Two toners check in ...please.

[willowcandra]

I have two toned hair...three years and four months worth of virgin root (almost bsl) and the rest is a mix of dye/henna/blowdry/pregnancy shedd etc mess!

I am finding it difficult a little now ; the ends require one kind of treatment ie gentle handling and cones and they dry real quick...versus natural hair that takes years to dry and is really hard to find a good routine for and good products.

Has anyone else managed to grow out this far? my hair is about half and half I guess now. When I started out there were loads growing out with me but they have disappeared or coloured.

If you ar at or have been at this stage please share if you found a way to keep both sides happy. Or is it just a case of being gentle and patient and waiting for it to grow.

I think it's overall better to do what's good for the natural hair as that's my future. But I do want to keep the ends presentable.
I was thinking to wash and condition as if it were all natural then add some cone serum to the ends?

please share any finds, or experiences you have had. I am not planning to cut the dye off as that would be way to much length for me to lose. I am trimming off all new length though so splits don't last long.

I also need to research a little what routines and products work better on virgin hair as it seems to me to be very different to dyed hair.

[shrimp]

Hi!

I have been growing out chemical colours and henna since dec 2005. Sadly I don't have too much to offer by way of advice as my hair just soaks up moisture in general so I can't imagine how I could deep codition my ends any more than I do my whole head at present. I'm planning on getting to classic then trimming slowly. I do kep getting tempted by colouring the ends though. Am also growing out layers and trying to return to curls full time so I have lots of fun things to play with :rolleyes:

[AmandaPanda]

the last 10-12" of my hair is a combo of highlights, dye and henna (although it has probably lifted out from coloring). My natural color comes to about BSL, too

[Xandergrammy]

Here's the latest picture that shows where I am with my new growth. I pretty much treat all my hair the same, because even my healthy hair tends to be dry. I have a halo though that drives me crazy most days and I'm still experimenting with ways to control it. :rolleyes:



http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g6/Xandergrammy/The%20Next%20One%20Thousand/DSCN1900450x600.jpg

[atlantaz3]

I had grown out bleaching highlighting etc.. probably down to my collar. At the time I just treated all my hair the same. I ended up with a big chop for me getting rid of all the bad hair. That was about five years ago. I didn't really care for the growing out roots look at the time. Guess that doesn't help any to your question though. Have you thought about oil misting the dried ends in between washes to add some extra moisture?

[trollkjerring]

I am growing out virgin hair again, but have only about one inch of natural hair right now. I did this already once in the past, growing out black dye with waist long hair, about five inch virgin medium blond - couldn't stand it anylonger and chopped the black (dyed again, but that is another story and I am back to grow out again).

My dyed hair dried very fast, compared to the virgin hair. I oiled the dyed hair a lot with coconutoil the avoid breaking. I didn't use as much protein on the virgin. My dyed hair loves AO GBP conditioner, followed by AO rosa mosqueta for moisture. I think a coney leave-in is a good idea, at least for my hair, I used Aveda Elixier. I shampooed only the scalp, so I used different gentle shampoos my virgin hair likes.

You have come a long way already!
trollkjerring

[Guenever]

I have 10" of light brown/dark blonde virgin hair as opposed to 27,5" of reddish brown dye.. and I'm sick of the color/texture difference.. I can't wait to get rid of it.. but I'm not willing to chop and end up at low chin :P

I guess I'm lucky because my ends and my natural hair accept the same shampoo only/WC routine.. To make my ends happy I just damp bun a lot.. :)

[Anje]

I'm trying to work up the nerve to go two-toned. I started hennaing about 2 years ago to get rid of the winter browns in my hair, and it's turned too unnatural a red tone at the ends for my taste. The line is never particularly apparent, but it looks obvious in some styles, particularly the crown braid in my albums (which I have yet to figure out how to properly link). So I did a henna gloss on the roots, rather than just live with it. It's time I let my natural color come back, though.

[Unnamed]

I'm a wee bit further--around 3 years and 6 months out from black dye (which I'm still trying to fade, and it has some). My virgin hair is down to about waist I think? I also have old brush damage, which starts around tailbone length, I think. For me, I haven't really changed much in how I care for it--but I think a lot of that is my oily scalp/dry ends which I had even with dying, and so I've always had to treat the hair closer to my scalp differently than the ends. :shrug:

It was CWC for a long time (conditioner only from shoulders down, at the highest--sometimes only shoulder-blades down, especially for the second C).

Right now I'm sorta doing shampoo-only (holding length out of the way) with cond/oil applied post wash (to about shoulder blades on down). Oil alone (even on wet hair) leaves me with crunchy ends, but add a bit of cone-free, moisturising cond (pea sized, more if you don't mind stringy hair), and *then* a bit of oil on top of that...the oil seems to seal in the water + moisture from the conditioner, and ends are happy. :D I tried mixing the two together, and it didn't work--had to be cond on wet hair, then the oil.

It had just happened, as I was applying the cond/oil post wash, and stopped the second C. And I hold the length out of the way while rinsing most of the time, anyway, so figured I'd try stopping the first C, too. :shrug:

Between washes, I'll also just a bit put conditioner on (either alone or with a bit of oil on top of it), if the ends (usually last 6-12") seem particularly dry, but it's not a wash-day.

I'm also currently experimenting with a mister mix (I *think* it's more or less Kimberlily's defrizz spray), concentrating on the ends/dyed hair, mainly on the days between washes.

The ends of my hair REALLY like getting wet (even without any other product), otherwise I'd try scalp washing. If misting isn't quite cutting it, take your ends (even just in a braid), and run 'em under the tap to get them nice and soaked, gently blot with towel, then let dry (either as is or in a bun). I should note this did not work when using cones--I had to apply conditioner whenever I got 'em wet, otherwise they'd end up even drier once dry.

And, just randomly about cones: With no-cones, I didn't have to apply conditioner in-between washing, and the ends didn't feel as dry around the 24-48 hour mark.

My virgin hair (in that shoulders-waist area) so far seems just fine with the same thing the ends get.

Not sure if any of that will help or not, but, in general: If the dyed versus virgin parts of your hair require different care/want different things -- even if it's very different -- then treat 'em as two different areas.

[Nightshade]

While my hair isn't obviously two-toned in normal light, you can really see it in the sun (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/album.php?albumid=237&pictureid=4832).

I've also found that the old dyed ends hate oil, but love Fox's shea conditioning cream. Also, that it's hennaed makes it extra finickey, as henna seems to hate excessive products on it.

There's only about 8-10 inches of dyed hair left, but I have a long way to go before that pretty golden-red you see in the photo (which is copper in normal light) is grown out and all the darker auburn is cut off. I'll get there eventually no major chops for me :o

[spidermom]

My hair is two toned also; just look at my avatar. It's totally natural.

[AJoifulNoise]

As you can see in my siggy (and album), I am two-toned. I've been growing out red box dye for about 2.5 years.

[teela1978]

I'm still a little 2-toned. There's a bit of henna on the outer layers towards the ends. I couldn't stand being 2-toned and went the way of the chop. Now I'm patiently waiting for it to grow back and trying to resist the lure of the hairdye (there are many grays).

[willowcandra]

Thanks everyone. I will definately try dragging the oil out from wherever I put it for the ends. The misting ideasounds like it may help too.
Good to know there are still other lhcers growing out.

[blackfrostqueen]

I'm two toned! And I hate it! My roots are a dark ashy dirt blonde while my length is about golden honey blonde with a hint of old red hair dye, and to make matters worse the very visible line is ear and chin length (different growth)! So wearing my hair down isn't very pretty! BF teases me a lot! :( But anyways I've found too that my roots like one thing and the length another. I really have to condition the length where as the virgin hair doesn't like a lot of moisturizing.

I'm currently using cinnamon to lighten the roots to match to get closer to the length...but its a slow process.

All I can say that has helped the dyed length out is moisture! Sorry I'm not much help...

[Riot Crrl]

I want to use only henna from now on, but I only have an inch of that so far. The rest is henna over dye.

It might not be obvious to normal people but it is to me, hahaa.

[Hedera]

*raises hand*

Two-toned here!

Just look at my profile picture. The lower half of the hair has been dyed a few times (semi-permanent, yeah right); purple, fuschia, and finally a dark brown to get it back to my own colour.
But the dyed hair is much more sensitive to the sun, and most kinds of dyes (no matter what the colour) turn brassy over time, so the bottom half is now a bit reddish, with the ends a sort of coppery strawberry blonde.

I don't mind so much; it's most noticeable when it's up and the ends stick out.
I don't want to chop the dyed hair off yet, since that would mean losing about half my current length and I'm having far too much fun with it, so I'll just wait patiently until the hairs fall out naturally, and small annual (or 6 monthly) trims should take it off eventually.

I'm never dyeing again, the quality of my virgin hair is SO much better!

[Rain]

I have grown out dye many, many times. I'm currently growing out henndigo'd length that isn't damaged so it's just a matter of dealing with the look while it grows because I'm not prepared for a short bob right now. My hair is just starting to feel long enough after cutting back to waist over a year ago.

The last time I grew out damaged, dyed hair, I just had to pay special attention to conditioning the ends. They took a lot of rich conditioner and a lot of leave-in. CWC worked very, very well.

[firebird]

I'm two toned - been growing out natural color for just over a year. The whole dyeing thing was a mistake - I thought I used temporary red dye, which was actaully permanent on my blonde hair, so when I hated the shade of red I had to dye multiple times to try and get blonde back. Surprisingly, my dyed hair is in pretty good condition. I'm trying really hard to be patient and just grow it out, I don't want to cut and lose all that length :( I hate how it looks so twotoned sometimes, so I've been using honey to try and lighten up the new growth to match the dye (but I guess it doesn't count as virgin now, right?)

[Katze]

I'm two-toned (or three- or four-toned) with a gradual move from my ashy natural "hair colored" hair at the roots to lighter/more gold highlights and old dye (from June 2006), then the very ends which are totally bleached (sun and last of the bleach jobs, July 2005 and before) to a dark, warm gold.

Looking at myself in the mirror in sunlight my hair varies as much as Nightshade's, though the progression is from lighter to darker instead.

When I put my hair in a bun or ponytail the contrast between darker head hair and this almost yellowish color at the ends looks BAD. Thus, I prefer to wear my hair down.

My avatar pic shows my hair in sunlight, where you can see a little bit of the old gold tones in the lower left hand side, but most of that pic is natural. When I am out, and wearing my hair down, I tend to have it tucked into my scarf (as in sig pic - which is in overcast light, so the contrast is less).

I really wish I had gotten off the blonde bandwagon years ago, and can't wait until the majority of my length is virgin.

[WavyGirl]

I also have split personality hair :) I've been growing out all the colour for about a year & a half now. The last 10" have had some sort of colour, mainly henna. The last 6" have had perms, blowdrying, straighteners and chemical colours.

I'm finding it really hard to stick to any routine - what suits the ends does not suit the lengths and my scalp craves something different again. The damaged hair can't stand cones or oils. The lengths seem happiest on WO and my scalp needs a shampoo & condition at least once a week or it acts out. So at the moment I'm starting by wetting all my hair and moving as much sebum to the lengths as possible. Then I move the lengths and ends forward over my shoulders and wash & condition my scalp only. I try not to let either run through the lengths. Once all that's rinsed out I pour through a vinegar rinse and get out. I'm using a fair amount of shea it ain't so on the ends and rather less on the lengths and crown on very damp hair. Sounds complicated but it's really easy as all my hair gets wet (the ends crave water). It seems to be working and I'm saving loads on conditioner while my ends are the happiest they've been in ages. I normally damp bun too.

It's very tempting to look at the quality of the undamaged hair and think cut, but I know I would miss the length too much. I am doing S&D regularly and that helps a lot. I will never use heat or chemicals on my hair again. The damage they cause is just nasty.

[Hedera]

It's very tempting to look at the quality of the undamaged hair and think cut, but I know I would miss the length too much. I am doing S&D regularly and that helps a lot. I will never use heat or chemicals on my hair again. The damage they cause is just nasty.

Yes, you put into words exactly how I feel about it!
Thanks! :)

[willowcandra]

Yeah I don't want to cut either. I grew to my goal length and now I am cutting it off gradually.

Glad I am not the only one who is finding it hard to mix routines. one thing I can happily say is that the three years of roots haven't even ever been blow fried once. let alone chemically fiddled with.

[Rae~]

I also have split personality hair :) I've been growing out all the colour for about a year & a half now. The last 10" have had some sort of colour, mainly henna. The last 6" have had perms, blowdrying, straighteners and chemical colours.

I'd have to sit down and do the calculations again, but I'd guess those numbers are similar to my own - henna-gloss on the last 10" or so, with the last 6" or so being hair that was previously straight-permed, streaked, etc. I'm getting really. over. the brassy ends....

[iris]

I'm growing out henna. I have a year and three months of virgin growth. About 15cm. Some of the virgin growth has been very lightly hennaglossed but it's not really noticeable.

I think it's pretty normal though for longhairs to treat roots, midlength and ends as separate and different entities? I always have done that, also before I ever colored at all. Shampoo only on the roots, midlength and ends get an occasional deep treatment, and the ends get a little extra care every day (leave-in, or extra conditioner). I'm used to doing that - I don't think of it as related to coloring, necessarily.

That being said, the coloring thing does add an extra dimension to the problem. I've zapped my henna from super dark red to dark yellow with household peroxide, and I try to keep it somewhat close to my natural color (dark ash blond/light brown) by toning it with various blue stuffs. The blue stuffs tend to grab too much on the ends, which have become quite porous due to the peroxide, and not enough on the midlength. It is a lot of work to keep the whole thing tied together somewhat. I'll be very happy when the henna stuff will all be grown out. Another year or three, I think. By that time I may have so much gray that I may want to do something about that... but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Iris

ETA: I really admire your natural color, BTW. It's very pretty. The first time I saw your sig pic, I literally gasped.

[atina]

I am 3 toned as i had faded purple at the back underneath and blonde on the rest with silver roots but all different shades of red now as i have hennaed it .

[Fiferstone]

I'm two toned too, I've got henna only on the hair from my crown to my chin, with henna-over-box-dye from chin to almost-hip at this point. That would be a LOT of length to lose, and I don't mind the appearance so much that I'm willing to go for that big of a chop. So far, I treat the whole head the same way (most of it's damaged dyed hair) and it seems to be working, but once I have more of the henna-only hair I may have to switch things up a bit.

[redneckprincess]

1 year and 4 months worth, but I really rather like it, a friend of mine went black to blonde (blonde was her natural color) a while before I decided to and I loved how hers was turning out...so I decided to put up with the stares and rude compliments and I absoutly love mine (so does my hubby)

[KajiKodomo]

I'm two-toned. Or, rather, probably more than two tones at this point, haha. I have the lighter color through the bulk of my hair, my darker natural color at my roots, and then a medium-to dark color on the ends in the front.

I'm not dyeing again unless the dyed hair fades much more, because I want it to be as close as possible, haha.

[daydreamer]

Ah this thread is for me! I too have several inches of dye damage at the bottom of my hair -- virgin is a little past APL right now. Lately I've been so sick of the nasty velcro bottom part that I've been cutting my new growth back to waist for a few months. Every time I do this trim I am so tempted to just cut off all the damage! But I would be really sad/sick to my stomach right after, I know! I don't ever, EVER want to dye my hair again -- and certainly not 3 times in a row.

My virgin hair is oily and slippery, so I go with lighter shampoos/conditioners on it -- but the ends are horrible rough dryness, so have to break out the hefty conditioners to make it behave. Happily I've also noticed that the virgin hair has much more body wave to it than the damaged part.... hoping the texture will be more even when all that nast is grown out finally.

[Kiraela]

Another multitoner here! I've got a little over three years of virgin growth, although part of that growth is a different color, for some reason. This picture shows the line best: http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1209&pictureid=14287
This is my current length photo (From early july):
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=1209&pictureid=45259

I'm slowly trimming out the damage and waiting for my virgin hair to grow out long enough that I won't mind cutting off the rest in one big whack.

My virgin hair is pretty resilient - I can do pretty much anything to it and it doesn't care. My damaged ends need heavy cones, otherwise they break off at the lightest breeze. Oiling seems to help some too, so I try to do that no more than one day after I wash my hair, to keep moisture in. If I do it too often, my ends freak out and get brittle... It is a very thin tightrope to walk, between happy and breaky.

[PurpleRays]

I have 3 years of virgin growth at BSL and about 2 inches of color left on the ends. My ends have improved greatly with oiling - thanks LHC!

[Katze]

I am finding it difficult a little now ; the ends require one kind of treatment ie gentle handling and cones and they dry real quick...versus natural hair that takes years to dry and is really hard to find a good routine for and good products.

Has anyone else managed to grow out this far? my hair is about half and half I guess now. When I started out there were loads growing out with me but they have disappeared or coloured.

If you ar at or have been at this stage please share if you found a way to keep both sides happy. Or is it just a case of being gentle and patient and waiting for it to grow.

I think it's overall better to do what's good for the natural hair as that's my future. But I do want to keep the ends presentable.
I was thinking to wash and condition as if it were all natural then add some cone serum to the ends?

please share any finds, or experiences you have had. I am not planning to cut the dye off as that would be way to much length for me to lose. I am trimming off all new length though so splits don't last long.

I also need to research a little what routines and products work better on virgin hair as it seems to me to be very different to dyed hair.

I have similar issues, but have trimmed most of my dyed and heat treated hair.

My virgin hair is very forgiving. It looks so much better, though it only looks polished if I use 'cones or style it.

My ends are flyaway and weightless still, and hang differently from the rest of my hair. The color difference is less and less noticeable, as more of these hairs shed.

Using leave ins, oiling, etc. my ends, especially Fox's Conditioning Cream, seems to help, and seems to be helping that virgin length I do have stay in better condition.

[Maddy25]

I have maybe 3 months of virgin hair right now. My natural hair seems to be coming in a light ash blonde. You can really tell in the sunlight how golden my chemical dye was vs. my real hair, see...

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n296/addie2525/roots.jpg

[paper]

I have 9 months of new growth. I used a dark brown semi dye on the dyed part to help match my virgin hair. It worked pretty good for me! I'm going to be trimming off the dye between APL-BSL.

[irreverent]

Ugh. Due to all the painkillers I used to have to take the last 4 inches of my hair is nasty crunchy hay-like evilness. I've got 2-tone, about 6 months worth of grow-out, but dye never did bother my hair much. :cheese:

[LaFlor]

I've got 2-tones and 2-textures.
I've got about 6 months of new un-highlighted growth. The highlights are only on the top sections of my hair... thankfully I left the underneath natural.
I also have about 4 months completely virgin hair, since I did a perm a couple months after highlighting.

My ends need a lot of extra's... rich conditioners, cones, gentleness. I don't think I'll be able to make it to BSL with this mess on the bottom of my hair. I"ll most likely do a big chop when it reaches about shoulder length!. I prefer having my healthy virgin hair at a short length than have my highlights and perm with me for the next 5 years! Atleast I'll be able to wear it down more often, right now I never wear it down!

[Peregrine]

I have about 5 months virgin growth. I can't decide whether to continue using henna on my hair (I do love the color) or to leave it virgin and see if I like my natural hair color any better. Since I've switched to WO and I've been keeping my hair out of the sun my hair seems to be coming in a darker brown.

I'm going to grow out my natural hair color to about chin length and see what it looks like then.

[Feye]

This will make you all happy.
I have three-toned hair: blonde at the roots, colored in the middle, and virgin at the roots (1 1/2 year of growth). Yesterday I walked into a hair salon, and the coloring guy behind the counter went crazy. "Ooh, I love your hair color, the roots are darker and the ends are lighter, it's fantastic!" he exclaimed with delight. (Without trying to book me in for a color job). "I wish my roots would do that", he said and pointed at his own hair which was also two toned.
The comment just made my day.

A couple of years ago I had also two toned hair with two years of virgin roots, and I remember another hairdresser exclaiming how she loved my color. Huh?!

So don't feel bad about your two toned hair! Someone might think it's just the prettiest thing they've ever seen. :)

[Kiraela]

This will make you all happy.
I have three-toned hair: blonde at the roots, colored in the middle, and virgin at the roots (1 1/2 year of growth). Yesterday I walked into a hair salon, and the coloring guy behind the counter went crazy. "Ooh, I love your hair color, the roots are darker and the ends are lighter, it's fantastic!" he exclaimed with delight. (Without trying to book me in for a color job). "I wish my roots would do that", he said and pointed at his own hair which was also two toned.
The comment just made my day.

A couple of years ago I had also two toned hair with two years of virgin roots, and I remember another hairdresser exclaiming how she loved my color. Huh?!

So don't feel bad about your two toned hair! Someone might think it's just the prettiest thing they've ever seen. :)

I have noticed that!! Over half my pic comments are compliments on my two-tonedness. I don't really understand it, but I guess subjectively, NearBlack and ButteredBronze do look pretty cool together in updos...

[Flynn]

I have single-coloured hair (I've never had the guts even to do it with a wash-out dye...) but I just wanted to pop my head in and say that I love the two-tone look. I was trying to work out if it could be done deliberately at one stage there... (shortly before I decided I'd rather just go short...)

It really looks good, especially when there is a gradient from dark roots to light ends. (The other way 'round is nice too, but I especially like dark to light.)