PDA

View Full Version : anyone else grown/growing out natural ginger/red hair due to severe damage?



hopefulred
September 7th, 2016, 01:19 PM
Hi all this is my first time posting and am hoping for someone with similar experience to talk to. Iv read a lot of the threads but there doesn't seem to be many natural gingers/redheads.

so here is my 'story' I was bullied as a teenager due to my hair colour and so have always hated it iv bleached it (with a few years going really dark....black which didn't suit my pale skin tone)for the last 16years (I'm now 31) my hair as you can imagine has never been 'healthy' but I only washed and dried and straightened it once a week and did treatments on it afew months ago my regular hairdresser passed away :-( iv been to two different hair dressers who were recommended to me since and both have ruined my hair , both put two lots of bleach on the roots and the last one overlapped it (this is a guy who is the face of fibreplex for swarchkoft and has 30yrs experience and has won awards!) so not iv got a lighter band about an inch from the roots. they both put numerous toners over it so needless to say its very damaged and porous, I had it cut to just below my chin (I need to be ale to put it up as its naturally wavy/frizzy/ out of control) and have had olaplex treatments and am not using heat on it, I wash twice a week and iv bought a mixture of protein (waiting for these to arrive in the post) and moisture treatments. I am having to go back to my natural colour which is quite vibrant from what I can see (have just over half an inch of roots after 6 weeks) which is a very huge thing for me to do after hating it so much for all these years, I don't think the rest with with stand having it dyed ginger so it matches (a hairdresser has taken a hair sample to try) the roots and blends more plus I'm worried about it looking so patchy where they overlapped the bleach so really I'm going to have to grow out my natural colour and keep having regular trims. I think roots look fine on other hair colours but hate having ginger roots and the rest bleached but I know I have no choice but to give it a year for the healthy hair to grow through so I can have the rest of the damaged hair cut off (I imagine it would be to my ears in a years time? so I could have a choppy bob maybe then grow it out) but until then I feel so ugly its given me severe depression and anxiety to the point where I don't want to leave the house or see anyone (also doesnt help that Im 8months pregnant so skin is spotty and cant wear normal clothes etc which doesn't help my confidence and this should be the happiest time of my life but its the worst because of my hair)

Has anyone with ginger hair been through similar with their hair? is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Decoy24601
September 7th, 2016, 02:18 PM
I'm a natural redhead. I guess I can't offer you too much help, since I've never dyed my hair, but I was bullied for my hair color too growing up. What kept me from dying my hair was that my mother started dying her hair red to help take attention off of me and to support me. She would always tell me to never dye my hair.

I'm sure your natural color is beautiful :).

The Ubiquitous
September 7th, 2016, 02:39 PM
I hear you on the ginger.
Ironically as an adult mine faded to a sort of mousey colour and I am really disappointed I cant embrace my ginger now I really want to!
Ginger/red is very in right now and you'll see on here so many people aspiring to be your natural colour so it's a great time to grow it out confidently. Think of the money and time and stress you'll limit by giving up the bleach and I'll bet you'll look beautiful!
Colour wise, I'd avoid perminant colour. Even if your hair will take it, it's still going to damage it further. Wash in, wash outs may be helpful to manage the colour but be aware that your hair is probably very, very porous so that may take a bit too well! Strand test! Lots of people use henna effectively to hide and manage bleach damage. The henna board may be worth a visit.
Alternatively you could ask for some of your natural colour to be put through your blonde like red highlights to reduce the demarcation line without messing it up too much. Or maybe your hairdtesser could just colour half way down or sometging but leave the really bad ends - like a ombre. Might be possible even if an all over colour isn't.
Personally I'm of the opinion that if it is that damaged the best to do is chop it. To me this always seems far less painful than constantly having ends you need to really baby and affect what else you can do with your hair. This will also help with the root growth too and you get fun with a new cut - new baby, new hair! It's like the law or something! :) start again! If you always have to have your hair up because it's too damaged to be down then you have nothing to loose anyway.
DO you know what your hair likes? Improve the condition and the frizz etc will reduce. But you can't repair damage, it's still there, you just hide it a bit You don't need to spend lots, look on here for an smt treatment for instance. Lots of people love it. Personally I've not tried it as my hair hates honey. My hair loves oil.
Also look at protective hair dos. My hair felt completely different depending on whether I plaited it at night or not.
Ultimately though, you are more than your hair.

ETA:

I'm a natural redhead. I guess I can't offer you too much help, since I've never dyed my hair, but I was bullied for my hair color too growing up. What kept me from dying my hair was that my mother started dying her hair red to help take attention off of me and to support me. She would always tell me to never dye my hair.

I'm sure your natural color is beautiful :).

That's sad your mum had to do that but so, so lovely at the same time.

Decoy24601
September 7th, 2016, 02:50 PM
That's sad your mum had to do that but so, so lovely at the same time.

Oh she had been dyeing her hair for years before that, she just switched to red when I was little :). It suited her well too, since she looks like she could be a natural redhead.

MidnightMoon
September 7th, 2016, 03:13 PM
What a strange thing it is for me to read someone was bullied for having red hair. I have never met anyone who has cared about redheaded people at all. Lots of women dye their hair, and it seems a popular choice in all its shades along with blonde, but nobody has made anything special of it. I hope you realise now theres nothing weird or to hide about it, its perfect just as any other colour, and I assure you nobody gives your hair colour a second thought but you. Its just another hair colour! :(
Also, in my opinion, highlights on red hair look pretty cool, I dont think its strange! (Meaning you could have them done once you have enough roots showing)

CarrotTop
September 7th, 2016, 03:38 PM
I'm a natural redhead. I guess I can't offer you too much help, since I've never dyed my hair, but I was bullied for my hair color too growing up. What kept me from dying my hair was that my mother started dying her hair red to help take attention off of me and to support me. She would always tell me to never dye my hair.

I'm sure your natural color is beautiful :).

That's so sweet! :o I'm lucky enough to never have been bullied for my hair color, but nobody else in my family has red hair.

The Ubiquitous
September 7th, 2016, 03:58 PM
Sadly it is very common for red headed kids to be teased for their hair colour buy adults and other kids.
I had bright red hair when I was born which my mum very clearly thoight distasteful. When one of my siblings was birn the midwives thought it was funny to tell my parents that they had bright red hair too.
The only positive comments ever made about my hair growing up was by a friend's dad and he used to buy red squirrel things.
In fact a uk dating site recently did an advertising campaign which said something like "someone will love your imperfections" and the picture was a close up of a freckle red head. :/

Obsidian
September 7th, 2016, 04:20 PM
In fact a uk dating site recently did an advertising campaign which said something like "someone will love your imperfections" and the picture was a close up of a freckle red head. :/

Thats absolutely disgusting, freckles and red hair is not a imperfection. My oldest daughter is a natural red head, I never heard of her being bullied though the whole "gingers have no soul" has been brought up. She takes it about the same way I take dumb blond jokes (I'm a natural blond) I don't like them but I know most of the people telling them aren't trying to mean, they are just stupid.

I love red hair, tried for years to get it through boxed dyes but it always faded. I found henna a year ago and now I am a brilliant orangy red. I get a lot of compliments on it. Red is a popular color here and there are quite a few naturals running around town. Even 30 years ago when I was in high school, the redheads weren't teased or bullied, at least not for their hair.

I wonder if you could use henna or a henna blend to match your hair to the roots? It might be hard though since you are bleached. The lighter your hair, the more vivid henna will be. My white streaks can positively glow.

The Ubiquitous
September 7th, 2016, 11:45 PM
There is a Face page page called Ginger Parrot which celebrates red hair (as it should be!) and offers practical resources from advice on sun cream and eyebrow pencils to kids books with red headed protagnoists. Would recommend a look for anyone struggling with anything ginger.
Anyway, back to hair. :)

Liv
September 8th, 2016, 12:42 AM
I don't have red hair - but I just wanted to say that natural red is my absolute favorite hair color - I adore it. :love:

Good luck with growing out your natural hair - I have done that a few times. It's hard, but definitly worth it.

triumphator!
September 8th, 2016, 07:45 AM
I had an Australian friend who had naturally red hair, and apparently when he was growing up, everyone called him "Orangutan." I will never understand why certain societies evolved to hate red hair, it's so beautiful and unique.

lithostoic
September 8th, 2016, 08:02 AM
I love red hair! When I was little, I wanted red wavy hair! Now I've been trying to embrace what I've been given naturally, but I'm still a bit jealous of my red headed cousin. Such lovely coppery hair that gets golden highlights c: and freckles of the same color!

browneyedsusan
September 8th, 2016, 08:26 AM
I don't know if this is any consolation: but my strawberry blond changed to mousy brown in my 20's. (I also have a friend whose red faded out. She has 3 children with the most beautiful heads of red hair!) I think it's pretty common for gingers to do this, but not everyone does. :)

hopefulred
September 8th, 2016, 11:04 AM
No mine has definitely not faded out! It was a light bright strawberry colour when I was younger, looking at the roots its now darkened abit but is quite vibrant in the light, (how do I add a picture?) my 1yr old niece has the same colour so I'm working on being a positive role model for her (trying to make it a positive thing)I think it also scares me because I stand out because I'm 6ft tall so will have two things that make me stand out, I'm also worried it wont suit my skin tone and will make me look paler (the ash blonde seemed to match my skin tone) but I want healthy hair and I cant continue to bleach and colour it and the only dark that covers it is black and that defintly does make me look pale! I know when its virgin hair and healthy I can put some wash in wash outs to tone the orange down abit Yeah I think the UK (which is where I live) is worse for the bullying/teasing of red heads and a lot of the people I know and have spoken to were bullied of children so dyed there hair for years before embracing it as an adult (they dyed there's brown though so was just a matter of stripping the colour to go back to their natural colour which I wish was the case for me) and now they say they get sooooo many compliments about the colour now they are an adult, its just so unfortunate that we are made to hate it in the first place by nasty people! Iv got a consultation next week with a hairdressers that specialise it broken hair, hair loss etc so hoping they can do something to blend the roots whilst it grows out without damaging it more. I cant have it cut shorter as that would require heat with my hair texture and the damage would be more obvious so my only option with that is to keep having it trimmed and tied back in a small (very small!) pony and its not long enough to do different up dos :( I just want the next year to go really fast so most of the damage has gone and my healthy hair has grown out. I just need to learn to love the vibrant colour :confused:

spidermom
September 8th, 2016, 11:14 AM
There are deposit-only colors like Manic Panic that you could use to blend the colors on your head and won't cause damage. You can't go lighter, but you can go redder.

I don't get the logic of calling red "ginger". Ginger root is kind of brownish-tannish and ginger herb is sort of whitish-yellowish. So where the heck does ginger = red come from?

P.S: It's pretty hard not to overlap bleach (or any color really). Have you ever tried coloring without overlapping previously colored areas at all? Difficult if not impossible.

hopefulred
September 8th, 2016, 12:51 PM
They overlapped it by about over an inch!!! Iv never had that done before in all the years iv had it bleached!!!