Best way to grow out hair color without looking odd?

[dainaleeo2]

Ok, the title probably wasn't the best explanation of my question, but I couldn't think of another way haha.

So my natural color is something between medium to darker ash blonde, bordering more on the lighter side, but definitely ashy. Currently my hair is a light to medium burgundy brown, the burgundy being rather grown out and faded to something more akin to an auburn shade. I have about an inch of root regrowth, and my natural color looks almost grey against the burgundy.
Thankfully the dye was a demi-permanent, but...since my hair was slightly porous before dying, I think it soaked up much more color than the usual person would, and thus it hangs onto it longer as well. So it will never completely wash out of my hair.

What tips would you guys give on attempting (and I say this loosely since I am very fickle with hair....and enjoy changing from blonde to brown much more often than I should) to grow out my natural color? I really don't want to get highlights or anything of the sort since I have had a very bad relationship with bleach and am staying farrrr far away from it. But I would think that once my hair grows out more, it would look so silly to have half of it burgundy and half of it ashy blonde. Honey lightening is too messy for me, so I'm not exactly sure what else would make the transition easier. Any tips would be appreciated :)

[jessa]

Hey, I am in the exact same situation as you and same colours, although I am now at about 2 years of regrowth. I started out using toning shampoo (the purple ones) and then about 3 weeks ago, I used Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde toner. Its quite easy to do, just put the stuff onto your hair after shampooing. (you will need LOTS of conditioner after) The toner will dry out your hair (mine took about 2 weeks to recover with lots of conditioning but I will add that my hair takes about that long to recover from a clarifying washes as well.) It takes about 2 days after using the toner for your hair colour to settle so dont freak out at the colour at first. I also suggest coconut oil your hair before using the stuff, dont use it for more than 5 mins on your hair. I have waist length hair and only used about half of one bottle. (I was originally worrying about not having enough.) I will probably do this again in a month or so but dont want to freak out the hair too much. I hope this helps :)

[dainaleeo2]

Hey, I am in the exact same situation as you and same colours, although I am now at about 2 years of regrowth. I started out using toning shampoo (the purple ones) and then about 3 weeks ago, I used Schwarzkopf Nordic Blonde toner. Its quite easy to do, just put the stuff onto your hair after shampooing. (you will need LOTS of conditioner after) The toner will dry out your hair (mine took about 2 weeks to recover with lots of conditioning but I will add that my hair takes about that long to recover from a clarifying washes as well.) It takes about 2 days after using the toner for your hair colour to settle so dont freak out at the colour at first. I also suggest coconut oil your hair before using the stuff, dont use it for more than 5 mins on your hair. I have waist length hair and only used about half of one bottle. (I was originally worrying about not having enough.) I will probably do this again in a month or so but dont want to freak out the hair too much. I hope this helps :)

Thanks for the tip! :)
Yea, using a toner could help, but I thought that you would need to bleach the hair first in order for a toner to be able to work? That's always how I've used it in the past or had hair dressers use it, but if it works I may attempt. I fear the awkward growing out stages and the clash of color. Ugh. I knew any red tone would be harder to remove, haha. I just kind of...ignore that ;) Plus I have a love affair with darker brown hair, so I'm sure by the time I try to grow it out I'll cave. My willpower is awful haha.

[jessa]

I believe that toner works even on non bleached hair to remove the brassy reddy tones :) I also want to go darker but DBF keeps reminding me that I vowed to grow out my natural hair. Its taking LOTS of will power but I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end when I will no longer have to worry about colouring my hair at all (and the mistakes and regrowth that go with it) and it will also be in its best state. Also the thought of colour upkeep on my waist length very thick hair freaks me out. having it done at a hairdresser would probably end up costing LOADS and trying to do at home would just end up with sore arms and about the same amount of money spent on dye to actually cover it all haha. good luck

[dainaleeo2]

I believe that toner works even on non bleached hair to remove the brassy reddy tones :) I also want to go darker but DBF keeps reminding me that I vowed to grow out my natural hair. Its taking LOTS of will power but I keep telling myself it will be worth it in the end when I will no longer have to worry about colouring my hair at all (and the mistakes and regrowth that go with it) and it will also be in its best state. Also the thought of colour upkeep on my waist length very thick hair freaks me out. having it done at a hairdresser would probably end up costing LOADS and trying to do at home would just end up with sore arms and about the same amount of money spent on dye to actually cover it all haha. good luck

Ah, true. I guess I've just never had to use it on darker hair since I never had an issue with the hue. Only blonde gives me trouble. Bleh. I kind of want to just see what my color actually is again haha. I can tell somewhat from older pictures, and from the amount of root I have, but it would just be interesting to see it in all of its glory. Though, on the other hand I also don't think it's as flattering to me as brunette shades (when I had my hair blonde and semi closer to my natural color), so who knows. We shall see :)
What does 'DBF' stand for, by the way? Haha sorry, random, but some of the abbreviations I'm not familiar with. It's nice you have a person to help encourage you! :) The idea of hair health would be fantastic...but I'm thankful mine is in good shape for what I used to do to it. Not messing around with it as much anymore is helping tons :)

[akilina]

Thanks for the tip! :)
Yea, using a toner could help, but I thought that you would need to bleach the hair first in order for a toner to be able to work? That's always how I've used it in the past or had hair dressers use it, but if it works I may attempt. I fear the awkward growing out stages and the clash of color. Ugh. I knew any red tone would be harder to remove, haha. I just kind of...ignore that ;) Plus I have a love affair with darker brown hair, so I'm sure by the time I try to grow it out I'll cave. My willpower is awful haha.

I just wanted to say..you can tone any hair no matter what shade. It all just depends on what you tone it with. Of course with bleached hair its usually toned with something like 10V (level 10 violet hue) Or whatever codes that particular color line uses to say what is in the bottle.
If your hair is darker, you could just use the appropriate Level of color for your hair that also has pigments to cancel out reds.

Most of the time a toner for bleached hair will hardly effect yours depending on how dark it is. So if you are going to go that route..make sure you get the right thing to help you avoid frustration.

Something you may look into is Semi permanent colors...They make dyes that are like manic panic (no peroxide or ammonia required) but they are normal colors like blondes, browns, reds, black..etc...This could be a way to ease into growing out.

Edit: Is it an option for you to dye one last time? Find out the exact level of color that your hair is.... As an example you could use a 6N (neutral) or if you are especially red...6 ash. It would cancel all of it out and you could be done with dyeing after that with a cleaner slate.

[dainaleeo2]

I just wanted to say..you can tone any hair no matter what shade. It all just depends on what you tone it with. Of course with bleached hair its usually toned with something like 10V (level 10 violet hue) Or whatever codes that particular color line uses to say what is in the bottle.
If your hair is darker, you could just use the appropriate Level of color for your hair that also has pigments to cancel out reds.

Most of the time a toner for bleached hair will hardly effect yours depending on how dark it is. So if you are going to go that route..make sure you get the right thing to help you avoid frustration.

Something you may look into is Semi permanent colors...They make dyes that are like manic panic (no peroxide or ammonia required) but they are normal colors like blondes, browns, reds, black..etc...This could be a way to ease into growing out.

Edit: Is it an option for you to dye one last time? Find out the exact level of color that your hair is.... As an example you could use a 6N (neutral) or if you are especially red...6 ash. It would cancel all of it out and you could be done with dyeing after that with a cleaner slate.

Ah, basically using a demi or a semi as a toner? I've done that many times, so I think I just wasn't putting the word 'toner' with the idea of it, since for some reason my mind likes to think that toning is for blonde hair haha. But yes, I've done that plenty of times then, mostly to rid my hair of the red tone as you mentioned, so I'm familiar with this :)

I'm not opposed to dying it again. If it'll make it easier in the long run then I'm alright with it. My hair is very healthy so as long as it's not bleach, I'm alright with it. Bleach is my number one enemy and after the disaster I had a few years ago, it has never responded to bleach the same ever since. I would say that my hair is...roughly an 8 to a 7, definitely in the ash shade range, so I'd say either an 8A or 7A. Wouldn't that make my hair that's already somewhat red even darker, though? If I use a demi or semi that is. Permanent would lighten it a bit but that's more of a gamble. I wouldn't mind trying to at least reach an ashy shade so that the transition is much easier, even if the dyed hair will, obviously, be darker.

[Katze]

French braids worked for me in growing out 20 years' worth of bleach and dye. There was a pretty ugly stage for a while, but French braiding helped me hide it and eventually I had enough roots that my hair looked better. Getting used to the texture of healthy hair was just as unusual as getting used to my natural color!

When I dyed the bleached ends dark back in 2006, I was sad to see the darker dye wash out and go brassy REALLY fast. Like within a month it was gone and my hair was orange. I attribute this to the weekly SMTs I was doing back then - I don't believe honey lightens hair (I would be platinum blonde if it did) but that it stripped the dye from my hair. So I vowed never to dye again. Toner is a different story, but here, 'toner' also seems to lighten hair (in German this seems to be a term for hair dye that does not require previous bleaching, but which does, itself, contain peroxide) and I didn't want to do that...or bother spending the time and money.

Your signature says you are dreaming of ombre. Isn't ombre just two different colors, and in many cases just a fancy name for growing out dye (I am thinking celebrities with blonde ends here...)? So you can say it is ombre and you are doing it on purpose. :D

[dainaleeo2]

French braids worked for me in growing out 20 years' worth of bleach and dye. There was a pretty ugly stage for a while, but French braiding helped me hide it and eventually I had enough roots that my hair looked better. Getting used to the texture of healthy hair was just as unusual as getting used to my natural color!

When I dyed the bleached ends dark back in 2006, I was sad to see the darker dye wash out and go brassy REALLY fast. Like within a month it was gone and my hair was orange. I attribute this to the weekly SMTs I was doing back then - I don't believe honey lightens hair (I would be platinum blonde if it did) but that it stripped the dye from my hair. So I vowed never to dye again. Toner is a different story, but here, 'toner' also seems to lighten hair (in German this seems to be a term for hair dye that does not require previous bleaching, but which does, itself, contain peroxide) and I didn't want to do that...or bother spending the time and money.

Your signature says you are dreaming of ombre. Isn't ombre just two different colors, and in many cases just a fancy name for growing out dye (I am thinking celebrities with blonde ends here...)? So you can say it is ombre and you are doing it on purpose. :D

Ah, my hair is too short to french braid :( Not without a ton of little hairs sticking out everywhere haha.
Thankfully at work I wear a hat...so it wouldn't be terrible. My hair never faded that quickly, luckily, since my hair seems to reallllllly enjoy hanging onto whatever last bits of color it can :P It's desperate, I swear. Not even damaged really. Just...desperate for color. Even when I used to do SMTs all the time! (Honey lightening didn't work for me either, by the way, and way too messy for what it was worth either). Ah, that's interesting about the toner and how it differs. (I'm German as well, my family is from there! :) ). Your hair is gorgeous, so whatever you did worked! :)

Ah, true! But it's always hard for me since my natural color is light, so i get the 'reverse ombre' effect haha. Light roots always looks so much more odd than dark ones! (Not to mention it looks grey since my hair is so ashy...sad). But perhaps I can sneak that in there. I -may- weave in a few highlights selectively here or there to blend it once it gets really noticeable, since the last time I did I soaked my hair in coconut oil and I didn't have damage at all.
Thanks for all of the advice! :)

[arcane]

I'm growing out ash blonde, originally from a dark brown, but gave in a bleached, then got the length close enough matched to my roots (though it had to go over some virgin roots, so I have tri colour hair right now). I know it's hard as the ash blonde probably doesn't look that great right now, but it will look better once you have a bit more regrowth, and you can actually tell the colour your hair is once it's longer, my roots always seem darker than my hair is (in fact when I was a child my mother was frequently asked why she dyed by hair because the difference between my roots and my length is that noticeable). The only real advice I can give is power through it for now. Perhaps work on fading/toning the length. Wait to see what your hair really looks like before trying to match it (I used to try that all the time on my own for several years, and I never got it right because I didn't wait for it to grow out enough). If you can't really put it up, take up wearing hats and hair scarves, and other accessories to help distract you from looking at your hair.

[MonaMayfair]

I just answered your other thread! I said in that one I'm growing out henna, and I also have blonde hair that looks much cooler than the coppery henna, so we're in a similar position.
I have about 6' of roots. What I'm doing is using Adore dye (semi permanent, supposed to last about 8 washes, though less for me on the henna'd part which is most of it!)
I use the medium/darker brown colors to blend it all together. It doesn't disguise it perfectly, but looks a lot better!

[Bagginslover]

Color Oops!!! its amazing, and will pull out so much colour you'd be amazed! People here have even had sucess with it removing henna, so a commercial dye is much easier for it ;).

I have used the UK version (colourB4) and it pulled out my permanent box dye in 2 treatments. It stinks, and the small does linger, but its really worth it for the results it gives.

[dainaleeo2]

I just answered your other thread! I said in that one I'm growing out henna, and I also have blonde hair that looks much cooler than the coppery henna, so we're in a similar position.
I have about 6' of roots. What I'm doing is using Adore dye (semi permanent, supposed to last about 8 washes, though less for me on the henna'd part which is most of it!)
I use the medium/darker brown colors to blend it all together. It doesn't disguise it perfectly, but looks a lot better!

Thanks! :D I haven't checked back in on that thread yet so I'll look to see what you wrote there as well :) I'm just full of questions lately, apparently! Haha.
Ah, we are in a similar position. You have much more root growth than I do though. I'm at about an inch, give or take. Enough to be noticeable but not enough to be too bad....yet.
So you're using semi permanent dye to disguise the new growth with the henna? Are you looking to grow out your natural color or stick with the semi color you're currently using, and just waiting for the henna to grow out? I'm a bit too nervous to try henna now (since red looks awfully unflattering on me and I'm nervous about the red cast everyone talks about), so I'm definitely keeping this info in my mind. Semis look like the best option for me currently unless I can muscle through it.

[dainaleeo2]

Color Oops!!! its amazing, and will pull out so much colour you'd be amazed! People here have even had sucess with it removing henna, so a commercial dye is much easier for it ;).

I have used the UK version (colourB4) and it pulled out my permanent box dye in 2 treatments. It stinks, and the small does linger, but its really worth it for the results it gives.


I've contemplated using this before, since I have a few layers of color on my hair as it is....so this would be a good way to get it back to a more empty slate state. Though, is it harsh on hair? I've heard mixed reviews on that part. My hair is in really good condition, so I would hate going back to damage central :( Not to mention my hair likes to frizz so any damage makes that worse. But I may look up reviews and do a lot of investigation.


As a side note, I bought a kit today for an at home BKT treatment (brazilian keratin), and with all of the reviews that I saw (mostly positive, luckily!), they mentioned hair lightening a few shades. So that actually may help me out a lot. If it gets brassy I'd have to use a toner anyway, so we'll see.

[dainaleeo2]

I'm growing out ash blonde, originally from a dark brown, but gave in a bleached, then got the length close enough matched to my roots (though it had to go over some virgin roots, so I have tri colour hair right now). I know it's hard as the ash blonde probably doesn't look that great right now, but it will look better once you have a bit more regrowth, and you can actually tell the colour your hair is once it's longer, my roots always seem darker than my hair is (in fact when I was a child my mother was frequently asked why she dyed by hair because the difference between my roots and my length is that noticeable). The only real advice I can give is power through it for now. Perhaps work on fading/toning the length. Wait to see what your hair really looks like before trying to match it (I used to try that all the time on my own for several years, and I never got it right because I didn't wait for it to grow out enough). If you can't really put it up, take up wearing hats and hair scarves, and other accessories to help distract you from looking at your hair.

Ah, that was what I was afraid of. But, I guess if I used a really low volume developer it would slowly pull up some color without being overly harsh, and at least make the transition easier and less....obvious. And at least the use of soaking your hair in coconut oil prevents a lot of damage, or at least helps maintain hair health. So I could try. At the very least do some in the front, since in the back....eh. I don't see it therefore I don't really care as much :P if other people notice that oh well. And I'd really just do the top layer since that's the most noticeable part. I'm glad I saved some portions of blonde (for slices of platinum against the darker shade), and that has about 2-3 inches of root and blends seamlessly. I'm also glad that I wear a hat at work so until I quit for grad school (in about....6-7 months), I can hide it that way :) Thanks for all of your assistance! I really do want to see my natural color so I think I'll power through it. I -adore- dark hair but....it'd be nice for a change.



( FYI, sorry guys, I don't know how to multi quote on here so I did each individually....sorry if it looks insane!)

[jacqueline101]

I'd use a rinse to cover up the areas that's growing out. I'd find a way to remove the color.

[jessa]

DBF is dear boy-friend. :P I tried going into a few salons over the last few months and asked them about matching my ends of my hair to my roots which are now below ear length and each time the girls stared at me blankly and could only offer putting a colour over all of it :(

[MonaMayfair]

Thanks! :D I haven't checked back in on that thread yet so I'll look to see what you wrote there as well :) I'm just full of questions lately, apparently! Haha.
Ah, we are in a similar position. You have much more root growth than I do though. I'm at about an inch, give or take. Enough to be noticeable but not enough to be too bad....yet.
So you're using semi permanent dye to disguise the new growth with the henna? Are you looking to grow out your natural color or stick with the semi color you're currently using, and just waiting for the henna to grow out? I'm a bit too nervous to try henna now (since red looks awfully unflattering on me and I'm nervous about the red cast everyone talks about), so I'm definitely keeping this info in my mind. Semis look like the best option for me currently unless I can muscle through it.

I don't want my natural color, I think I look better with dark hair! But the good thing about the semis is that they do wash out completely (at least they have so far!) so I will have grown out my natural color underneath.
That's a good thing, but at the same time it's a pain to keep re-doing it. On the other hand, I had to henna my roots every 2 weeks because of the color contrast, so if I have to do semi permanent just as often to keep my hair dark enough, it's no different.
Also it's easier than doing henna, and leaves my hair really shiny (which henna didn't)

I know, from what I've read, that even permanent dyes can wash out really fast when used over henna, so that puts me off trying them. Also i have a really sensitive scalp, so that's another reason for sticking with the semis.

[Bagginslover]

I've contemplated using this before, since I have a few layers of color on my hair as it is....so this would be a good way to get it back to a more empty slate state. Though, is it harsh on hair? I've heard mixed reviews on that part. My hair is in really good condition, so I would hate going back to damage central :( Not to mention my hair likes to frizz so any damage makes that worse. But I may look up reviews and do a lot of investigation.


As a side note, I bought a kit today for an at home BKT treatment (brazilian keratin), and with all of the reviews that I saw (mostly positive, luckily!), they mentioned hair lightening a few shades. So that actually may help me out a lot. If it gets brassy I'd have to use a toner anyway, so we'll see.

I'd be more afraid of the keratin treatment than the Oops to be honest. I did 2 treatments on consecutive weekends on my hair to remove a permanent dye (one that I had heat treated, which is supposed to make it even more permanent) and it lifted wonderfully! It was brasst for a few days, but that is due to the action of the chemicals, it will calm down, don't try to dye over it with anything for at least a week! It feels awfully drying til you put on the last bottle of...stuff (can't remember what they call it, but its basically a neutraliser) then my hair felt just the sme as always. I just conditioned it a i always would after washing, and let it dry. I have had no ill effects at all, except the lingering smell that I mentioned before.

If you check out the henna removal thread in the herbal section, there is a ton more information on ColorOops. It really is worth a shot :)

[arcane]

^I agree about the keratin treatment. I got one of those in home kits last year. Not only did it not work (even in the instructions it said I'd need to blow dry and flatiron my hair everyday to get it straight, so really what was the point), my hair felt awful for months. I've done the colour removal several times, sometimes twice in one day, and yes while my hair was dryer, it was fixable easily enough (make sure to rinse it really really well, then rinse some more) with a deep conditioning treatment, it didn't affect my hair for months on end.