I think i may be crazy

[alamaya]

Those of you who don't know or cant remember i cut my shoulder length mid brown hair as i had dyed it black and had to grow it out as it was dyed about 4 times black over a period of 6ish months. Its chin length now.

I am having reaaaaly crazy thoughts about cutting it really short. i hate it as it is. the browns coming through making the black look weird. wondering if i should go reallllly short to get it out the way quicker but will have to have the longer growing out phase.

ok i am mad i know it. lol

[Ravenwaves 88]

to me longer hair was more important to maintain than chopping it all off. I think I had it around BSL for awhile doing 2 inch trims every year to cut out the black.

[jaine]

If you go short I would recommend keeping some length in the front, like an angled pixie instead of a super-short-all-over pixie. This will make the growing out phase easier ... you might be able to bypass the "mullet" phase if you keep some length in the front.

[Liss]

Why don't you try a semi-permanent dye on the roots, the type that washes out after 8 weeks. That way you can keep the length, not have visible roots, and slowly trim off the permanent black as it grows.

[jojo]

Step away from the scissors and percivere with your goal. Everybody goes through a stage where they think there hair looks awful, but if you cut you will may end up thinking 'what have i done?' and want to grow it again and so the cycle continues. As your hair gets longer the roots wont be as obvious and will blend in better, keep at it!!

[Unofficial_Rose]

Can you not Colorfix the rest of the black out? As long as you skip the peroxide step, Colorfix is very gentle (although it smells nasty).

Product and reviews here:
http://www.folica.com/one__n_only_Col_d312.html

I'm not a salesperson, honestly- but maybe worth considering?



This might get the ends to a colour your happier with, and it won't alter your natural colour so long as you leave out the peroxide step..

[frizzalot]

Superdrug sell a hair colour remover, its under £5. Maybe you could try that on the dyed part?
hth :)

[Pear Martini]

I have been where you are.


Do not use semi-permenant black hair dye. I will not all fade out.

Instead try colorfix from sallys. I used it before and it works so well. It is nondamaging but it involves shampooing your hair a few times so you might be a little dry afterwards.


http://cn1.kaboodle.com/hi/img/c/0/0/59/2/AAAADB6q-KUAAAAAAFkrjQ.jpg

It comes with three bottles, skip the third one, for some reason it darkens hair again (perhaps a way to get you to buy more?)


I used this on my APL dyed black hair. I used a semipermenant dye and this stuff says it may not work on semipermenant color but it did. I had to apply it about 3 times.

Keep us updated!

[xoxophelia]

You can do a few at home treatments to strip out enough of the color that the demarcation is more gradual.

This is what I tried that helped make a bit of difference and isn't very damaging at all:

-Mix 1 part honey to 1 part hair conditioner (this should be a glob size for shorter hair.. like a glob in the palm of your hand)
-for you, half a TBSP olive oil
-1/2 to 1 tsp hydrogen peroxide (the type that is already diluted that you can buy at cvs.. it is usually to about 3% dilution)

I put this in my damp hair focusing on only the colored sections.. and then left it in for an hour wrapped up. If you applied a little heat outside of the shower cap that might help (blow dryer).

Then I washed it out.. leaving the shampoo in for about ten minutes.

After, I put oil in my hair to leave in over night. (you could do half and half olive oil and canola.. or really whatever you have).

Washed it out gently the next morning and put in a little conditioner.

It sounds daunting but I did this once and over the next two washes saw a definite improvement and I don't think it should be very damaging at all. I added a little less than 1 tsp hydrogen peroxied for my hair and it is a bit past BSL because I was the experiment haha.

I may do it one more time before summer but that is it.

[kelly-j]

If you want to have long hair, be patient and keep away from the scissors. I understand that it´s hard right now, but try to be patient.:)

[alamaya]

Thank you for the replies.
I was tempted by those colour remover ideas but i was so frightened of them damaging my hair further.

Its so sad i can see this beautiful brown on the roots and i keep asking myself why i felt the need to go black. i guess because blond never worked for me.

I like the idea of the honey tip will have to go to the store i think to pick bits up.

Again thanks for being there for my mental lapse. You are right not to cut i am just so fed up of tying my hair back every day as it looks horrid down :(

xx

[klcqtee]

Don't chop it all off. You'll regret it even more. I did this, went from just past BSL all the way up to chin. Worst decision I've made in a long time. One thing that is helping me grow out my hair dye is my bangs. I cut in some bangs (to get rid of damage in the front, where it stuck to EVERYTHING), and now I use my bangs as a gauge of how close I am to being dye free. I'm maintaining my bangs at about the bottom of my nose, and trimming out the dye slowly. When I have virgin bangs, I'm going to let it grow, and then I can easily contemplate chopping all my hair back up to the grown out length, because I can see how short it will be. This helps to keep me from chopping.

Plus, think of the benefit of growing out dye: you can finally see how fast your hair grows!

[xoxophelia]

Plus, think of the benefit of growing out dye: you can finally see how fast your hair grows!

Lol .. true.. I find myself looking at my growth in my roots in comparison to the thickness of my hemline. I'm not much of a tape measurer type girl myself.

[lilalong]

I have a slightly different view. Staying at your current length and trimming a little every month until the dye is gone will take just as long as trimming everything off now and letting it grow.

You should decide what is more important to you: long hair or an even hair color.

That said, I also like the color remover suggestions.

[2peasinapod]

Don't chop it off. I started growing from a short length, and the process was almost enough to make me give up growing it out.

I used to dye my hair black, too (permanent dye). Have you tried ACV rinses yet? I found that they always faded the color a bit. With some TLC and a lot of patience, the dye eventually faded out on it's own. I've also heard about dish soap (though I've only used it to get rid of the dye stains on my skin), but you have to DC after.

Good luck with whatever you choose! :)

[Bellalalala]

This is really a personal choice.

I actually found chopping off all of my dyed hair and starting from scratch incredibly liberating.
[Now, I did use semi-permanent dye thinking it would wash out, and it never did, but other than that on the last 6 inches, my hair is virgin.]

My hair is extremely awkward in the growing out phase, so I ended up wearing it up for the whole growing out process, then one day *poof* it was long enough to wear down again [APL], and it was in such good condition because I had worn it up for nearly 6 months.

Now, for me, I HATE, HATE, HATE, the look of colour growing out. I cannot stand having that delineation line across my head, so I would rather deal with an awkward grow out any day than deal with that.
I've grown out colour before, and no matter how good a hair day I was having, I always hated my hair because of the remaining dye line.

So, you need to pick your enemy: shorter hair vs. remaining dye

As I said, it's really a personal choice.

[Toadstool]

Head and Shoulders helps fade colour. As does nizoral anti-fungal shampoo. :-)