Cut my hair a little. Ombré also.

[HumanBean]

So when I joined here, I set my goal at BSL but by the time I got there I set it to waist, then hip. My hair has been in a v-shape hem the last year or so and recently the longest length was hitting BCL. I loved the length for updos...I like big messy buns...but when my hair is down I feel overwhelmed by it. And I want to be able to wear it down with ease and not feel anxious about it. So I'd been toying with trimming it back for a while now and I also wanted to punch up the color. Below is a "before" pic from this morning as I was about to go to the salon (the waves are braid waves). I hate my expression in the front facing pic so blocked it out. It's not that I didn't think my hair is pretty like this, but at this length it's not holding curl much and it's just SO MUCH HAIR (for me anyway).

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff470/Blbrady/b1848c4e424b8ec58ca6f29f5f7ba59d.jpg

So I showed my guy this image of a girl with a similar base color and ombre ends with waves (my hair has slight waves even when I don't sleep in braids), and I think he did a nice job. He said I could come back and punch up the color more if it's not enough...I might wait till Summer is closer for that. I'm now solidly back at waist with more of a u-hem. I've played with updos already and love the visual definition the ombre provides.

http://i1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff470/Blbrady/6a42dba8af2074a50dd2c1c73e3f7c4a.jpg (http://s1237.photobucket.com/user/Blbrady/media/6a42dba8af2074a50dd2c1c73e3f7c4a.jpg.html)

[Duchess Fuzzy Buns]

Love it! The color looks very natural and pretty. :love:

[moontree]

Beautiful! It's neat to see that the "perfect" length is different for everyone :)

[hannabiss]

Very pretty. i like the length and color very subtle. And even though my hair isnt past apl yet i went from wanting floor length hair to waist. kinda reverse from normal LHC. everyone is different and the perfect length is a mystery till its disc overed.

[AZDesertRose]

Wow! You have beautiful hair! I like the new cut and color.

[bonbon58]

i love the new color!! subtle and classy ;) the length is nice too, makes me want to trim my layers back to a U shape!!

[yogagirl]

It looks great, I really love it! Our hair is very similar in color. I could see myself going for a subtle ombré like that as well.

And you've got a great hairdresser there. One that does it the conservative way, bleach less and see how you like it before bleaching more. It seems like most bleach more, then use toner to get the desired color :doh: Then of course the toner disappears a few washes later. It happened to me a bunch of times before I finally gave up on highlights.

[HumanBean]

That's funny you say that...he didn't use bleach at all...at least that's what he said. Is that possible?

[yogagirl]

Hm I don't know of a way to lighten hair without bleach. Sun-in or lemon juice and sitting in the sun sometimes works, but I don't think it works well on very dark hair.

Now I'm curious!

[SkyChild]

Very odd, Maybe he meant he didn't use strong bleach?
I did read somewhere you could lighten dark hair using colour oops and similar - maybe that's what he meant?

It's very pretty whatever he used

[leilani]

Looks like hip+ to me, and stunning!

[CurlyGrace]

Your hair is so thick! It looks lovely :)

[lapushka]

It looks great, and the most important of all is that you're happy with it. :)

[endlessly]

Love it! Very pretty!

[Natalina]

Your hair looks great! I'm glad you found the hair length you're happy with. :)

And it's totally possible to lighten hair without bleach and only hair dye if you've the type of hair that absorbs color well. I've dyed my much darker hair lighter 3 times using just box dyes without bleach and they end up much lighter than this. It's all up to your hair type I suppose.

[aspartame gram]

Your hair looks gorgeous! I am so happy you had a positive experience and are enjoying your hair more now.