Advice on going back to natural?

[biene16]

Hi everyone!
I haven’t dyed my hair for the last three months and I want to go back to my natural hair color: https://imgur.com/a/hbkAI
The top picture of Gigi Hadid is pretty much exactly my hair color in normal lighting. I included pictures of my roots that show how it appears lighter in direct sunlight and darker in normal indoors lighting. Would that be considered dark blonde or light brown? What level would it be?
I don’t want to dye it anymore because I bleached it a few months back and it completely fryed my hair and I had to cut off a lot. I put a darker demi color on it the last time I did anything to my hair and it faded to a reddish brown - the red can really be picked up in direct sunlight.
Could I tone the reddish brown ends with a semi-permanent dye to match it my natural tone more? What advice do you have to keep my hair in great shape while I’m growing it out?
Thank you! ❤️

[Arciela]

Hello :) If having a decarmation line doesn't bother you, I say just grow it out as is, especially if hair health is most important to you. :)

I am currently growing out my hair also and the top is is my natural brown while the rest of it was blonde and I put a semi perma dye on it..it also faded to a brown reddish color. I just am leaving it be..dont want to cause further damage. But if your hair can handle it and you want to match the colors...go for it :flower:

[biene16]

Thank you so much!! Yeah I'm fine growing it out with how it looks right now to be honest :) I usually always dyed my hair after a month and now I'm close to not having it dyed for four months so I was just curious as to what my natural color is now. I used to always dye it really light blonde until I used the demi and now that it has grown out more, I have no idea what my natural color is or what level it is now - but it'd be really cool to know :)

Hmm my friend told me that I could tone the reddish brown with a grey or silver semi-permanent color to make it appear more ashy but I'm not too sure if that'd work? I don't really want to use any demi or permanent color again to not damage it any further. Are you doing any hair treatments each week? I've completely stopped using heat but I'm not sure how often I should cut it now or what I should do to help keep it healthy while I'm letting it grow out?

[hayheadsbird]

To be totally honest, I struggled to see the line in those photos between your natural colour and the dye. Based on that, id say leave it be a few more months! If you wear your hair up the line will be even harder to see. When it's long enough the contrast between the two it can look amazing in braids and updos.

Have you checked out the growing out dye thread? Some really inspiring photo there.

I'm currently growing out henna, and have a year's worth of natural colour. In most light and in updo's it's not overly noticeable, in direct sunlight you can see the line between the warmer reddish lengths and the more golden and paler copper brown roots. As I have worn my hair down once in the past year out of the house in public, its not high on my personal list of priorities. I'm far more excited to see the grey hair starting to come through!

Obviously it depends on what you feel comfortable with and what you want your hair to be. Not everyone is the same in terms of growing out dye. But I think your photos look lovely, and the line is not screaming out to me.

[lapushka]

Could I tone the reddish brown ends with a semi-permanent dye to match it my natural tone more? What advice do you have to keep my hair in great shape while I’m growing it out?

I would just leave it alone and let it grow out. The more you mess with dye the less close to your "goal" you will be. Even if it is "just" a semi.

[MusicalSpoons]

On my screen here, your roots look to me what I would call dark blonde. Mine are quite similar when my hair is down (the colour in my avatar is thanks to natural highlights - i.e. UV damage - and a flash :lol: ) and they also look very different in different lighting.

As for continuing with dyes, are vegetable dyes an option? On your colour they might stick quite well - depending on the condition and porosity of your hair they might even act as semi-permanent colour? I don't know, just speculating based on what I've read from others' experiences. Might be worth a Google search.

[lapushka]

Yes judging from your picture it will be *very* easy to grow out!

[biene16]

To be honest, I really just tried to take pictures of my roots so you’d get a better idea of what my natural color looks like :) The demi I used faded to about the same color, it’s just that the tone is a lot more warm/really red in different lighting. I’m fine with how it looks right now but I was mainly wondering what I should do when continuing to let it grow ... like should I get cuts regularly or do specific treatments or anything?

[biene16]

Oh yeah that was just a general question :) No worries, I’m not really hating how it looks right now or anything. The pictures I took are mainly of my roots, I kinda tried to avoid the parts that are dyed so you’d get a better idea of the state of my natural hair and what my natural color looks like

[biene16]

I would just leave it alone and let it grow out. The more you mess with dye the less close to your "goal" you will be. Even if it is "just" a semi.
Whoops sorry I just replied to you! I forgot to add your reply so it’s more obvious. Sorry if there’s any confusion!

[biene16]

On my screen here, your roots look to me what I would call dark blonde. Mine are quite similar when my hair is down (the colour in my avatar is thanks to natural highlights - i.e. UV damage - and a flash :lol: ) and they also look very different in different lighting.

As for continuing with dyes, are vegetable dyes an option? On your colour they might stick quite well - depending on the condition and porosity of your hair they might even act as semi-permanent colour? I don't know, just speculating based on what I've read from others' experiences. Might be worth a Google search.

Oh wow! Blonde, really? I thought it’s some kinda mousy/ashy brown �� Is dark blonde the same as light brown maybe? To me it definitely doesn’t look blonde anymore �� Yeah I’ll look into it! Right now I don’t mind what it looks like - I think the color is pretty much the same, just the tone is different. Then again I don’t really know much about hair �� Your hair looks super pretty!! Do you have any advice on what I could do in terms of maintenance while I’m growing it out?

[Milady_DeWinter]

Here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/showthread.php?t=51155)'s a thread were we who have stopped using dyes chit chat about it, post pics, ask for advice and, specially, receive support from the others :o You might like to join!

I've been growing out all natural for 8 months now. Your natural color is gorgeus, and, as other said, it looks really easy to grow :)

[MusicalSpoons]

Oh wow! Blonde, really? I thought it’s some kinda mousy/ashy brown �� Is dark blonde the same as light brown maybe? To me it definitely doesn’t look blonde anymore �� Yeah I’ll look into it! Right now I don’t mind what it looks like - I think the color is pretty much the same, just the tone is different. Then again I don’t really know much about hair �� Your hair looks super pretty!! Do you have any advice on what I could do in terms of maintenance while I’m growing it out?

There appears to be a colour that nobody knows quite how to identify, right on that border of dark blonde/light brown often referred to as blonette or blondette, so your hair might be that. The main reason I said blonde is because they look very similar to my own :) and if your overall colour is like the first pic you uploaded, I'd probably just think 'dark blonde'. But that's just me - and I don't know much about hair colour anyway :lol: whatever you want to call it is fine! And it actually sounds quite cool having two different tones :D

Thank you for the compliment! :flower: As for maintenance, I have no experience with any kind of dye or chemical process myself so can only point you to the wealth of information on here. The standard advice is to treat it gently, 'baby' it, and use lots of moisture and protein to keep it strong - the thread Milady_DeWinter linked will definitely help explain how to go about it.

Happy growing! :)