Learning to accept and love your natural hair colour?

[Leisje]

I started dying my hair as soon as my mother would let me when I was younger. And over the years I have mostly had some kind of dye/colorant on my hair. Occasionally I would grow it out, but then quickly decide (again) how much I hate it.

The truth is, I don't feel like a blonde. I adore darker hair. My brothers were born with lush, dark brown and I got that white blonde. It has darkened over the years to become a dark ash blonde, but blonde it is nonetheless.

In lieu of becoming very natural over the last while, in cosmetics and hair care, I feel like it might be time to have my natural hair colour again. As much as I love henna, I am growing tired of always having that 'skunk line' of blonde roots growing in. The upkeep of having black, or brown, or even dark red hair is kind of irritating.
I'm also kind of interested to see what virgin hair feels like!

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?

[redneckprincess]

You and I are quite the oppisite. after YEARS of bleaching my hair to get the perfect white blond (the color I feel I look best with) I have decided to grow my natural hair color for the first time since I was 15, Its dark and I think it will take some getting used to, but when I put a vegitable red dye over it 6 weeks ago and i am still working to get it out, I am really excited to see the light brown comming back to life ♥

[spidermom]

I've had dark golden blonde hair for most of my adult life. I'm not crazy about it, but my DH is, and I hate root upkeep, so I've mostly left my color alone. I don't spend that much time looking at my color anyway, so who cares; I looked at the colors I liked on other people.

Now that I've got a lot of white gold crowding out the dark gold, I like the color better. It's much brighter.

[Honestwitness]

I have never dyed my hair. It has changed from medium brown to beige (mostly white with some remaining brown) over the years. I have enjoyed the challenge of finding ways to use my hair and skin color as the starting points for artistically choosing makeup and clothing colors.

I will admit I am vain and strive to elicit compliments on my appearance. That's why I love this forum. There is usually someone who is willing to give a sincere compliment to someone else, no matter the hair color or texture.

There is beauty in all of us, if we look through the eyes of love.

I really admire people who are brave enough to go back to their natural hair color. I look at it as opening ourselves to the gifts we have been given and making something lovely out of them.

[MemSahib]

Accepting your color is part of accepting your hair, in my opinion. You can fight the curl or lack of it and/or you can fight the color. I'm not going to fight what I have. Besides, contrary to many popular opinions most people look quite good in their natural color. It goes with your skin and eyes.

[jivete]

I'm trying to accept my natural color. It just seems so blah. Used to be ash blond and is now some form of ash brown. I really love dark brown hair, but I'm trying to accept what it is naturally. I figure long healthy natural hair is beautiful no matter what the color.

[Sasha_S]

I hate my natural colour, it's an ugly dark dishwater blonde/light brown. I tried growing it out earlier this year and it just confirmed my hatred, lol.
I just get rid of it! I wish I could learn to love it though... (though I saw someone with long hair in my natural shade today and my first thought was, "my god, dye that will you??" lol!)
x

[Natalia]

I started dying my hair as soon as my mother would let me when I was younger. And over the years I have mostly had some kind of dye/colorant on my hair. Occasionally I would grow it out, but then quickly decide (again) how much I hate it.

The truth is, I don't feel like a blonde. I adore darker hair. My brothers were born with lush, dark brown and I got that white blonde. It has darkened over the years to become a dark ash blonde, but blonde it is nonetheless.

In lieu of becoming very natural over the last while, in cosmetics and hair care, I feel like it might be time to have my natural hair colour again. As much as I love henna, I am growing tired of always having that 'skunk line' of blonde roots growing in. The upkeep of having black, or brown, or even dark red hair is kind of irritating.
I'm also kind of interested to see what virgin hair feels like!

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?

My goodness! Peas in a blonde pod :p!!! I am a natural very pale blonde who loves her dark brown hair :heartbeat. I am in a bit of a dilema not ready to go blonde but allergic to chemical dyes and is a hendigo chicken :p lol is that a mouthful or what? I wish i could be of help to you in loving your color but im just not there yet. Anyways i wish you well :snuggle:

[bahannas]

My hair is a sort of dull blonde; it lightens in the summer. I try to focus on how healthy my hair is, rather than the color. It makes a world of difference. :)

[Arctic]

I am growing out henna and am going to embrase my natural ash brown colour. I have coloured and later hennaed since I was 13 years old, so almost 20 years. I remember I really have disliked my colour at times but I am ready now to just accept. It does go well with my skin and eyes. I think one of the reasons behind my growing my hair out is to learn to accept my hair, myself the way it is/I am.

[jojo]

I was a strawberry blond as a child and as i got older my hair went to more a dark blond with copper bit in it, now i use henna glosses as it gives me back the red. But I dont dislike my natural hair colour, mine lacks shine which henna glosses also give me!

[Fractalsofhair]

I'm actually a huge fan of my natural hair color. It's somewhere between platinum and ash blonde. Everyone else thinks it's gray(Not quite, I'm 15, to be 16 in a week and a day, I'm pretty sure it's not the gray of age and wisdom!), and well... People constantly suggest I dye it, which I have, but all blonde dyes out there contain bleach, and well, bleach+my hair=damage! My boyfriend is ok with it since it's still blonde, but I do know he prefers yellow hair to silvery gold. However, he likes the feeling of my hair without frequent dying, so he's generally ok with it. My family tends to worry about my getting a job or such due to having such an odd hair color, and the idea that a Jewish person can't be blonde(We can! Esp if we're mostly Scottish. XD), which leads to weird comments by other families(At least among my grandparent's friends.). I do like my hair blue much better than blonde, but a few streaks are fun, I'm not sure how I'd like a whole head of blue hair. I really do like the blue in it, and I feel it's much more fun than dying my hair a normal color. It's tricky, since a lot of people think I try to dye my hair and fail at it, since natural blonde hair is so rare, people think that everyone has that yellow hair look. Yellow hair is fun and all, but with jet black roots, that most people think is what blonde hair is, it's a little tricky to explain.

[hellkitty]

My natural color is dark brown with a big white streak over my left eye. Boring color and signs of age?!? Hated it. About five years ago, though, I had a general epiphany about no longer trying to make my hair do stuff it didn't want to do. It didn't want to curl? No more perms or irons. It didn't want to be a sexy color? Fine. It laughed at even the most 'grey resistant' dyes, so I gave up.

Turns out, hey, not so bad. Sure, I still seethe with envy looking at some of you ladies with your gorgeous ripples of blonde, but the relief from not having to fight it, and not having to add 'color hair' onto my already way too long list of stuff I have to do, make up for it.

Besides, my hair might not have the greatest color or the most awesome texture, but it does have *shine*. Think about what's positive about your own hair and work with that, instead of wishing for what it doesn't want to do!

HK

[Cassi]

I am also trying to accept my natural color which is dark brown salt-n-pepper. I had been dying it a true red by Feria for about 2 years because I could see the grey coming in. I had some sort of internal conflict about having a toddler and being a grey haired mommy. The last time I dyed was August 2008 I think. When I decided my new hobby was growing my hair long I also decided that I needed to stop dying (to reduce damage). I am still not sure if I like seeing the grey.... trying to accept myself! :p

[Tornerose]

I'll join the club.
I was bonde as a kid (Always seem to ave had dark roots though) and after I started messing with colours etc it got darker. I bleached the roots for a while, then I decided to go for a dramatic change and bought a botthe called "Permanent RedBlack". It mostly looked black, but red in direct sunlight. Then after a while it faded to this boring caramel colour, wich my roots seemed to have started growing out too. After a while I wanted blonde hair again, but my hairdresser wouldn't let me because she was afraid I'd fry it, and she didn't want to hae to cut it off (KUDOS To her), so she suggested I'd try stripes of blond instead.
(Pics in album)

Currently I'm trying to decide whether I should henna/indigo my hair, keep it natural, or use a chemical bleach to get it blonde. I'm tending towards keeping it natural due to sheer laziness, but I'm not sure I like it. I think it's a tad too dark for me, dull and pretty ugly to see my previous lighter hair down the lengt.

[Euphony]

Besides, contrary to many popular opinions most people look quite good in their natural color. It goes with your skin and eyes.
Most the time that is very true...sadly I'm not one of them. I had a mother that was very white, she had blond hair, blue eyes and very white skin. My father however is almost full-blooded Native American. I got a combination of my mother and father's skin tone - I look white unless I tan (I tan very dark) and I have a very red Native American tone to my skin. I have extremely dark brown, almost black colored eyes, and extremely dark brown almost black colored eyebrows. Somehow in the mix I ended up with slightly darker than my mother's hair color :rolleyes:

I have no idea how this happened and I wanna slap whomever was laughing so hard they fell over in creating me. My hair comes in at the roots a relatively light chocolate brown color and gets golder and golder and golder blond down the length from sun bleaching. It looks like I bleach my hair, have been accused of bleaching my hair and people do not believe that is my natural color.

So I figure henna, nope it certainly doesn't look like I'm supposed to have dark auburn hair, but it sure does look a whole lot better on me than my natural color :D

When I get more grays though, I'm definitely going to stop with the henna. I want nothing more than silver/white hair that is super long.

[DrkAngel]

Accepting your color is part of accepting your hair, in my opinion. You can fight the curl or lack of it and/or you can fight the color. I'm not going to fight what I have. Besides, contrary to many popular opinions most people look quite good in their natural color. It goes with your skin and eyes.


I have always said your natural hair color is the one that will suit you best. In very few people I have actually seen dyed hair that looked great on them.

[Dragonfly78]

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker on this forum, and have posted occasionally in the past. :)

My hair colour is a big issue for me - I was blonde as a child, and now have that classic dark blonde mousey colour lol. I started going gray at 18, and now at the age of 30 I am probably about 40% gray, but still feel too young to let my natural colour (or lack thereof) show through. My hair has been high-lighted blonde for the last few years, as it suits my very pale skin so well. My natural colour + grays seem far too gray-ish toned for my skin & make me look ill. I'm kind of stuck on what to do next, am recovering from a long illness which has made my hair very thin also. :(

Oh, btw my hair type is a 2b/3a, fine and shoulder length. It took me until the last couple of years to accept my curls, now I think I need to start working on accepting my colour. :)

[spidermom]

Euphony, I'm so glad that you're happy with henna, but you describe your natural coloring as so hideous and it's not. I've seen a number of celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce purposely cultivate that dark/light look by bleaching and have also seen a few people around who had the dark features/light hair combination naturally, like that little girl in California who was killed, and to my eye it looks beautiful. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[GlennaGirl]

I'm pretty much your opposite. I don't feel like a brunette. I was blonde as a child, getting progressively darker until I was caramel at age 10 and full-on light brown at age 15...but by then I had already begun to Sun-In my hair.

After that I used boxed dyes for many years...wow, until I was, let me think...35. Then I started to grow out my natural color. Much later I used henna on it and that's what you see now...I have never, ever, ever gotten used to being a brunette. It stinks. It seems like such a small thing (what is hair color in the grand scheme of things?) and yet when you startle each time you look in the mirror, well...That can be tough. I'm not sure though whether you're saying you do want to grow your hair out, or whether you plan to keep on using henna. You are such a pretty girl, I'm sure you'd be a lovely blonde too.

[wackyredtangles]

I mostly like my natural hair color. I like coloring it though because its my one girly thing I allow myself. I cut my own hair, I rarely buy new clothes, no nothing girly. I don't like chemical dyes cuz they turn my hair into straw. Henna is a totally different story. I'm a natural redhead anyways, so its not that different. I've thought about doing a henna/indigo, but I don't mostly because of the upkeep.

Maybe that's something you could try, having it a color that's close to your natural hair color so when the roots come in they're not that noticeable?

[SpecialKitty]

I feel as though there is a strong bias towards hair coloring in the US (and maybe elsewhere). Most women I know begin coloring their hair in young adulthood and keep coloring their whole lives. Right now, there seems to be a trend towards streaking or foiling or whatever it's called (those multi-colored stripes), which I think look kind of funny.

I sometimes wish I had different colored hair, but I think this is just me being influenced by the coloring bias. Most of the time I really like my hair color (which is brownish red with lots of silver gray growing in). It helps when people tell me I shouldn't color my hair - others seem to like my natural color too. The one time I did color my hair, the upkeep was tremendously time-consuming and expensive. And the color just looked kind of weird on me.

Most of the hair I admire out there is long and natural colored. I adore memsahib's hair, and harpgal's, spidermom's, and olegraymare's. Sure, there are some beautiful hennaheads, indigos, and bottle blondes too, but it is way less hassle to have your natural color......

[fishwich]

My thinking went like this:

Red hair = interesting! Almost nobody's got that!
Dishwater blonde hair = boring! Everybody's got that.

Enter henna.

I admit, I still want to have hair that people think is unusual and noteworthy, which is part of why I want to get it to my ankles. But eh, I'm really bored of watching my roots and measuring time as an inexorable process of looking less...whatever. Less red? Less interesting? Less awesome? Well, screw that. When it's to my knees people will look twice no matter what color it is. Dishwater ahoy!

[Rini]

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker on this forum, and have posted occasionally in the past. :)

My hair colour is a big issue for me - I was blonde as a child, and now have that classic dark blonde mousey colour lol. I started going gray at 18, and now at the age of 30 I am probably about 40% gray, but still feel too young to let my natural colour (or lack thereof) show through. My hair has been high-lighted blonde for the last few years, as it suits my very pale skin so well. My natural colour + grays seem far too gray-ish toned for my skin & make me look ill. I'm kind of stuck on what to do next, am recovering from a long illness which has made my hair very thin also. :(

Oh, btw my hair type is a 2b/3a, fine and shoulder length. It took me until the last couple of years to accept my curls, now I think I need to start working on accepting my colour. :)


I think we have the same hair!!!

I was using henna up until about 18 months ago, then went back to natural. The many many silvers I have are making the overall colour look very light ash blonde and I just LOVE not having to touch up the roots. I DID/DO love the henna red, but upkeep was the issue, so I have learned to love what I have now.

We are always our own worst critics, so what you think is a "blah" haircolour, other ppl will think is nice. I get many compliments on my hair colour, and I think it has helped me grow in confidence and embrace it :inlove:

[daydreamer]

I used to think my natural haircolor was very "blah" too -- sort of a no-man's land between blonde and brown, and loved dark hair! I spent most of my adult life since I was 18 coloring all sorts of colors. After the last triple-dye job I decided to end the nonsense, heh!! It has made such damage on my ends. My natural hair is a little below APL now and I can honestly say I love it now. I always thought it was boring before, but now I see it has all kinds of cool highlights and overtones that dye jobs will never achieve. I plan on keeping it!!

[dragonfrog]

I started dying my hair as soon as my mother would let me when I was younger. And over the years I have mostly had some kind of dye/colorant on my hair. Occasionally I would grow it out, but then quickly decide (again) how much I hate it.

The truth is, I don't feel like a blonde. I adore darker hair. My brothers were born with lush, dark brown and I got that white blonde. It has darkened over the years to become a dark ash blonde, but blonde it is nonetheless.

In lieu of becoming very natural over the last while, in cosmetics and hair care, I feel like it might be time to have my natural hair colour again. As much as I love henna, I am growing tired of always having that 'skunk line' of blonde roots growing in. The upkeep of having black, or brown, or even dark red hair is kind of irritating.
I'm also kind of interested to see what virgin hair feels like!

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?

I, too, have always wanted hair a different color. My mother’s hair is raven black, and my father has blonde hair. I ended up with very dark brown hair, utterly devoid of any red highlights. Growing up, I wanted hair that was any color but boring old brown. I envied my mom’s black hair, my dad’s blonde, and my cousin’s lovely reddish-brown. I tried a number of colors on myself and ended up dying my hair black most of the way through high school and my first year of college. Black was a subtle change for me, but I really felt it made a huge difference.

Since then, about 3 years ago, I’ve quit dying my hair and just grown it out (mostly due to pure laziness). My observation is that the first 2-3 inches that grew in are quite damaged from the chemicals I used, and hardly seem like “virgin” growth. These damaged portions are also a different color than my more recent growth; the damaged portions are a much lighter brown with lots of orangey highlights, and my natural virgin growth is very dark brown with no red/orange highlights. So basically I would say grow your hair out more than just an inch or two if you want to get a better idea of what it really looks like; the initial growth after chemical use can still be damaged.

Since coming to LHC I’ve come to appreciate the beauty of hair like mine more. I recommend looking through the albums of people who have hair that’s similar to what your virgin hair is like. It can be very inspiring. However, I can’t say I’m completely settled on having virgin hair; I still feel the temptation to tint my hair, just a little. I am sure your virgin hair would be beautiful, but ultimately you should do whatever makes you happy… if you are happy with the way you look it will show.

It is, however, easier to dye virgin hair than to get back to virgin from dyed hair. So while I ponder more dye I am growing out my virgin hair.

[GlassEyes]

What I've noticed is that a LOT of people with light brown/mousy hair dye it.

I like light brown hair. ): But no one around here seems to have it anymore besides my friend Jess, and she wants orange hair but can't because she chemically straightens. xD; The only other people I know with it are guys.

[Kaamos]

I have never dyed my hair and I think I will never do.
That does not mean that I have always been happy with my hair colour... I always wanted to have dark hair.
But I think my natural hair colour suits my face.
I accept my hair colour. It's a part of me and why should I hate it?

[Katze]

What I've noticed is that a LOT of people with light brown/mousy hair dye it.

I like light brown hair. ): But no one around here seems to have it anymore besides my friend Jess, and she wants orange hair but can't because she chemically straightens. xD; The only other people I know with it are guys.

Even the use of the word 'mousy' shows the general bias against this hair color - not criticizing you, just pointing out how 'hair colored' hair is seen.

I am slowly learning to accept my not-brown-not-blonde ashy-with-gold-highlights hair color.

For years I bleached, dyed, streaked, highlighted it. And it never grew. Now I know that long hair is more important to me than being blonde. And it does match my natural coloring better, even if my eyebrows are still much, much blonder than my hair.

For me, embracing my hair in all its difficulty, ashy color, wispy and frizzy and messy and not-quite-wavy-enough, is part of growing up and accepting myself. Also, now that I am a mom, I hope to encourage my daughter to accept herself the way she is. And given that BF has messy, wavy, hair-colored hair, she will probably also have similar hair to ours.

[Carina]

I have learned the hard way to like my hair.I have fought both my natural color and texture.But I got so tired of always highlightning it and use my blowdryer so I just stopped one day.But the final decision to embrace my natural self came last summer.I cut off all the highlights and my flatiron was put in the garbage:shocked:.I also discovered that cones makes my hair into a frizz ball.But at least it is my hair.

[LaurelSpring]

I have been coloring my hair since forever! I colored it light brown for at least 20 years. When I quit using the dye my Mom kept telling me it was too dark and I should go back to my light brown. I kept telling her that my hair WAS that dark. She just hadnt seen it for 20 years.

It is so hard to kick the color habit. I just switched my addiction to henna over the last couple of years. I have been trying to quit...honest...but then a couple of months into it I get an attack of the frumpies brought on by some emotional upset and hit the henna. Next thing you know I wake up the next morning hennaed again. Its like a color binge.

My plan at this point is similar to my food plan. If its not in the house I cant eat/color with it. What I have left in the house is one bag of punjabi, one cassia and a couple of old jars of rainbow light brown and neutral. I am only going to use the punjabi for my toes and then I will just use up what is left and not buy any more. That is the plan anyway. :rolleyes: Honestly I think I need a 12 step program for this. I have done great with no trimming though so there is hope.

[ademtce]

i've started growing my natural hair out its a very very dark brown(almost black) color and i've got almost 3" of natural growth.

but im really really getting tempted to go redhead red, i just got a coupon for $5 off Perfect 10
and i need to be talked down from more processing...

[Bunnyhare]

SO many people would kill for natural white blonde hair! I never particularly liked or disliked my color, but I really dislike the upkeep and damage of coloring...i did it a bit in highschool(went blonde) and once in college (went black) and for the last 20 years have been natural..I wish we could all enjoy the color pallete given to us..but then theres alot I wish for!HEEHEE

[helen2806]

My natural colour is blonde and I go through phases of being bored with it, but I've only actually dyed it once - last summer I did a temporary dark brown dye and spent a couple of weeks as a brunette which was fun.

One thing I don't like about being a natural blonde is that because there are so many bottle blondes (around here anyway) a lot of people assume my hair is dyed, and don't always believe me when I tell them it isn't... and then there are the classic stereotypes associated with it too :rolleyes::p

[Zindell]

I used to bleach highlights in my hair, but when I stopped going to hairstylists due to their excessive cutting I also stopped with the highlights.

I love my natural haircolor now although it has a wide range of different blonde tones in it. From very dark blond underneath to more golden blonde on the surface.

My hair is also brighter during summertime thanks to the sun, and darker during the winter. I don't mind that anymore.

When the silvers arrive I will embrace them too! :inlove:

[flapjack]

It's sad to see so many people with light brown hair hating their hair when I know tons and tons of people who don't have light brown hair and would give a limb for it.

Any shade of hair color that isn't black/very dark brown is rare, no matter what some of you might think, hahaha. Your hair color... it's rare. Most people will never have it naturally, like you do. And when you go to the store and see 548904754 boxes of hair dye that are various shades of reds, browns and blondes, that says something.

[curls2grow]

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?Being honest, I am not thrilled with how gray I am already. But I decided to stop coloring back in spring 2007. I learned to love it knowing that I am no longer adding damage to my already dry tempermental curly hair; I had some breakage mid-strand that really alarmed me when I was coloring.

[xsadiemamx]

I always hated my red hair. I used to get teased about it alll the time and always wanted to dye it but never had the balls. I did like a little black/purple/ dark red on the ends but that was noting you know . Then like two years ago I put blonde highlights in my hair and they WAY overdid it and it was horrible. I cried for weeks and screamed at them, and they had to add more red in to get rid of the blonde. Then I promised myself I would never dye it again. Well II got bored and tried to get a two toned look and asked for some dark red on the underneath half of my hair. it came out PURPLE/BLACK!!! I WAS DEVESATED! They riuned it and the color is still there. So basically I never had enough balls to die the whole thing. After I did the blonde highlights I felt like I had lost my identity cuz everyone knows me for my red hair. I also have a twin sister with red hair and we are know as the red head twins. Not after that!! I always looked at her hair and envied her and wished I had my natural hair color back!. So after this PURPLE washes out NEVER EVER AGAIN! I love my hair color now, I look at my sisters hair all the time and wish I had never touched mine. and I guess thats how I finally learned to embrace it. Not only that buy my boyfrend loves my hair color, and I guess alot of men love it too ( as well as hate it lol) And red hair is very rare. So I guess that helps out the situation too lol.

[Arctic]

This is great thread! Thanks for everyone who has shared their experiencies and feelings!

[Speckla]

I never really hated my own color but hated the grey that was showing up. I kept dying because the line of demarcation was too much for me to handle. This last chop got rid of all the harsh chemical dyes. The only thing I have in my hair right now is Hennaluscent and it fades away to nothing. I already at almost 1" of new growth in the last month and it's grey. The rest of my greys are showing through as the color fades. It was a fun change but I'm not sure if I'm going to redo it. My hair is a medium brown that looks darker due to gel or other leave-ins.

[wintersun99]

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?

Hmm, it's been years since I've seen my natural hair color and even now, I'm not really sure what that color is. I dyed it for many years, than switched to henna and indigo for a few years. I'm now about 2 months into growing out all the color. To be sure, I have some gray and I don't really like it and not totally ready to embrace that. I did recently use cassia and it has turned my gray to blond. I have noticed that my natural (or cassia'd) hair is much, much lighter than I thought it was. I thought I was medium ash-brown (based on old pictures) but I am definately more of a light brown with gray, now. I can't decided if I like being lighter colored or not (I've grown so accustomed to dark brown) :p


Being honest, I am not thrilled with how gray I am already. But I decided to stop coloring back in spring 2007. I learned to love it knowing that I am no longer adding damage to my already dry temperamental curly hair; I had some breakage mid-strand that really alarmed me when I was coloring.

Ditto. :)

[LittleOrca]

While I love myself with red hair, I am working hard to get my natural brown back. It is not the most wonderful color out there, but it is mine and for that I love it.

[Krystyle]

I started dying my hair as soon as my mother would let me when I was younger. And over the years I have mostly had some kind of dye/colorant on my hair. Occasionally I would grow it out, but then quickly decide (again) how much I hate it.

The truth is, I don't feel like a blonde. I adore darker hair. My brothers were born with lush, dark brown and I got that white blonde. It has darkened over the years to become a dark ash blonde, but blonde it is nonetheless.

In lieu of becoming very natural over the last while, in cosmetics and hair care, I feel like it might be time to have my natural hair colour again. As much as I love henna, I am growing tired of always having that 'skunk line' of blonde roots growing in. The upkeep of having black, or brown, or even dark red hair is kind of irritating.
I'm also kind of interested to see what virgin hair feels like!

Is there anyone else who doesn't like their natural colour, but is going to keep it anyways? How did you learn to love it?

I didn't per se hate my natural color but I just love to experiment and have fun. My hair was three colors last year. Blonde, red, brown and now my natural black. I learned to love it bc I hated the texture of my dyed hair. The ends always seemed so fried.

[adventuring]

My mother's a hairdresser, so I've been dyeing my hair since... well, pretty much forever. And I love to dye it, really, and my hair doesn't mind.

My natural hair color seems to be some kind of ash blonde that I'm not crazy about. Blonde is basically the only color I've avoided. But I've been thinking seriously about staying blonde the next time I cut my hair off. Probably not my natural hair color; I'd lighten it a bit, but it'd be a hell of a lot closer. I've really come to like all the pictures of long, darker blonde hair floating around here.

Still debating, though. I'm a pretty damn pale person. It's conceivable that going blonde would wash me out.

[free_hug]

Nature tends to give people a perfect combination of colors. Or, even when it's not perfect, it's a lot better than anything dyes can make...

Personal color story: I hennaed for a couple of years, until i had to realize that red is cool, but for my skin and eye color nothing is cooler than the mid-brown that grows out by itself. (I hennaed so much that it never came out, so i had a big and difficult chop too, about a year ago)

But in fact i don't think this equally applies to everyone. Some people do look great with some other color.

Also, sooooo many people all around the world go into pains to have your withe blond color, and you just don't feel like wearing it :D talk about irony.

[Bianca]

[QUOTE=fishwich;599658]My thinking went like this:

Red hair = interesting! Almost nobody's got that!
Dishwater blonde hair = boring! Everybody's got that. QUOTE]

Maybe a lot of people have "dishwater" blonde hair, but since almost everyone seems to color it other colors, then "dishwater" blonde must be rare... :p It is in Denmark anyway. So I can't wait till my ash blonde is grown out, and the colored hair is cut off.

Also I wish people would stop calling it dishwater blonde... Ash blonde sounds a little less offensive to those who have that color :) Just saying.

[Tap Dancer]

Accepting your color is part of accepting your hair, in my opinion.

That's the reason I decided to stop coloring my hair. I was trying to cover up the white hairs. I've finally decided to embrace them after 9 years. I think I'll love how I look once I have more white hair than dark brown hair...even though that won't happen for many more years.

But, hey, if people like to color their hair, that's cool too.

[Chamy]

I used to hate my haircolour too, i have a ashy darkblond colour but i always wanted to be darkbrown. So i coloured my hair brow and red during most of my teenage years, but then i got lazy and would'nt bother to colour my roots, now i have all virgin hair.

I still feel too lazy to start colouring again :P

[Cassi]

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker on this forum, and have posted occasionally in the past. :)

My hair colour is a big issue for me - I was blonde as a child, and now have that classic dark blonde mousey colour lol. I started going gray at 18, and now at the age of 30 I am probably about 40% gray, but still feel too young to let my natural colour (or lack thereof) show through. My hair has been high-lighted blonde for the last few years, as it suits my very pale skin so well. My natural colour + grays seem far too gray-ish toned for my skin & make me look ill. I'm kind of stuck on what to do next, am recovering from a long illness which has made my hair very thin also. :(

Oh, btw my hair type is a 2b/3a, fine and shoulder length. It took me until the last couple of years to accept my curls, now I think I need to start working on accepting my colour. :)

I have a very similar experience and type 3a/F also. I was also blonde as a child. My sister is still blonde (and has blue eyes). Now my color is DARK brown. My eyes are hazel green/brown and one is dominantly green the other dominantly brown. I kinda like it now. It isn't too noticeable. Love your curls!! I have recently realized my hair stays dry, and you may need moisture like me (you may already know that) since curly hair is usually pretty dry. The right vitamins and more protein in the diet (like eggs) may help you grow stronger hair. I have really learned a lot in the article section here at long hair community! :eye:

I am watching the grey grow in, and I feel too young for it, too! I started getting grey in my early 20's .....right around the time I started working in a pharmacy. I wonder if there is a connection between my job and my grey?? LOL :bounce: Go figure!

[Dragonfly78]

Wow, looks like there are a few of us with similar hair types - and you're right, my hair is definitely dry, especially when it's been highlighted. Not sure I'm entirely ready to "gray & let gray" but I am looking at gentler colouring methods for the future. :) I love my curls these days, and very rarely straighten them. I think my hair suits me better curly than straight, and my boyfriend loves the curls too! :D

[boukje]

I hate my haircolour too! I have light/medium brown but it looks kind of grey and dull (Not the nice grey), it makes my face very boring and I already look so plain and boring.

I always loved ginger hair and always wanted to be a redhead. I have made my hair lighter once (when I was 13) then I cut it and grew it out again, from 15 to 16 I used to dye my hair dark brown (which did look very nice I think), after that I didn't do anything to it, but from 18 I started using henna (the dark brown faded a lot then). I used to love the henna right after I coloured it, but when it oxidyzes in a few days it was way too dark. I made my hair auburn, and I know that henna will never give me the colour I want (because I need to have darkblonde hair to start with, to end with copper colour hair when using henna).

I haven't coloured my hair for about a year now and I so don't like my hair colour. Everytime I see someone with copper hair I think, I want that. Luckily I cannot dye it because of the henna (and I don't want to cut off from tailbone to bob) so it will take many years before the henna has grown out.

I am hoping I will then finally accepted my ugly haircolour and that I will not ever again colour it. With short hair it is no big deal, but with long hair you just don't get the change of trying out a colour and then if you don't like it, be rid of it in a few months.

[natt i nord]

I colored for almost 5 years now, I think. My natural haircolor is an ashbrightbrown :D or so. My hair was dyed in a red. I did and still do love the red, but I decided to grow it out as I wanted to grow my hair longer.
Now the first 5-7cm are natural color and I love it :) It became a beautiful bright brown over the years (when I was three it was a very bright blonde, but it became darker year for year) and I can't wait until I have this chemical thing out.

[RetroKitten]

I feel like loving (better:liking?) my hair colour is something I am finally getting used to. Just a 2 months ago I felt like I could never come to liking it, but something in me changed (acceptance, not fighting my ash blonde self? :D) and I now see it as something very unique, though others might me ash blonde, too, this is "my very own" colour.

[Crysania]

Maybe a lot of people have "dishwater" blonde hair, but since almost everyone seems to color it other colors, then "dishwater" blonde must be rare... :p It is in Denmark anyway. So I can't wait till my ash blonde is grown out, and the colored hair is cut off.

Also I wish people would stop calling it dishwater blonde... Ash blonde sounds a little less offensive to those who have that color :) Just saying.

exactly what I was thinking, its very rare i see a head of uncolored dark blonde hair that is healthy, when i see it it makes me wanna go natural again

[spidermom]

I wonder how the term "dishwater blonde" ever came to be. I've never in my life seen dishwater that I'd describe as any shade of blonde. There's oak blonde, barley blonde, wheat blonde - so many more attractive and appropriate descriptive terms.

[Leisje]

Wow, its really encouraging seeing so many responses in this thread!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only blonde that dislikes their colour. I don't really understand everyone's obsession with blonde hair. It irks me. But that's just my personal opinion! Maybe I'm just fed up with the blonde stereotypes, which by the way, seem to be completely perpetuated by BOTTLE blondes. Not even real ones. That's something I always used to say when I was younger and people would call me 'dumb blonde'. (Nothing against bottle blondes who don't do the ditzy thing.)

I've finally settled on my decision to grow out my natural colour.
Which means I'm now going to have tri-toned hair. Virgin blonde, then henna red over virgin hair, then henna over old black chemical dye. Yikes!
Am I the only tri-toned? Hopefully it doesn't look too weird. :laugh:

Thank you for sharing all your feelings about natural hair colour.

[snowstorm]

I like my natural hair color, very dark brown with a hint of red in the sun. My problem is I get bored with my hair SOOOO quickly.

[AmberLouise89]

Another blonde here, I think like most here I always hated my blonde hair and the stereotypes that came along with it. I've spent most of my life with dyed hair because I could not stand being seen as a blonde. When I first started dying it I spent a few years with burgundy hair and then over a decade with black hair. A couple of years ago I cut off all of my hair and grew out my natural color but then decided I really wanted green hair so I did that for a year. Within the past year I decided to go back to blonde because my hair was getting pretty long and the cost of hair dye was adding up. So now I'm back to blonde and trying to grow out my natural color again. I always felt like people would think I am shallow for having blonde hair, somehow I thought that dying my hair black made me look more intelligent.. When in reality it was more shallow of me to have been dying my hair than to just keep my natural blonde. So right now I'm just going with it and trying to embrace my natural hair and getting use to being a blonde. I think it's harder too when you have natural blonde hair as dyed blonde is always considered to be more attractive. My hair is naturally very golden/yellow which these days seems to be considered a bad thing. It is what it is though and honestly I love not having to worry about the maintenance of colored hair.

From the last time I grew my hair out, it's so yellow!
http://i.imgur.com/06fc4G4.jpg

[Arciela]

Since I was in elementary school my mom let me bleach my hair blonde..although I would only do it a few times a year so I am used to having light blonde hair. Grew my natural hair out from 2013 until 2016 and bleached the whole thing again, big big mistake imho ; ;

It is a pretty color I guess but it has so many tangles and the upkeep is simply ridiculous since my hair seems to want to grow an inch per month!! I recently began looking at pics of my hair when it was its natural color and really began to miss it. It was so easy to take care of, just cowash and use any conditioner and it would look so shiny.

Now I have to cowash, use these expensive condtioners and all this stuff just to get it to behave normal :( I decided I am way too low maintenance to deal with upkeep of blonde, and while I enjoy both colors..my natural one wins by far.

http://i.imgur.com/OJi9zmC.jpg

That is my natural color :flower: when I had it I kept wanting to bleach it so bad..and would go back and forth. Well now I learned my lesson and find it is just best to have my natural color..it looks healthier, easier to take care of and best of all don't have to go to the salon :flower:

[leayellena]

25 years in a row I thought my hair was a little bit lighter color than the original chestnut brown, this without any conditioner and rather sun "bleached" because "you are sweating a lot because of that hat and you just washed your hair last evening"
Since last year I didn't use any blow dryers because my man thought me that these stuff are the hell for the damaged thin hair. My man also thought me how important hair covering is. So my hair slowly became darker.
I use conditioner since 2 months and my hair is almost jet black! And a little bit shiny on the scalp.
We practically ripped off our hair because we didn't know how a comb can actually rip off your hair like it was a bleach!
I bought new combs for us and... Horror story! I can see and feel the damage my old comb did. (And my family kept my hair short because of hair fall and didn't ask or allow me to ask my hairdresser about my hair).
I brushed my hair and cried. I told my man how bad I feel and what I have to do for my hair.
"Of course you can buy a leave-in or hair mask, if that works. Let's thank the universe for our hair that can be saved. Your hair is strong as a whip and your little hobby". I have such a supportive Brown Bear.
After such a damage my hair is almost jet black (probably because of conditioner and hats) and 2+ luminosity on photo camera is not always good enough quality photos to show my braid and buns.

[Andthetalltrees]

I've never LOVED my hair colour, but also never have despised it. I've had medium-dark ash golden blonde hair my whole life(Sounds weird but it definitely has both ash and golden tones), it was never significantly lighter than now like a lot of blondettes(And if mom is anything to go by it'll stay this colour until I get grey/white hair) . I like other hair colours on other people, but I know I'd never dye my hair(Due to laziness more than anything). I've kind of been fond of it lately because how much the colour can change depending on anything, Only thing I find annoying is correcting people that dark blonde is in fact still blonde and it's not a bad thing xD.

[Corvana]

I used to like my natural color, but still preferred it black, so I'd dye it all the time. I think I finally stopped when I was about 22? But that was when I started dying it purple instead :laugh:

And now I lost all of my beautiful red, and I'm really sad about that. I don't hate my hair color, but I really miss how auburn it was in my teens and early 20s. Once I've gotten longer, I may try some henna to put the red back in. But I'm going to grow out virgin first.

[Sam I am]

Hey, I've just joined, where can I post a question and how do post photos?? I can't find anywhere that lets me

[twill]

I've alternated between loving and hating my hair color most of my life. When I was little, I always wanted either jet black or bright red hair. My hair color did not impress me then (I'm a light brown/blonde w/ some red tones in my lengths, but I was much ashier/blonder when I was younger).

I really started loving my hair color more in my late teens (which is also when I really started making an effort to take care of my hair), but I've had many bouts of restlessness/dissatisfaction with my color. I'm currently experiencing some of that again and thinking about adjusting my hair color (maybe a bit more red, but just slightly), or maybe dyeing parts of it (I'm thinking maybe rose gold).

[twill]

Hey, I've just joined, where can I post a question and how do post photos?? I can't find anywhere that lets me

It may be because your account is new, but if you read around in here (http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/forumdisplay.php?f=15), you'll find something to help you out I'm sure.

[Robi-Bird]

I've never been terribly fond of my natural hair colour. I like the darkness of it but not the ash tone. I don't have highlights, I have a grey/plasticy shine. It was golden brown when I was little, I missed the highlights so started dying my hair red, blue, pink, purple, auburn, etc. Now I have a bunch of grey coming in at my temples and ears and I am NOT ready to leave them be. When they form a solid streak I'll dye them purple, or blue, etc but for now, they get demi dye whenever I am inclined, I also have bleached streaks on the underside of my hair that I like, and will keep. Dye here and there makes my hair feel less flat in colour, and I enjoy it more. The old bleach certainly means I have to trim it every six months but then again my hair grows and inch or more a month so I keep gaining length with regular trims.

[riceball]

I have very dark brown hair. It is coarse and wavy/curly. I can't say I hate my hair color, but it is SO. BORING. I can't remember the last time it has been its natural color. I've finally learned to love my hair texture and work with it, but it just looks like one dark blob instead of 2b waves and curls. So I highlighted it, so that the texture would be more visible. I am happier with it now.

[Rebeccalaurenxx]

I like the natural color I had in my youth, when i hit my 20s it got darker and more ash toned.
I do not like my natural color and i dont think i ever will... i keep trying but it just never works.
I want to his TBL and see how I feel about long dark hair... because if i dont like it or decide to love my natural color, i would slowly trim out the color.

[Wavybrunetteuk]

I used to dye my hair a lot as a teenager, from red to purple. I never bleached my hair until last year. I saw the Deadpool movie and like the girl's hair with blonde peek-a-boo highlights. So I got that done last year to make my hair more interesting. I've been thinking recently of getting a light brown ombré to make my wavy hair more interesting.

But I really think I should accept my brown locks as they are and slowly trim off the blonde highlights. I don't want to damage my hair.

[Wavybrunetteuk]

I used to dye my hair a lot as a teenager, from red to purple. I never bleached my hair until last year. I saw the Deadpool movie and like the girl's hair with blonde peek-a-boo highlights. So I got that done last year to make my hair more interesting. I've been thinking recently of getting a light brown ombré to make my wavy hair more interesting.

But I really think I should accept my brown locks as they are and slowly trim off the blonde highlights. I don't want to damage my hair.

Now my hair inspiration is Lorde. I'll never have hair like hers but I love the natural brown curls! I love it!

[NightSister]

I dyed my hair a variety of colors, and it never looked quite right. I eventually realized that every time I dyed my hair it was because of some insecurity or stress. Wearing my hair its natural color makes me feel stronger as an individual.

[yahirwaO.o]

I love my natural black hair, never han a huge issue but I just wish it was darker and looked the pictures in real life......... with that very nice blue tone in it!

When braiding or making any edgy or fancy stuff with it, never really pays off. It looks so monotone and you could hardly see any details, thats fine by me because I favour more simple styles or leaving it down makes very good justice!