Bottle blonde grows long!

**Sparklylady82** · September 29th, 2015, 03:57 PM

Originally Posted by Maverick494

I hope you blonde experts can help me out a bit.

I was a medium blonde as a kid, then it darkened to a dark ash blonde/light ash brown. I'd been growing out my natural hair color for 3 years and just when I got my hair 100% virgin, white hairs started popping up everywhere. In the beginning I could ignore them, but after a while they started to cluster together to the point where my 10 year old niece asked me about them. So, I figured, well, let's get some blonde highlights. Well, the hairdresser botched it up, making it a dip dye/ombre disaster that didn't look at all natural and clashed with my natural haircolour. Plus she didn't highlight the top at all so the white hairs were still visible. It looked like I'd been growing out blonde dye for 2 years. I dyed it back to light brown and it's a nice, even color, but the roots are coming in and the white sparklies are more visible than ever and at 27 I'm not ready to embrace them as they are. That means I can either keep dyeing my hair close to my natural haircolor or I can do what I've always wanted to do: go back to blonde.

What's your advice? I kinda want my hair to look like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEmiDyfoe98. Basically my natural haircolour is what she has underneath the top layers. Is something like that attainable?

My advice would be to bring a photo of exactly what you want your hair to look like to the hair dresser :-)

**Sparklylady82** · September 29th, 2015, 04:03 PM

Been itching to go all blonde, one color. I thought if I do it myself it'd be less maintenance as my hair grows even longer. Roots only seems much healthier than running bleach through it every 2 months. I've been told I look better with multidimensional highlights though so I'm scared to take the plunge into having one shade. At this point though my choices are to do nothing and grow out ash dark blonde, great professional highlights at a cost or take a risk doing it myself with a light ash blonde and 40 developer hoping I don't turn out looking like a banana ;-)

Any suggestions?

**hennalonghair** · September 29th, 2015, 09:42 PM

Originally Posted by TaterTot

I went half blonde! It is more yellow than I'd like and less ashy, I bleached twice, 60 minutes and then 40 minutes with level 20, and then toned with white lady, but I'm overall pleased. It didn't do as much damage as expected. I used coconut oil slathered on during the bleaching process.

I want blunt bangs with long length so I figure this is a good halfway meeting point.
It will also be easy to do touch ups since I don't need to reach the back.
Here was my inspiration for the reverse Cruella hair- it should be interesting in braids

This is super cute!

**Eastbound&Down** · September 29th, 2015, 10:10 PM

My ends were feeling really dry I assume because I skipped my weekly deep treatment so I separated my hair into two and put two drops of sweet almond oil on each side. My hair is feeling much happier now.

**blue_eyes** · February 27th, 2016, 05:55 PM

Hey everyone! I'm finally planning to take the blonde plunge at the end of July this year, when my virgin hair is around APL. I'm still going to be trying to grow it out to about WL, so I'm planning to leave about 6 months between root touch ups until I reach my goal (good thing ombre is still popular!). Anyway, does anyone have any tips on going/being blonde? It will be my first time rocking bottle blonde tresses, and I'm not quite sure what I need to know in order to keep it as healthy as possible (good shampoos/conditioner, masks, oils, etc.)

I'll be going to a salon with a picture of what I want, I've done enough DIY stuff in the past to never want to do it again. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I've been waiting to go blonde for over 10 years and can't wait to finally take the plunge.

**AJNinami** · February 27th, 2016, 06:45 PM

Originally Posted by blue_eyes

Hey everyone! I'm finally planning to take the blonde plunge at the end of July this year, when my virgin hair is around APL. I'm still going to be trying to grow it out to about WL, so I'm planning to leave about 6 months between root touch ups until I reach my goal (good thing ombre is still popular!). Anyway, does anyone have any tips on going/being blonde? It will be my first time rocking bottle blonde tresses, and I'm not quite sure what I need to know in order to keep it as healthy as possible (good shampoos/conditioner, masks, oils, etc.)

I'll be going to a salon with a picture of what I want, I've done enough DIY stuff in the past to never want to do it again. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I've been waiting to go blonde for over 10 years and can't wait to finally take the plunge.

You will want to check out white vinegar rinses, don't use ACV unless you want a warm shade. You might have to completely switch your routine and/or products. Your scalp will probably get oily at a slower rate, but will require more moisture. Do not use sulfates unless you want your blonde to go brassy, same goes for hard water. If you want to tone your hair afterward you will need to touch that up yourself (make sure to use the developer rating that your toner needs! If it wants 15 it is asking for too much, you are basically bleaching your hair again past that point.)

Salons actually don't like it when you go too long between touch ups, since the heat from your scalp affects the way the bleach acts. If you let it grow too long naturally, the hair closest to your scalp will be lighter than the hair farther away. This is banding and it is not fun to deal with (bleach over bleach is the only way to my knowledge). I think two inches grown out is where it gets to be too much.

Make sure to ask your salon if they use Olaplex! Treat your hair with some coconut oil before you go. Not so much that they have to wash it all out though.

When blonde > Never, never use too much oil! It WILL show.

No matter how careful you are you will still probably get some breakage. Your hair will definitely be more fragile so you will have to treat it even more delicately than you already do (especially being an F/i).

Sincerely, a life-long blonde and recent bottle-even-blonder

**butterflybutton** · March 6th, 2016, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by blue_eyes

Hey everyone! I'm finally planning to take the blonde plunge at the end of July this year, when my virgin hair is around APL. I'm still going to be trying to grow it out to about WL, so I'm planning to leave about 6 months between root touch ups until I reach my goal (good thing ombre is still popular!). Anyway, does anyone have any tips on going/being blonde? It will be my first time rocking bottle blonde tresses, and I'm not quite sure what I need to know in order to keep it as healthy as possible (good shampoos/conditioner, masks, oils, etc.)

I'll be going to a salon with a picture of what I want, I've done enough DIY stuff in the past to never want to do it again. Thanks in advance for any advice!

I've been waiting to go blonde for over 10 years and can't wait to finally take the plunge.

Ooh!!! That's so exciting! You've been waiting a long time for this!!!

AJNinami has give some great advice already, but I'd like to add that it is a slow process to get a nice even all over blonde and it will take several sessions to achieve it, so patience is key! Some nice toner and purple conditioner will help you through the process though. And yes definitely go to a salon with olaplex, it is an amazing product that will really maintain your hair's health as you are lightening. If you don't want to get it lightened regularly, I would highly recommend doing balayage instead of all over blonde.

I've started the process back to blonde myself too! Got my olaplex and had two foil sessions a few months apart and had balayage done to the ends. This week or next I will be doing the whole underneath blonde, and every six weeks I'll be gradually adding more hair to the blonde until I have all but the canopy plaitnum.

**Pat Wright** · March 8th, 2016, 07:36 AM

Does anyone who has their hair dyed really light blonde find you have to wash more frequently because it seems to darken up? I have to wash every 2 or 3 days to keep it looking nice and light.

**chen bao jun** · March 9th, 2016, 07:16 AM

Bump.
This thread doesn't apply to me, but it's one of those I think ought to be bumped because its a subject so many newbies ask questions on all the time.
Plus, it does have great hints for processed hair in general. Which some people want to have--I personally love the LHC vibe of 'all natural' and that's what I am, but that's not for everybody and one can still grow long in spite of it!! With more care. (especially if 'long' means waist or tb rather than classic or knee)

**HairFanson** · March 10th, 2016, 05:15 PM

Here goes..

1) What is your starting color? Dark Brown with red highlight/undertones

2) How do you get your beautiful blonde color? I have balyage on the under layers, and highlights, and higher-lights through the top.

3) How do you care for your hair? I co-wash most of the time, and when I do shampoo I use a very, very dark Purple shampoo to combat brassiness. I have a very warm/golden blonde color with slightly reddish and bright blonde highlights that likes to get orange on me if I'm not careful!

4) Any problems that you've solved (such as brassiness)? I swear by my purple shampoo. Not Blue- blue is for ash/silver colors (more like platinum blonde), and the purple is exactly what my shade needs to stay vibrant. To avoid the dryness/breakage that can happen during bleaching, my colorist always uses Olaplex, and I slather on the CO for a full day before bleaching. I leave it on during the bleaching, and she washes it out with my rinse and toner step. Works perfectly to avoid damage!

5) Last but not least -27inches, somewhere between bra and waist.