Giving up the dye/bleach and growing out natural? Share your progress.

[blondie9912]

Just a suggestion for those growing out your natural colour- save photos on your computer of hair close to your natural colour that you find appealing. I have tons of photos saved (I find them everywhere, beauty sites, blogs, and of course, LHC )

They're awesome, especially for those growing out blonde, because sometimes our natural colour looks a bit 'blah' in comparison.

[just_ace]

Okay, so here we go... This is going to be a long one and I have hopefully resized the photos enough so that the page doesn't have a fit.

This is what my hair looked like the last time I posted, I was doing pretty well in the not dying front but the ends tapered off into nothing and were in need of a good trim:



As I had given up on bleaching I thought I'd have a bit of fun with temporary colours, firstly purple on the ends:



Then a little while later I did an all over copper and gave myself a straight across fringe:



I went overseas for a month so left my hair alone and it had all faded out by the time I got home, got bored a while later and trimmed my fringe:



Then after a while gave the ends a much needed trim, I took a little bit off here and there but this was my first proper cut:



Left it alone for a while, got fed up with the layers tangling from damage as they never got trimmed with the length so I gave them a good chop:



I will have to get a current picture of the length, but the colour looks something like this at the moment (it changes a lot depending on the lighting)



And that was about a years worth of hair adventures for me!

[StPaulaGirl]

Oh! I forgot. StPaulaGirl, if dealing with the two toned look is too awful for you, consider using a toner on the colored hair only. There are even deposit-only toners (Elumen, specifically. There’s a whole enormous thread devoted to it). That way, you can grow out the colored hair with as little demarcation as possible while your virgin hair grows in.

Using a dye on bleached/virgin hair is difficult because you might end up with three tone hair (virgin, virgin colored with dye, then bleached colored with dye). With the deposit only dyes, they wash out more easily from virgin hair, so if you accidentally apply some there, it won’t be as big of a deal.

Thank you so much for the advice and link! I've never heard of a deposit-only toner before. Yay, this might be just the thing I need.

And thanks for the henna advice. I have been on the fence about it because henna is SO permanent. I think what I might wind up doing is purchasing a small amount and doing a strand test (I realize that's a good idea anyway), and then decide. My hair has always been described as ashy by hairdressers/colorists, so I see what you mean about the red. I will definitely keep that in mind.

[StPaulaGirl]

just_ace, your natural hair color is gorgeous!

[LittleOrca]

Here is my progress...



Three years of growing out dye. My natural hair is a little below the shirt sleeves on the top layer, but does reach my waist if I were to lift my hair up or even part it so that it can be seen easier.

[sfgirl]

LittleOrca, you just have that very hip ombre look right now. I like it.

[Shypii90]

Interesting thread Sapphira!

Growing up I was always really eager to dye my hair different colours because my natural colour is a very neutral dark ash blond/brown and I obviously used to find it way too boring. When I chemically dyed it though it would wash out after a few months and my hair would wind up ORANGE from the ammonia etc. I still didn't learn though and kept dying it to cover the orange, which in fact just damaged my hair more. I then opted for henna for a while, and had about 3 or 4 applications (the last two with indigo as well, so my hair got pretty dark indeed!).

My roots started coming out and in the front they looked golden which I thought was pretty cool. So I just ignored the henndigo on my head and forgot about my hair for some time. Luckily my natural roots blended very well with the redness so it was hard to spot the change, just that my roots seemed pretty ashy and fair and my ends were all this vivid red/burgundy! It's still the case now. I'm growing it out naturally and 3 years after my last henndigo application, the canopy is natural and the underlayers still have inches of dark red ends! It doesn't bug me though and I get quite a few compliments on my hair colour, so it's all good .

Good luck growing out the white! That must be a real challenge!

[terylenerose]

LittleOrca, you have almost no demarcation line! It almost makes me wonder why you dyed your hair in the first place. Very nice hair too!
Thought you might like to know this - my henna seems to be fading with each passing day ever since I did two vinegar rinses. I don't get it. My roots are still lighter and grayer, but the line is less and less obvious. I think I'm actually starting to like my hair! I'm also figuring out how to do stick buns, although they're always messy because of my weird short layers. I'll show you all pictures of buns and roots when I empty my camera - I'm waiting till I fill it up.
Sorry, I can't really give anyone advice. Taliara, if I had breakage I'd probably rely on coconut oil and hair clips, much as I do now. With regards to the roots issue, I didn't do anything special in the way of toning other than the failed henna experiment, though I was often tempted to dye back to my natural color. I think any attempts of the sort for me would have been futile anyway, however.
In other news, I have decided that I don't want to do some kind of big chop and have funny short layers. I don't think the months of difficulties with short hair are worth it. I've already gone through a lot of growing out from the last haircut and I'm not at all eager to repeat the process. What I think I will do is trim off a half inch every month until Aislin 660b (January 2013 for everyone else) to get as close to a virgin blunt cut as I can. I may cut back to shoulder at the end of that or just even things up. I don't know yet and I'm not going to rush into anything just so I have a decision. I have to set deadlines for myself because open-ended hair schedules would probably be a disaster.
Also, I think I am really a blonette or something similar. My hair is too light for brunette. Oh well, brown hair was fun while it lasted. I think part of my problem was that I have always admired very dark, very light or unusual hair colors but not so much anything else. My hair isn't dark or light and it isn't a bright color. Therefore, I found it boring. But not anymore! The dye helped me appreciate my natural color for what it is. Coming here has also helped me appreciate having curly thick hair which I didn't use to like at all. I am even starting to be okay with braidwaves. I used to always think they looked messy and dirty because they would poof out so much.
All right, that was too long. Sorry, everybody. I talk way too much.

[WaitingSoLong]

I am still very dedicated to growing out my virgin hair color. I don't think there is any chance I will ever change my mind. My roots are about ear length on the outer layer and past shoulder on the under canopy. I just realized that yesterday and was glad to see the progress. It is getting harder to see the demarcation line on the outer layer because it fades or naturally bleaches out as it gets longer and blends in with the sun-inned bits.

My next mini-goal is for my outer layer to reach shoulder. My under canopy should be about BSL then. I am guessing another year.

[88Marisa]

Having a serious hair hate day today. I spent a ton of time trying to get smooth waves today by brushing my hair with a BBB today, and the texture difference between the virgin roots and the color damaged parts is driving me nuts. I'm on a water only routine as well, so I keep thinking the darker parts look like greasy roots, even though I know this is more my imagination, and the contrast with the lighter, much frizzier hair is the real problem. I keep fantasizing about chopping it all off, but I really like having my braid (and it looks great braided too) but I like wearing it down too. I don't know if I'll be able to resist a big chop when the roots get to shoulder length (the shortest length I look good with). Even so, my roots are only about 5 inches long, so even that would be a few months down the road and I want nice hair NOW, damnit!

So I got my hair dripping wet and I'm plopping it right now, hoping it will turn out well. The color difference is not so noticeable when I wear my hair curly, but I don't put any product in, so I only get a single day of wearable curly hair. I don't like washing everyday, although earlier this week I had to due to working out, and I'm sure that's not helping the situation as my ends got a little extra dried out. ARGH!