Does anyone know how to make roots appear less obvious?

[Bellona]

I did a search but I really didn't find what I wanted.

My hair is still short (longest parts are past shoulder, shortest parts are just under my ears). However, I've been growing for a few months, and now that I'm not getting any sun my virgin roots are looking quite darker than I had anticipated. This will be the first time seeing my virgin hair color since I was a teenager, but I think it may have darkened.

Anyway, does anyone have any tips for making them appear lighter or less obvious? I found the only thing that works is washing every day, and I really don't want to do that while trying to grow. If I pull my top layers back it seems to only look worse (the bottom is darker for some reason) :confused:

[Alexannee10]

Mmm I really don't know. I had this problem. I was lightning my hair with some peroxide during 2 or 3 years. Only a little bit, just for add some reflects. And then, I stopped, and my roots were darker that I expected .. The only thing I found is to henna my hair darker, the same color as my roots.

I'm curious, did anyone have this problem?

[florenonite]

What's your natural colour? What's the lighter (dyed?) colour? You could have a look at Nightshade's articles on herbal colouring and henna and see if you can darken your length so it's closer in length to your roots.

[pinchbeck]

aybe its time to let your virgin hair grow out so you can appreciate its variety in colour. What I did in the past was use a semi-permanent hair colour to stain the lighter parts of my hair which were very porous from colouring. I stained them the same colour as my roots were with no further damage because it was a semi-permanent. In addition it can help fill in and smooth your damaged hair shafts from continuous colouring.

If you lighten your virgin hair you're going to damage it. Please leave it alone, have patience and let it grow out. It will be so pretty! Nothing beats hair in its natural state. But if this isn't an option and you refuse to wear it in its natural state because you prefer a lighter colour, than incorporating highlights into your hair would do the trick. Just make sure they are the same colour as the coloured parts.

[Eden Iris]

From my experience growing out bad blond damage: using temporary color didn't work because my hair ate it. Seriously, I went to bed brown and woke up two-tone blond again.

What did work for basic camouflage was updos and braids, anything that broke up the obvious line. You could still see both colors, but it wasn't as terrible. Eventually I caved and colored the whole thing, but that was in my younger and less patient days.

[Bianca]

Not much you can do right now. I have been there, when it gets longer it's not so bad. I wouldn't use any color on it, not even a semi one, may make things worse.

You dont say what color your virgin hair is, but i'm guessing dark blonde ?? If that's the case you have to wait till it gets longer and maybe even till you get the colored hair cut off to really see what your color looks like. My first coulpe of month growing I hated my color, now it's longer, I love it :)

[longhairedfairy]

I've heard of "hair crayons," but don't know where to get them. Maybe you could get a colored styling gel. Those are temporary and you may be able to find them in a salon or even in Halloween stuff. If you can find the right shade it would probably only tint it a bit and make the color difference less obvious.

[JCFantasy23]

This may sound bizarre but when I was dying my hair blonde, I used to put some baby powder in the root area and brush it through. I've read sometimes in magazines from models who do this to absorb excess oil if they don't have time to wash their hair and don't want it to appear greasy either. As long as you dont go overboard you can't tell and I think it can look nice in blonde, as well as making your hair smell nice.

For brunette you could try a little cocoa powder, although Ive never done that yet.

[jojo]

I was going to suggest talc too!

[burns_erin]

Roux-Fanciful, on the lighter colors.

http://www.haircareusa.com/roux_fanci_full_rinse.htm

I have used it to tone down greys when I do not have enough time to henna. It is a washout stuff.

[Elphie]

Beyond getting the color to be closer to your dyed hair, when I was coloring and my roots began to show, I would zig zag my part because it seemed to call less attention to it.

[spidermom]

Up-styles, like the french twist, help after awhile. Wide headbands and scarves as headbands can blur the difference. A lot of people have two- and more-tone hair these days so try not to feel self-conscious. I'm sure nobody notices as much as you do.

[Demetrue]

I put the topmost layer of my hair up in a little ponytail, then use a mascara wand type applicator to paint some very thin lowlights in the same color as my roots, from the roots down through the length. That seem to help blend the demarcation line between my darker roots and lighter dye hair length.

[Bellona]

Thanks everyone! Those are all really helpful ideas. I appreciate it!

This sounds bad, but I really don't know what color my hair is naturally at this stage! I think it's dark blonde, but it might be closer to brown, although it may just seem darker next to the really bleach blonde color. I have colored it for so long, so I think it's time to quit.

[shwankie]

I have a similar issue every year. My hair is naturally very blond, and in the summer it bleaches to almost white regardless of how much protective sunscreen-ladden product I put on it or how many updos under bandanas I wear (I am outside a lot, and hats give me headaches). By fall my roots are back to my natural, champagne-platinum blond and I have a decided demarcation.

I prefer my hair it's natural and unbleached color, so once a year, I color it from the roots down, back to my natural color. This takes two people to do this, and you also need to talk with a stylist or someone who knows about color. I use a deposit-only, no bleaching or lightening, and it works perfectly (I do mine at home now, but I'd really recommend going to a professional colorist who can match your colors, because color correction is damaging and expensive). I can't use henna or the like to do it because there's nothing I've found that matches my natural color.

So, instead of working to get your roots lighter, you could look into getting your bottom died once, with deposit-only color if it's really bothering you. It conditions my hair a bit too, and I've never had any noticeable damage (to be fair, I am also not trying for terminal length, just waist, which I've accomplished before this way).

[florenonite]

I have a similar issue every year. My hair is naturally very blond, and in the summer it bleaches to almost white regardless of how much protective sunscreen-ladden product I put on it or how many updos under bandanas I wear (I am outside a lot, and hats give me headaches). By fall my roots are back to my natural, champagne-platinum blond and I have a decided demarcation.

I prefer my hair it's natural and unbleached color, so once a year, I color it from the roots down, back to my natural color. This takes two people to do this, and you also need to talk with a stylist or someone who knows about color. I use a deposit-only, no bleaching or lightening, and it works perfectly (I do mine at home now, but I'd really recommend going to a professional colorist who can match your colors, because color correction is damaging and expensive). I can't use henna or the like to do it because there's nothing I've found that matches my natural color.

So, instead of working to get your roots lighter, you could look into getting your bottom died once, with deposit-only color if it's really bothering you. It conditions my hair a bit too, and I've never had any noticeable damage (to be fair, I am also not trying for terminal length, just waist, which I've accomplished before this way).

OT: have you tried cassia? I know that darkens white hair, so you could apply it to all your hair and get a less obvious demarcation and lovely conditioning.

You may have already tried that, though, so this might be a totally useless post :p