Different color at roots than ends?

[Shepherdess]

This thought has been on my mind for a while and I thought I would ask everyone else!

For those of you who grow your hair out naturally (without bleach or dyes), do you find the ends of your hair to be a different color than the roots, or is it a balanced color throughout the length? The ends of my hair at times almost look to be an orangish/golden color I noticed, while my roots are a darker honey color. I'm sure that the color difference from my roots to my ends are from the years of fading and sun exposure. So what is your natural hair like? Does this happen to you?

Just thought it would be interesting to see everyone's thoughts! :popcorn:

[Salmonberry]

Absolutely! I naturally have about 5 different colors on my head ranging from light chestnut brown (the roots of my nape hairs) to light blonde (The very ends on my canopy). I look blonde with my hair long, but I'm sure if I ever got a pixie it would look like I had light brown hair. I have a natural ombre thing going on down the length, and my nape hairs are several shades darker (even at the roots) than the canopy. I attribute the ombre thing to natural sun bleaching, but I guess my nape hairs are just programmed to come out darker. Hairdressers always seem in awe when I tell them it's natural. The response I get is, "There's people who pay a lot of money to get their hair to look like this". :)

Though I've toyed with very light henna glosses to boost the warm tones in my hair (Which no one but me can even notice), I still consider my color to be 99% natural :p

[PraiseCheeses]

My hair is closing in on hip length, and the ends are much more golden than the roots, which seem really dull, almost grey, next to the ends. My hair has never been dyed, aside from cassia, which is of course not permanent. It's been almost two months since my last cassia treatment, so I'll try to take pictures of the difference in the next few days. Like Salmonberry, the underneath-hair is much darker than the canopy. The bits around my face are the lightest, and the nape hair is the darkest.

While I don't lie out in the sun or go tanning, I also don't take active measures to protect my hair from the sun and wind aside from keeping it bunned. I spend a good deal of time on my bicycle year-round, so it is exposed to the elements every day.

[Latte Lady]

My hair is usually up so my scalp hair just sun bleached and my length, protected in buns, is darker. It isn't a stark difference but I noticed it.

[Mommyof4]

Before I had ever dyed my naturally blonde hair, my hair was a very cool based light blonde at the roots, with my ends being more golden. I have a picture I'll upload somewhere.. gotta find it. My 5 year old daughter's hair is the same way. People ask me all the time if I've dyed her hair. Nooooo, I have not, ever. Many women in my family have never dyed their hair and their roots are a different shade than their ends. I think it's because the root hair is more healthy, so it reflects differently and has more pigment in the cuticle..

[animetor7]

My hair goes from dark brown in the winter to bright auburn every summer due to sun exposure and swimming. So I every year my winter growth is darker and more ashy than my length.

[teal]

Yes, and I love it. I have variations at different lengths, and also in different regions. (eg. My temples are lighter than the top of my head, and both are lighter than the back of my head.) Now that I'm hennaing, the differences are accentuated with the red tones. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

[melusine963]

My ends are defninitely ligther than my roots. It's not as spectacularly different as it used to be, because I not longer wear my hair down so it has less oportunity to get bleached in the sun. My canopy is also lighter than my under layers.

[Shepherdess]

Thank you everyone for your replies! ! :)


Absolutely! I naturally have about 5 different colors on my head ranging from light chestnut brown (the roots of my nape hairs) to light blonde (The very ends on my canopy). I look blonde with my hair long, but I'm sure if I ever got a pixie it would look like I had light brown hair. I have a natural ombre thing going on down the length, and my nape hairs are several shades darker (even at the roots) than the canopy. I attribute the ombre thing to natural sun bleaching, but I guess my nape hairs are just programmed to come out darker. Hairdressers always seem in awe when I tell them it's natural. The response I get is, "There's people who pay a lot of money to get their hair to look like this". :)

Though I've toyed with very light henna glosses to boost the warm tones in my hair (Which no one but me can even notice), I still consider my color to be 99% natural :p
Oh that's interesting! ! Your hair sounds very pretty with all those colors! ! Since I joined LHC back a year ago I have thought of using henna, but I'm afraid that it will change my natural hair color into something I'd not feel as comfortable with :p


My hair is closing in on hip length, and the ends are much more golden than the roots, which seem really dull, almost grey, next to the ends. My hair has never been dyed, aside from cassia, which is of course not permanent. It's been almost two months since my last cassia treatment, so I'll try to take pictures of the difference in the next few days. Like Salmonberry, the underneath-hair is much darker than the canopy. The bits around my face are the lightest, and the nape hair is the darkest.

While I don't lie out in the sun or go tanning, I also don't take active measures to protect my hair from the sun and wind aside from keeping it bunned. I spend a good deal of time on my bicycle year-round, so it is exposed to the elements every day.
Your description sounds similar to my hair. Yeah, I have heard cassia isn't permanent. Have you found your hair being healthier after using it?

Yeah, same here. :)


Before I had ever dyed my naturally blonde hair, my hair was a very cool based light blonde at the roots, with my ends being more golden. I have a picture I'll upload somewhere.. gotta find it. My 5 year old daughter's hair is the same way. People ask me all the time if I've dyed her hair. Nooooo, I have not, ever. Many women in my family have never dyed their hair and their roots are a different shade than their ends. I think it's because the root hair is more healthy, so it reflects differently and has more pigment in the cuticle..
Oh, that does sound pretty! I'd love to see what it looks like! :D Yeah, I think that some hair might bleach a little easier in the sunlight than others, and the root hair is probably the healthiest.


My hair goes from dark brown in the winter to bright auburn every summer due to sun exposure and swimming. So I every year my winter growth is darker and more ashy than my length.
That sounds like a pretty color! ! :)


Yes, and I love it. I have variations at different lengths, and also in different regions. (eg. My temples are lighter than the top of my head, and both are lighter than the back of my head.) Now that I'm hennaing, the differences are accentuated with the red tones. I wouldn't trade it for anything!
Yeah, I think my hair is similar to that as well! I agree and I really love that the sun lightens my hair! :) Oh, that sounds very beautiful! I love how henna looks on other people! I don't know how it would look on mine though! :p


My hair is usually up so my scalp hair just sun bleached and my length, protected in buns, is darker. It isn't a stark difference but I noticed it.
Wow, that is very interesting! I usually wear scarves on my head, so the sun doesn't really affect the color until it gets past my scarf's length.


My ends are defninitely ligther than my roots. It's not as spectacularly different as it used to be, because I not longer wear my hair down so it has less oportunity to get bleached in the sun. My canopy is also lighter than my under layers.
Thanks for your reply! :) Yeah, it seems a lot of times it gradually grows lighter down the length. I probably should protect my ends in the sunlight this summer more.

[puddums]

My hair is a light copper colour and the roots are much less red than the rest of my hair. I find it mildly annoying, but I guess I don't care too much.

[AnqeIicDemise]

My roots have always been a dark brown with a reddish tint to them. the ends have always been super red in comparison. I just.. kind of.. enhanced that feature lately. ^-^ The top half of my hair is quite virgin and even then you can still see the difference from the root to halfway along the length.

[animetor7]

Thanks Shepherdess! I kind of like the ombre thing that happens because of this, but I am thinking about playing with a light henna gloss just to blend everything better.

[Naiadryade]

Yup! My hair is dark brown at the top but is a little lighter and more medium-golden-brown, with some subtle reddish undertones in the right light, at the ends. It changes gradually over the length. It's not very drastic but it's noticeable in sunlight. Which I'm pretty sure is the culprit.

ETA: You can see part of this effect in my avatar pic.

[tigereye]

Yep. My hair is naturally a dark brown with a reddish tint at the roots that you could only see in the sun. My ends are a little lighter and its easier to see the red in regular light.
Now I guess I enhance the effect with henna - my roots are still pretty close to virgin, with a slight reddish tint that looks like a dark red-head/ginger in the sun, whereas my ends are quite a bit redder (apparently henna takes better to my ends), but still look lighter and more ginger than the roots when the sun is out. That said, the effect is still gradual and natural enough that you can't see too much difference unless you hold the hip-length or longer hairs up next to my roots.
I think it's probably a UV breakdown thing, since even though I avoid any blink of sunshine (I burn, badly, without sunscreen and a hat, whenever the sun comes out to play - sometimes even WITH sunscreen and a hat), there's always some UV hanging around to break stuff down. In my case, the brown pigment must break down slightly and gets slightly lighter, while the red remains.

Mind you, if I'm wearing a hat, I usually can't get a bun under it, so my braid ends have probably had a decent amount of sun exposure over the years, so I'm not entirely surprised

[JamieLeigh]

I suppose my hair gets lighter, the longer it is on my head. It probably has to do with sun and element exposure, because there is no way to keep your hair completely free of outside influence. Even if you keep it covered all the time, there is still going to be some man-handling involved. :p

I haven't dyed it since high school and all of that damage/colour is long since cut out. (it was 15 years ago that I graduated) But yes, with my natural colour, the roots are still darker than the ends.

[RavenBaby]

My roots are medium brown and my ends are light blonde. lol

[froglet]

My roots are ashy dark brown and my ends are a much brassier, lighter brown. My hair isn't quite to APL yet so I can only imagine the difference will be very noticeable when it's longer.

[Majala]

There is (was) a huge difference. My brown/black hair gets considerably lighter brown towards the ends, especially in summer or when it's really dried out or damaged. It's the main reason I started doing henndigo.

[gossamer]

I'm sure that the color difference from my roots to my ends are from the years of fading and sun exposure. So what is your natural hair like? Does this happen to you?


Yes, there's definitely a difference! Dye has never touched my head, so all of my color changes can be attributed to overall change in hair color and sun bleaching. It shows up best when I do a fake crown braid and have my ends directly against the dark hair at my roots (this photo is from April 2012):

http://x47.xanga.com/eafe5be744135284843861/m224488297.jpg

Also, the surface hair show a big difference from the hairs that rarely get exposed to the sun.

I have tortoiseshell hair!

[faellen]

Yes... Due to growing out dye.

[lapushka]

It's very natural for natural hair color to "fade" towards the ends. Everyone's got this, except maybe those of us with shorter hair.

[ladylowtide]

My hairs dyed so i voted that. but when it was all virgin it was dark golden blonde at the ends, medium brown at the top. It just lightens up in the sun.

[AngelAblaze]

My hair color is very crazy. My roots are a very dark brown that sometimes looks blackish, the nape of my neck and around my temple is blonde, and the majority of my hair is auburn.

[Zindell]

Oh yes! My roots are dark blonde, then my hair gets lighter and lighter and my ends are very light blonde.

It's my natural color and it's sun bleach for sure that makes the difference. I like it. :o

[earthnut]

My hair is very dark brown and it takes a *lot* of sun exposure for it to get a reddish sheen, and even then you only notice it in direct sunlight. The difference is subtle and I'm pretty much the only one who ever notices.

I've tried to enhance the sun bleaching with sun-in, honey, etc. But my hair is stubborn and I haven't been successful. :(

[Seeshami]

I just used henna to make my tips red I love it

[Zesty]

Yep. I'm closing in on tailbone and the ends of my hair are more golden/red brown, as opposed to my roots which are a darker brown. You can sort of see it in my signature picture. It's not too drastic or noticeable unless I wear my hair in the Madora, or some other wrapped braid hairstyle. It's because I wear a hat with a braid or braids in the summer, and the sun bleaches the ends. I'm going to work on that this summer.

[earthnut]

Yes, there's definitely a difference! Dye has never touched my head, so all of my color changes can be attributed to overall change in hair color and sun bleaching. It shows up best when I do a fake crown braid and have my ends directly against the dark hair at my roots (this photo is from April 2012):

http://x47.xanga.com/eafe5be744135284843861/m224488297.jpg

Also, the surface hair show a big difference from the hairs that rarely get exposed to the sun.

I have tortoiseshell hair!
That's gorgeous. I wish my hair lightened that much. :D

[emeraldfaery]

Even though my hair isn't the longest it has ever been, I've noticed that the ends are the lightest they've been since it was cut in 2005. They aren't blonde like they used to be, now a golden red color while my crown color is darker blonde/reddish. It's almost always up in a bun, so I don't think it's from the sun. *shrugs* I like it. Natural ombre effect.

[Shepherdess]

Thank you everyone for posting! It is really interesting hearing what everyone has to say! :)

@gossamer , I can really see the differences in the color, very pretty! :)

[Wildcat Diva]

Yup, my ends are lighter than my roots. I look around and notice lots and lots of heads of hair are the same.

[Springlets]

I think this is true for most (if not all people) considering that hair over time is going to be affected by the sun, so after 2, 3, 4 years go by, it will obviously lighten. Blondes who are growing out dye need to remember this because when their roots start growing out, they will think to themselves, "Oh no, I'm not blonde anymore!" My roots start out as ashy, "dishwater" blonde, but even just down to my shoulder, they gradually turn to light, yellow golden blonde.

[vindo]

My ends are more reddish and lighter. Bits and pieces even look blonde-ish. When I started growing out my hair color looked like a very dark neutral brown.

[cooklaezo13]

My lightens significantly with sun exposure, and my ends are lighter than my roots. Its pretty obvious from looking at my profile picture.

[Achlys]

My natural colour had lightened and turned reddish over time, too, while the roots were quite ashy. I've had other people comment on it. I have a picture, but the difference wasn't actually THAT big, my phone camera exaggerates the colours in this photo. Even now when I use henna (I've only done it for 3-4 months so far), the ends are lighter and more vivid in colour, but it's not that noticeable anymore.

http://oi40.tinypic.com/e69iyu.jpg

[mararie]

There is a difference, and it's natural :) It's because I have blonde hair, and the ends have been more exposed to sunlight.

[Larki]

Yes! It's not particularly obvious when my hair is down, it's like a super subtle ombre, but every time I put my hair up I realize how much of a difference there is in color between the roots and ends. When I can see the roots/scalp hair and ends next to each other, it's crazy. I assume the difference is due to sun bleaching; the ends have been exposed to years of sun, and the roots obviously haven't, so my hair gets gradually a little darker as I move up toward the roots.

[Johannah]

ATM, no difference. But in summer, there will be. Gotta love the sun and blonde hair, right?

[Shock and D'aww]

There is definitely a difference. I'd say my hair is a light honey, but if I compare the ends and the roots to eachother, the ends look brassy and the roots ashy. The under layer seems greenish ashy in comparison. :confused: (It's not and is natural because it never sees the light)

[mira-chan]

Yep. My hair is naturally a dark brown with a reddish tint at the roots that you could only see in the sun. My ends are a little lighter and its easier to see the red in regular light.
Now I guess I enhance the effect with henna - my roots are still pretty close to virgin, with a slight reddish tint that looks like a dark red-head/ginger in the sun, whereas my ends are quite a bit redder (apparently henna takes better to my ends), but still look lighter and more ginger than the roots when the sun is out. That said, the effect is still gradual and natural enough that you can't see too much difference unless you hold the hip-length or longer hairs up next to my roots.
I think it's probably a UV breakdown thing, since even though I avoid any blink of sunshine (I burn, badly, without sunscreen and a hat, whenever the sun comes out to play - sometimes even WITH sunscreen and a hat), there's always some UV hanging around to break stuff down. In my case, the brown pigment must break down slightly and gets slightly lighter, while the red remains.

Mind you, if I'm wearing a hat, I usually can't get a bun under it, so my braid ends have probably had a decent amount of sun exposure over the years, so I'm not entirely surprised
Exactly the same color and color difference, including the henna.

[Emelyn]

My hair is definitely darker blonde at the roots and lighter at the ends. At the ends it's much more golden and the red shows through more.

[LunaLuvsU]

My hair gets darker as it grows out. I remember that very clearly before I bleached, dyed, bleached, dyed, dyed, henna'd my hair o.o

[LilyMarleen]

Since I do highlights my hair is lighter in the ends than further up. I don't redo them very often so I usually have dark roots since my hair is ash blonde or straßenköterblond ("street-pooch-blonde")

[Ingrid]

I'm looking forward to finding out as I grow out my natural colour!

[Nachtschatten]

My hair got a lot darker with the years, I always thought this is the reason for my ends being lighter than the roots.
Since the change is pretty gradual, I don't think it has to do with the sun, as I'm protecting my length from the sun since 2012.

[sammiesamm]

It drives me crazy that my ends are lighter! Guess its not just me though lol I put it up to not over think it. I always thought it was damage but when I looked closer they were fine.

[gthlvrmx]

As of right now my hair is all the same color but I'm sure it will change color as it grows longer. That usually happens after hair ages.

[Begemot]

I have darker roots, a level 7 golden light brown. My ends tend to lighten as they grow and according to the hair color samples and charts my color turns into a level 8 gold/coppery medium blonde.