Dyed hair identity - How do you see yourself?

[Wisé]

Hey guys,
after having never colored my hair even once in my life, I started hennaing my ashblonde hair to a subtle red shine roughly a year ago.
I got many compliments on it, but in the synthetic light of my own apartment it appears to be rather gold blonde with no hints of red whatsoever.
Sooo I still think of myself as a blonde while strangers sometimes address me as red-haired.

This made me wonder, how do you people think of yourself after having colored your hair? Your original or your new color?
Please share your experience with me on how long you have had your color and how you identify yourself with it.

[blue_eyes]

I've got dark blonde hair naturally, but I never felt like a blonde. I've been dyeing my hair very dark brown, almost black, for about 7 years and that has definitely become the color I identify myself with. I've been told it suits me really well.

Whenever I've been asked if it's my natural color I've told people that my hair was actually a level 7 blonde color, and they are stunned. I've heard "I can't imagine you blonde!" countless times haha. It just isn't me, I'm meant to have dark hair :P Now that I've had dark hair for so long, everyone associates me with that color.

[tbonita]

I've been every color of the rainbow (literally), and I still feel like my brunette self deep down ;)

Even now while on straight henna, my hair is like brown with a red tinge indoors, and I feel like more myself than I have in years. Of course in the sun it burns bright, but since it's natural, it feels more in time with my natural color; ie, enhancing it, not changing.

[Bruiser]

I dyed my meduim/dark brown hair blonde for years, went back to my natural color about a year (wanting to give up chemicals and not having time with two babies) I still identify myself as a blonde.. Like in a dream I'll be blonde, that's just how I picture myself.

[Stray_mind]

I hennaed my blonette hair for some time. My hair is now a lovely coppery red, slightly darker than after first two full-head applications.. And it is my new self.

[Ms. Littlefish]

Even with my natural color I've been called every hair color, just depends on the person. I've been called red, blonde, and brunette. I have the color of hair that's somewhere all in the middle of it but has some red tones. I was definitely red haired as a child and my mother gave me my name because of red hair, but I've always thought it as light brown with red tones nowadays. I've dyed it red for years but I'm giving natural a go. Either that or I'll give henna another shot. Haven't decided.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I dyed my meduim/dark brown hair blonde for years, went back to my natural color about a year (wanting to give up chemicals and not having time with two babies) I still identify myself as a blonde.. Like in a dream I'll be blonde, that's just how I picture myself.

I did this! All my adult life dyed medium brown hair blonde. About 5 years ago I went brunette via henndigo. I've been blonde/light brown a few times inbetween as I always still felt like a blonde. Only very recently do I feel consistently brunette. I'm 49 years old! It takes years sometimes to feel like your natural colour is 'you'.

[Wisé]

That's interesting... If your experiences are any evidence I might consider myself a redhead if I keep the hennaing up long enough.
Keep it coming, I love to hear your point of view!


@Stray_mind: I absolutely love your siggy!

[FoxyGhost]

I'm a bottle/henna red head for about 7 years. I don't think anyone thinks of me as a dark brunette anymore. Once I dyed it red people think that it's my natural color and that I was a fake brunette. It's kind of funny but the comments make it even harder for me to ever go back to my natural shade.

[millyaulait]

Naturally I am 'bronde' with a lot of red tones, but I feel more me when I dye it a few levels darker (around 3N). My features stand out more, my skin looks more radiant, I look healthier. Sometimes I think I really should have just been born with this darker hair, it would certainly be easier, and it's definitely more me. :)

[WilfredAllen]

maybe the label "strawberry blonde" would fit your hair colour?

[Vampyria]

I'm a redhead at heart. I had almost every hair colour on my head (not green or blue, but blonde, black, purple, almost every shade of red,...) but I think that red is the only colour that I wouldn't mind having forever. It was also the first colour I wanted to dye my hair to when I was 13 or something, but my parents didn't let me use permanent dyes. So I started using semi permanent black dyes, because I always got too dark and too burgundy colour with red ones meant for my hair colour.

I grew out a red dye around a year ago (my hair was too damaged and it started to get bright, almost transparent looking burgundy which I didn't like), but having brown hair just didn't feel right, so I use henna now. The result is subtle-my natural colour is not light, but I'm happy to have at least some red/orangey tones.

[melesine]

At heart my hair is black, or black with red.

I've colored my hair since I was a teenager, back then it was henna and then later black permanent dye. In my early 20s I was blonde for a few years and played with pink until my colorist moved out of state and I got pregnant and quit bleaching. I went back to my natural dark brown. Played with auburn in my 30s. Went back to dark brown and then black. Got tired of the sharp demarcation line from my silver roots so I went to a golden medium brown for my regrowth for about 6 months. It's too light so today I went back to brown black. I've got manic panic vampire red and raven black just waiting to be used. I'm thinking vampire red at the nape so I can see it in up do's and looks pretty in buns.

I'm at least 50% silver now but my natural color was a very dark brown. Most people didn't like me with blonde hair. I'm quite fair though and my colorist did a good job getting me a light blonde with platinum highlights. Of course my hair was very short then. My silver is shiny and beautiful, I did quit coloring for about a year once and got compliments but it just doesn't feel like me at all.

[Vrindi]

Naturally I am 'bronde' with a lot of red tones, but I feel more me when I dye it a few levels darker (around 3N). My features stand out more, my skin looks more radiant, I look healthier. Sometimes I think I really should have just been born with this darker hair, it would certainly be easier, and it's definitely more me. :)

"Bronde" is a great word. As a kid, I was very blond with faint, reddish hints. Now I'm bronde, I guess, with deeper reddish hints. I've noticed that Americans call my hair color some shade of brown, and Europeans call me blond. I have a hair color that looks golden in sunlight and much darker indoors. I kind of think of myself as having light-ish, golden brown hair, but sometimes I see myself as more strawberry blond. That's in my dreams :P

[CRX<3]

Interesting thread! I'm naturally dark golden blonde, blue eyes and black(!?) eyebrows, so i have never felt really blond. Now I'm a henna addict with a hint of dark burgundy, and i love it! The only problem is the black brows, but i henna them too so they get a bit redder shine :eyebrows: sometimes i'm really close to stirring up indigo and going black, just to match the brows, but i just love the red too much!! :heartbeat:
Do you guys think henna red and dark eyebrows is a big no-no?

[PinkyCat]

Welp. I recently had a severe bout of Hair Color Identity Crisis - where I went from Level 2 black to almost platinum in a 30 day time span. I lived, I learned - now I'm back to about level 3. I guess I'm meant to be a black cat ;)

[panffle]

My hair is naturally black and I like it a lot more when it's a dark-ish chocolate brown color. I find that the black hair contrasts with my pale skin and makes me look a bit... sick.

[MissBubble]

My hair is red at heart. My natural color is a medium ashy brown, turned into light brown or even dark blonde under the sunlight or during summer. I never liked the cool tones in it and it washes me out. I have been dying it different shades of reddish browns, coppers, copper reds etc for many years. People identify me with copper I guess.

After spending two years growing my natural color because I had decided I wanted to be natural again, I remembered why I didnt like it and I went back to coppery shades in the summer.

But now I aim to be identified with bright red! Almost Ariel-like. I feel my hair always wanted this but somehow with the working environments that didn't allow bright and unnatural colors etc, I could not do it.

[chen bao jun]

I'm sorry, I don't get how I 'see' myself as being a valid question. I've got black hair. If I dyed it some other color, my hair would still actually be black. When it goes grey, it will be grey that used to be black. It's a person choice to change their natural, actual, real hair color, and that's just fine, it's also a person's choice whether they choose to tell anyone they changed or not, it's nobody's business, but 'seeing' yourself as something other than you actually are because you bought a box of hair dye and applied it strikes me personally as skating on the edge of lying to yourself and/or denying reality. Being from a family where some have lost touch with reality and slid into varying degrees of insanity, it's really important to me to keep in touch with the objective truth.

[MissBubble]

I don't see it as a reality denial. It's how you picture yourself when you think of you. I couldn't "see" myself as a brunette or light blonde because I haven't seen myself like that for years and when I almost did I didn't like it, it didn't feel like me. The same runs with everyone around me. I identify my mother as an ashy blonde and not as a redhead because I haven't seen her natural copper hair since I was 5, same with my bf with and over rich black hair, although I know that the reality is totally different etc.
I am not lying to myself and I always remember what hair I have, especially every 1.5-2 months when I have to retouch my roots :)

[melesine]

Insanity? Really? You had to go there? It's hair color. No one here is claiming to be Jesus or a lost descendent of a Russian Tsar.

[askan]

I see myself as a lot blonder than I actually am, haha, just like I see myself as a longhaired person while in reality I haven't had long hair for three years. Longish, bleached blonde grunge hair is what I had when I found MY look and style and what I like about life and what's important to me, so somehow I see that as my "real" style. I feel like right now my hair is just biding it's time. I'm not bleaching anymore because between blonde and long I'd rather have long hair and I can't seem to be able to combine bleach and growing my hair out..

[Arashi]

I've got dark blonde hair naturally, but I never felt like a blonde. I've been dyeing my hair very dark brown, almost black, for about 7 years and that has definitely become the color I identify myself with. I've been told it suits me really well.

Whenever I've been asked if it's my natural color I've told people that my hair was actually a level 7 blonde color, and they are stunned. I've heard "I can't imagine you blonde!" countless times haha. It just isn't me, I'm meant to have dark hair :P Now that I've had dark hair for so long, everyone associates me with that color.

Exactly the same for me. I don't think anyone would even recognize me in my natural color.

[arcane]

I'm naturally a dark ash blonde and I'm growing it out (now the virgin hair is about shoulder). I've always felt blond even when my hair was blue or purple. But I also had my hair pink for a few years and I also feel like a natural pink head-even though it isn't real. People loved me as a red head (a few thought red was my natural colour) and I really liked having dark brown hair but I always felt blonde/pink. In fact if I did not have a bleach to achive the pink colour I want I would have pink hair today. And I would consider myself a pink head.

[Wisé]

I'm sorry, I don't get how I 'see' myself as being a valid question. [...] 'seeing' yourself as something other than you actually are because you bought a box of hair dye and applied it strikes me personally as skating on the edge of lying to yourself and/or denying reality.

When I say "see" I meant the role of yourself you have in your head. Do you consider yourself as a blonde beach babe or a gothic raven hair? It's not about forgetting what you are or looking in the mirror and perceiving yourself different.

Every person has "roles" they fulfill subconscious or by choice. If some girl wants a 'hot barbie' look, she will bleach her hair, tan her skin, dress sexy and 'feel' barbie, even if she knows she's a natural dark brunette. Every person has many different roles they inhibit in different situations in their life (one person could be: kind mother at home, open ear at work, technical support for the grandma, play comrade with the husband, all crazy ideas with her friends) which is a perfectly normal and sane behavior.

As someone learning the harp and having long blonde & curly hair I was often compared to an angel, now with the light red hair, pale skin, blue eyes and a harp what comes more to mind is 'celtic', but I still feel blonde and thus feel strange when people say that, but a few years from now it might feel perfectly normal.