Bottle blonde grows long!

[BlondeWavyGal]

I would reccommend an ash or honey blonde. But, if your gonna go blonde you really need to commit. Its difficult getting the red colors out, usually takes alot of sliver toner/ more bleaching. You will have to color your roots every few months and your hair wont be as strong as it could be in future.

[spidermom]

Here it is!

[Jennielee88]

Thank you!
Love this thread, I've painstakingly read through every post
I'm one of them dreaded bottle light blondes with darker eyebrows and brown eyes I don't care it looks good on me and everybody says it suits me I've got pale skin so I keep my blonde ashy.

1) What is your starting color? Level 4 brunette with red tones

2) How do you get your beautiful blonde color? Igora royal special blonde with 40vol developer and matrix SPV toner over the top. Until recently I was using bleach with 30vol, but I found this too damaging.

3) How do you care for your hair? With Lee Stafford hair growth deep conditioner, and redken extreme anti- snap leave in treatment. I use keratin protein oil once my hairs dried to make it super shiny and soft. Occasionally coconut oil I rarely aye heat anymore but when I have to I use a heat protection spray. I never brush, only comb with a wide tooth comb and never when it's wet! I use a mild shampoo such as Johnson's baby shampoo 0:-)

4) Any problems that you've solved (such as brassiness)? Matrix SPV toner is great. I use touch of silver twice weekly shampoo but only once a week.

5) Last but not least - how long is your hair? Lower back

[PinkyCat]

I can play now!

1) What is your starting color? Level 3 black/brown. Yeah boy.

2) How do you get your beautiful blonde color? I do it myself - so far. I've bleached and toned the whole length 6 times in the last month to remove black dye. Yes that sounds horrifically scary - but my hair was in *perfect* condition to begin with. So it really isn't too horribly mangled now. It's a buttery cool blonde. I used LOreal Quick Blue with 30 vol & Wella Color Charm toner in T-18 with 10 vol.

3) How do you care for your hair? So far it seems my hair loves to be slathered in olive oil before any other leave ins. I'm experimenting yet with conditioners - think my hair is still easily overconditioned so I do WO when I don't feel too particularly gnarly. I love Shiny Silver condish from Sally.

4) Any problems that you've solved (such as brassiness)? Nope. I've solved nothing. I'm just happy I've gotten to the even level of lift I'm currently at. Now to maintain.

5) Last but not least - how long is your hair? 40 inches to start - trimmed about 3 inches, so about 37" right now.

I'm itching to run out and buy some Redken Blonde Glam or Joico but I seriously don't want to over condition or protein. I'm a newb with this so any help is muchly welcomed.

[HazelnutCurls]

Beautiful blonde hair everyone!

[PorcelainHorror]

1) What is your starting color?
Level 8 with neutral tones

2) How do you get your beautiful blonde color?
I use Matrix hair color. 1 ounch 10A and 1 10N with 20 vol. left on for 45 minutes

3) How do you care for your hair?
No heat styling, coconut oil, and sulfate free shampoo and conditioner. I wash every other day.

4) Any problems that you've solved (such as brassiness)?
Doing monthly clarifying treatments (my favorite is the Malibu treatment) keeps the brassiness from mineral deposits under control. Also using a purple toned conditioner every so often helps tone down any brass that might find it's way through.

5) Last but not least - how long is your hair?
Refer to signature picture :]

[Babyfine]

*sigh* I LOVED having highlights, (had them done at the salon) but I could never grow my hair long and keep it healthy, no matter what I did(no heat,treat like fine lace,ect) My fine fragile hair suffered more breakage than it does now and I had issues with fly-aways in the winter which I don't have now. However this was prior to 2006 when I didn't know all the things I've learned now since being on the boards. Plus it got expensive since I was always having to touch up my medium brown roots. However ,I've been thinking about highlights again(2 week rule, 2 week rule) since I have a lot more grey now, and less brown. (thus root grow out would be less obvious).
Natural shade-level 3- babyfine, fraqile and quite wavy so keeping healthy for me would be a challenge.

[goldenlady]

Love this thread! So much negativity around bottle blondes.. Yet many people believe I'm naturally this blonde (evil laugh)

[B]1) What is your starting color?

A very light red.. Nearly blonde.. it's debateable!

2) How do you get your beautiful blonde color?
Bleach my roots a few shades using a oil-based bleaching colourant.

3) How do you care for your hair?
Using a BBB brush.. Deep conditioning... Never brushing when wet... Cold setting on dryer.

4) Any problems that you've solved (such as brassiness)?
The brassiness kind of suits my skin-tone But I've found that using a spray of peppermint tea can counter really brassy tones.

5) Last but not least - how long is your hair?
Waist length - but growing...

[Sofialu]

I'm no longer bottle blonde as of this year I've dyed mine a light brown/dark blonde with the intent of going back to my natural shade of dull ash blonde. But I had been dying my hair blonde without using Pre lightener or special blue/purple shampoos for the last 16 years and I never looked a fake blonde unless I put on colours described as "natural" blonde. I had most success with beige blonde in all honesty, I'd use a colour described as light "ash" blonde if I ever felt I needed to take away any brassiness but at first his made any of my non brassy bits of hair look very grey so I had to be careful to only apply it to any brassy bits. In all my years I have only ever used head and shoulders shampoo/alternating with Pantene/L'Oreal etc occasionally and the conditioner that comes with the hair dye has always been fab for completely de tangling and leaving my hair silky and shiny. I might be fortunate that way. Also I found if my hair got greasy and it was near the time it was due another colour treatment I would keep it as clean as possible as the grease exacerbated any brassy tones.

[SkyChild]

Hmm interesting. I'm hoping to go blonde and then ginger from dark brown so we'll see how it goes. Should I dye it as I'm growing or wait until it's really long and then dye it?