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Lilla My
March 21st, 2008, 04:42 PM
I've been letting my grey roots grow out since my last henna/indigo in August last year.
Originally I thought I'd just keep growing until I reached my goal length then start to trim back to that length and gradually remove all the colour that way ...
Then I went a bit mad and made my goal length really long - i.e. tailbone - ulp! That's a long long time with dramatically two-toned hair (the coloured part looks practically black).
Now I'm thinking I'd like to remove the colour sooner than that - but when? I could cut it all out now but then there's the problem of growing out hair that's quite short. Or I could wait until say shoulder length, but that would be another year or more to wait. My hair only grows at the average rate (half an inch per month) ...

I've been trying to weigh up when would be the best stage to start to cut off the colour but got overwhelmed by all the pros and cons at the various lengths. Any input/ideas/experiences would be most welcome! :)

wintersun99
March 21st, 2008, 05:09 PM
...........

Ohio Sky
March 21st, 2008, 05:18 PM
I was thinking the same thing. You could do a streaky affect with a darker color in your grays, and I think it would look really neat that way at any length.

TammySue
March 21st, 2008, 05:19 PM
I went through the same dilemma when I decided to let my natural color grow in! And, at first, I did what wintersun99 suggested with the highlights and lowlights and it looked awesome. After doing that a few times, I just kept trimming the ends every 2-3 months. It took a good while, and I was tempted to cut it all off at once, but I'm glad I went the route I did (keeping it long and trimming).

Whatever you decide to do, your silvers look stunning! :)

KiwiLiz
March 21st, 2008, 05:33 PM
My natural colour (dark strawberry blonde) is to my shoulders now, I too aim for tailbone length! My two tonedness isn't obvious but the damage is, some times I want to hack it off to my shoulders, but shoulder length is so short to me now! I cut 3 inches off 2 weeks ago, I figure I want HEALTHY tailbone length hair and the damage I had was causing more damage, so tailbone will have to wait :( Have patience, is all I can say I guess. It will be worth it.

Blending might be a good idea, my two colours are very close so I didn't worry about it, but it might be for you, talk to you hairdresser :)

Blueglass
March 21st, 2008, 06:15 PM
These sound like good ideas. Great color.

salamander
March 21st, 2008, 06:59 PM
You could spend a while doing henna-fading treatments until you get bored and feel like taking more drastic measures. This is assuming that you find glopping weird things onto your hair and seeing what happens to be fun, but it seems fairly likely you do, since you're here. I've never tried fading henna myself, but people seem to get somewhere with yogurt treatments and sometimes heavy oilings.

Xandergrammy
March 21st, 2008, 07:04 PM
I'm too greedy to sacrifice any of my length, so I'm just biting the bullet and letting it grow without color correcting. There is one member who stopped dyeing and has beautiful white hair with dark ends. It looks gorgeous.

iris
March 21st, 2008, 07:53 PM
Personally I would never cut to a length shorter than what's needed to put my hair up. So a bit below shoulder. But it's a personal decision, obviously. I just wouldn't know what to do with short hair.

It looks to me like you already made it past the most awkward stage - it is clear by now that you're growing out color (rather than being lazy with root touch-ups or whatever). Besides, the two-tone look is in style right now. I'd be hesitant to do lowlights in the roots because I'd think it'd only put me further away from my goal. But again, it's very personal.

Iris

Elenna
March 21st, 2008, 08:19 PM
Lilla My, your hair looks like it is coming in solid silver.

After stating the obvious, I have to say that you are really lucky to have such a wonderful silver to look forward to. Even with dye to contend with.

Mine is silver 'n brown with lots of old dye on the length. My plan is to grow to/cut back to BSL until all the old dye is gone. That way I get to keep some length.

Elenna
:luke:

lapushka
March 21st, 2008, 08:32 PM
Henna is only safe to use with chemical dye when it's metallic salt free and you have to be sure of that. If you have dyed with a brown tone and therefore mixed indigo into that henna, then I'd be really careful and not dye or highlight (that most certainly will turn out green).

I am currently growing out my own color (a dark ash blond, with emphasis on "ash"), and I have about 4 inches that's in my own color right now. A few weeks before Christmas last year, a time when I certainly didn't want to be 2toned, I used a professional temporary dye that I got from a shop that delivers to salons. It was my own color and it blended nicely. It lasted about 25 washes.

But again, all the henna that was previously in my hair was long gone or I wouldn't have tried it.

jojo
March 21st, 2008, 09:49 PM
I wouldn't sacrifice the length, you could always try and fade the darker bits if it bothers you but theres some very inspirational two toned hair examples on here. I quite like 2 toned hair, its unique and also the longer it gets the less obvious it will be, even dyed hair fades if you dont re-dye it.

spidermom
March 21st, 2008, 10:38 PM
If it were me, I'm sure I would wear my hair up a lot, use scarves and head bands to hide the line of demarcation, and grow my silver at least to shoulder length before I cut out the dye. Or I'd just keep growing and let my hair be two toned. There is nothing wrong with that. I think it looks beautiful and unique.

Lilla My
March 22nd, 2008, 09:13 AM
Wow! Lots of good answers ... Thanks everyone, and thankyou very much for the compliments about my silvers. :D On reflection I think it's more that I'm impatient to be 'all silver' rather than having a problem being two-tone - I suppose I've just started to see the darker colour as 'getting in the way'. So it's helpful to be reminded that two-tone is indeed a valid look in its own right. (And I know - and should have mentioned - there are some gorgeous examples of two-tone ladies on these boards - I just wasn't feeling like it looked like that on me. :))

Although I know I could blend the two colours I can't get over the idea of altering my silver roots in any way having taken so long to grow them this far - but I may well experiment with fading my henna/indigo a bit. I like the sound of gloopy concoctions!

And following on from what a few of you said about length I think I'll maintain the length at BSL for a while until I get more of the silvers grown out. As I'm already at BSL that is psychologically good - I can do little trims from here and remove a bit of the darker colour each time. :)

Thankyou everyone, you are all brilliant - dilemma resolved! Cheese all round ... :cheese:

HeatherAngela
March 24th, 2008, 12:37 PM
You've got a lovely silver color coming in. I'm growing out dye, not as drastic, just from a lighter shade of blond to my natural color. I had it cut to my shoulders 2 years ago and have been maintaining somewhere between BSL and MBL while I work on getting the last vestiges of lighter blond damaged hair trimmed off. Only another 2-3" to go. so maybe next month I will get the rest of it cut off.