Converting highlights to ombré to ease growing out process?

[coconutterly88]

I had been actively applying a lot of LHC principles and advice for almost a year after a disastrous bleach job followed by a huge chop in May 2013. I had dyed my hair a dark brown to match my roots and the growing out process hadn't been too painful, while feeling slow at the time, it was gratifying to reach shoulder then see my layers also lengthening up with the tlc.

Fast forward and following my second pregnancy, I felt a little drab and meh - despite all common sense and previous experience telling me this wasn't a bright idea, I decided to have a few highlights. I had previously spent several years in a 'highlight until almost bright blonde then box dye dark and repeat' cycle, viewing never to return to that, following the improvement in condition since going dye free and treating my hair with some kindness (gentle brushing, spacing out washes, natural products, no heat etc).

Given the fact that I am being gentle with my hair in most other respects, the bleach hasn't completely ruined the condition, I'm just not terribly keen on the highlights and I've already got some harsh regrowth (3 weeks in, my own hair is naturally very dark).

Basically - sorry fir rambling, what I'd like to find out is if anyone has been in similar circumstances?

i quite like the ombré trend and don't really want to go back to an all over one colour brown, if there was a method of converting the highlights to appear deliberately ombré thus softening the growing out process and not costing me a fortune with a professional I'd be really interested to hear it?

Thanks in advance!

[Weewah]

Next time you plan on touching up your highlights, you can do like half of many as normal, then maybe one more time after that doing a third as many? Then it'll blend better. This is the simplest thing I can think of since you wanna do it yourself.

[Weewah]

Oor you can lookup how to do balayage highlights, except do a reverse version of them with a dye that matches your natural color. Like apply the dye at the top and blend it down backwards balayage style, that might be even easier. :o

Idunno how bad your demarcation line is but Im growing out highlights too, I was considering bleaching the ends even more so it looks more deliberate ombre. If your line isn't too harsh you might wanna consider this too. :)

[RavennaNight]

I'm not too sure about the processes involved with ombré, but as far as condition of hair, I have some strong opinions about it. I've seen a lot of people with ombré in the streets, and unfortunately, the bleached bottoms of people's hair looks really like straw. :( I would advise against.

[Rosetta]

^ It's actually possible to avoid (or greatly diminish) the straw effect by using coconut oil before bleaching :) i.e. soaking hair in it at least an hour beforehand.

[meteor]

Absolutely! I suggest asking your colorist to lengthen your roots by adding color to the top part of your highlights that would match your natural color and create a bit of "fading" effect. The colorist might also use some combination of balayage technique and add some low-lights, and there are many ways of going about it. I highly recommend finding a few pictures of the exact ombre/highlighted hair you want and bringing them to your colorist for consultation, because there are so many different types of ombre hair out there now.
I think creating ombre hair is one of the gentlest ways of growing out highlights, because you are probably not even going to need much (if any) bleach. But your bleached ends will always need a lot more TLC and heavy-duty conditioning with hydrolyzed proteins, amino acids, penetrating oils, ceramides, 18-MEA, peptides and very gentle washing with cationic surfactants.

Don't forget to come in with greasy hair and apply some coconut oil at least an hour before the procedure. This reduces the damage somewhat and doesn't prevent any dye uptake. Excellent thread on this: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=10495

[CremeTron]

Can you wear as is?

My whole head was bleached and dyed 18 months ago and then 6 months later I did a large "T" section of my regrowth. I am now growing it out and not all off my hair has "ombre" tips. It looks fine.

Why not avoid further damage? You may not be happy with result and further tinker with it till it's right and regret it.

If not then I think soaking in coconut oil first and doing selected areas were good suggestions too.

People that meet me now assume it is ombre now I have about 5 inches of visible roots! Very convenient trend for me!