Hello new here..introducing my hair

[mediumhair]

Hi. I have medium brown hair. I just got my hair cut and it's about shoulder l length. I dyed my hair with ammonia dye(very bad I know) to about 1 shade lighter(redder) about 3 times. First I dyed it lighter and the sun bleached it to red and I dyed it back to brown and about 4 months ago I dyed it one shade lighter. Does anyone else always correct how they spell dye? Let's see i've also used harsh shampoo's or I think they are. The shampoo I used made my scalp itchy. It was Herbal Essences. Now i'm using a more natural Coconut Oil shampoo and it's great. I wash my hair about 3-4 times a week with warm water(should I switch to cold?). I have my hair up when working and down at home. I tend to have somewhat very oily hair so it needs constant washing. Let's see my goal is basically to let my dyed hair grow out and to cut it off and to LIGHTEN my hair NATURALLY. I have skimmed a thread on here about honey and will try that. Is there anything else I might have in the house that I could try? I've tried a chamoline shampoo a few years ago and it didn't help. Are there any teas, shampoo's, anything that will make it lighter? I don't care if my hair turns red or anything other than brown. I just want it to be lighter naturally.

Oh and this is not related to be but my friend used to have her hair trimmed regularly before she grew it out to past her armpits and had super thick hair. Now her hair looks dead and very split and very thin even though it's long and it's coming out on her brushes. Should she just cut back another 6 inches and then let it grow out again or is there a way to save it?

[mediumhair]

Here is a photo. Lighting isn't exact and my hair was just cut and wet. Right now I cannot see any of the layers, they seem to have dissapeared. http://i41.tinypic.com/2cih1s6.jpg

[Xi]

Welcome to the LHC!:waving: I'm no expert in the lightening-of-hair department... You might look into threads about cassia -- although I don't think that's permanent. Good luck!

Perhaps your longhaired friend should join the LHC herself -- that would be a simpler way to address her haircare questions.:) I know Nightshade wrote a great article about saving damaged hair -- it's in the Articles section.

[jera]

Hi and welcome to LHC. It sounds Like you've got some hair issues. :( There are lots of things you and your friend can use to help save your hair. If you want to lighten your brown hair without harsh dye and don't care if it turns reddish or blondish, you could try honey, or even henna. And as mentioned before, cassia is another option.

There are lots of helpful threads here. ( And helpful people too ! ) :)

[Shorty89]

I was going to suggest honey with cinnamon. I know that it lightened my hair some. Lemon juice can work as well, but it tends to be drying. I'm not sure how much you can lighten your hair with the aforementioned things, but they're worth a shot :-) I found cinnamon + honey (mixed with warmed up conditioner) to work as a SMT as well. For your friend, I second Nightshade's article. As well, she could try a SMT to add moisture, or perhaps a protein treatment. Does she straighten, dye or heat style her hair? If so, that could be harming her hair. In addition, does she comb/brush carefully or does she rip a brush through her hair? That can also cause damage. If she's interested in long hair I think she'd enjoy having her own account. :-)

[Tressie]

Welcome to LHC!! There's a lot of information here, and you will find a lot of links if you do a search. I recently read some posts about some people finding that olive oil, maybe extra virgin olive oil, had lightened their hair. I'm sure you have been reading the honey lightening threads so you know that you have to heat the honey to get the peroxide effect.

I second Shorty89's suggestion that your friend might want to join and learn ways to improve her hair. There's so very much here, it's like a gold mine!!! (o: Have fun!