examine it closely. That freaked me out because losing my hair was bad but I never thought I would start going grey until much later in life.

I read that I can take a hair sample but I don't see how I can gouge a clump of my own hair out of the horseshoe shaped real hair. I don't see how people do that. My hair is about 2.5 inches.
/
how important is it to match color exactly? Any recommendations? Hair club taught me nothing.