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boukje
May 7th, 2008, 02:39 PM
Hello fellow LHC'ers :waving:

I couldn't find a support thread for growing out dye (and or henna) to your natural colour and I thought it would be nice to start one.

I will start by telling about myself.

I have tailbone+ fine hair (1a/1b) ii. And I have hennaed hair, with to bleached (and then hennaed again) streak in the front. I did these in december.

I hennaed last month, but I am not going to colour my hair ever again. I want classic length natural hair.

So anyone with me? With the support of each other I am sure we can make it :D

Lots of greetings from Helen.

spidermom
May 7th, 2008, 02:56 PM
Hi Helen! I've seen a few "growing out natural color" threads, so I know you're not alone. In my opinion (for what it's worth, probably nothing), it's best when you decide to stop doing something to just stop doing it. I'm always puzzled when people decide they don't want to dye their hair anymore, and then start talking about dyeing it back to a shade close to natural color - which seems to be elusive for many and takes multiple attempts - or bleaching out color, etc. But that's just me; that's how I've done it in the past. If anybody says anything, one could always say "I don't want to dye my hair anymore." I think two-toned hair looks beautiful and interesting anyway. I love the way BlondeApple has the bottom couple of inches of her hair hennaed. Sometimes I want to do something like that, but family members talk me out of it. Oh well, the silver is coming; mine is two-toned because of that.

granitbaby
May 7th, 2008, 03:11 PM
Hi! I am growing out bleached henna. Did the last cutting and bleaching in late November and I will never ever let any dye touch my hair again. My natural colour is light brown and the henna was a very deep shade of red, that's why I bleached it once and highlighted it once to get rid of the...green shade some of my ends got after the first bleach.

Two toned hair isn't all bad. I can get really cool effects with braids and buns.:cool:

Lize
May 7th, 2008, 03:36 PM
I'm in! I'm growing out highlights. Or, you know, letting my virgin color grow out. More of an ashy dark blonde. Not that I don't like the color of the highlights, but I don't want to keep doing it because it's so damaging. I can tell a huuuuge difference between my virgin roots and the rest when it comes to health. I also need to accept my color as it is. I find natural hair beautiful and it's actually quite rare. At least where I live.

My hair is 22", finally one length and dyed dark once and then highlighted three times after that. The virgin roots have grown out a few inches. (Pic avaliable in my albums)

I want tailbone length hair, and it would be great if some day it could all be virgin.

Altocumulus
May 7th, 2008, 03:53 PM
I'm growing out my henna. Right now I have 2-3" of blonde roots and 34" of hennaed length. It will be a long process!

AJoifulNoise
May 7th, 2008, 04:02 PM
I'm growing out a red box dye I did over 2.5 years ago. My natural color now extends past my shoulders.

For anyone interested, there is a social group (click Quick Links and go to Social Groups) called Two-Tone Heads. It is for those that are growing out artificial color.

Mary <><
May 7th, 2008, 04:27 PM
Can I join in the fun? I highlighted my hair for the last time in May of last year, and then in July of last year I colored it back to my natural to blend the color somewhat and I plan on never coloring again. I am so happy I did this! It is so nice not to be tied to a salon, and not to be addicted to something that was very damaging for my hair. My hair has never felt healthier and I am willing to bet it will grow longer then I could get it before. I guess only time will tell.

Jeni
May 7th, 2008, 04:30 PM
I'm going to really really try and grow my natural color out. I have tried before but I always get annoyed and dye it back to light ash blond (naturally, med/dark blond). I have started using cassia, so I'm hoping the shin it gives me will make me like my natural color more. I think the worse part of growing my natural color out is my roots look soooo dark, it makes me look like I have greasy roots :( I'm hoping that once the roots are longer it will look less like I haven't washed in 2 weeks and more like I'm just trying to grow it out.

I have thought about dying my hair darker to match my natural color. I don't think I could match it, it would be more to lesson the line between dyed and un-dyed hair. I would like to avoid that though.

Stephanie
May 7th, 2008, 06:23 PM
I'm growing out dye-covered bleached hair. I'm using Natural Instincts on the length each time it fades, which is becoming less and less frequent (thank god!).

I can't wait to have all natural hair. I haven't since about 4th grade!

Lize
May 8th, 2008, 01:19 PM
I'm growing out a red box dye I did over 2.5 years ago. My natural color now extends past my shoulders.

For anyone interested, there is a social group (click Quick Links and go to Social Groups) called Two-Tone Heads. It is for those that are growing out artificial color.

Thanks for the tip, I'll join that group!

Cloverleaf
May 9th, 2008, 07:46 PM
I stopped the dye routine too and now keep trimming a couple inches at a time knowing that eventually the damaged hair will be gone.

Thanks for the social group link AJoifulNoise!

AnneAdeline
May 9th, 2008, 07:57 PM
I decided (about a month ago) to grow out my bleached-dyed-henna'd hair. I don't even quite remember what my natural color is.
Gonna go join that Two-toned social group, thanks AJoifulNoise!

Nynaeve
May 9th, 2008, 08:38 PM
Hello fellow LHC'ers :waving:

I couldn't find a support thread for growing out dye (and or henna) to your natural colour and I thought it would be nice to start one.

I will start by telling about myself.

I have tailbone+ fine hair (1a/1b) ii. And I have hennaed hair, with to bleached (and then hennaed again) streak in the front. I did these in december.

I hennaed last month, but I am not going to colour my hair ever again. I want classic length natural hair.

So anyone with me? With the support of each other I am sure we can make it :D

Lots of greetings from Helen.


Hi!
I've never colored my hair, so I can't really "belong" to your group, but I'm here to support your growth. :)
I know (from my experience with friends and family) how hard it is to keep growing it instead of chopping it all off. o here I am for moral support!

(to be honest, I alway liked the look of almost all the hair one color then the bottom few inches being a different color, but hey, I'm an odd one :P )

kwaniesiam
May 11th, 2008, 08:04 PM
I'm growing out my natural color right now from henna, I have a ways to go but slowly it's coming in and my color doesn't look too bad with the virgin roots. I'm doing this main because I haven't seen my natural color since I was 12, that's nearly 6 years :bigeyes: Once I have trimmed off the henna, I may decide to use it again, who knows. I loved the red color, but I feel like I need a "true fresh start", now that the hair I had lost is coming in again and my hair is short.

LaurelSpring
May 11th, 2008, 08:39 PM
I think I've been coloring my hair for like 20 years. I always got in that cycle of deciding to match my roots then having the color fade and never match and then doing it again. Its a vicious cycle. I finally just had to stop due to reactions to the chemicals. I moved to henna but I am getting color build up that is not thrilling me so now I am transitioning to a mix of decreasing henna to increasing cassia and baby stepping my way back. The henna highlights on my gray are acclimating me to its presence and its getting easier now to see them there. I hate being two toned so for me I had to decrease the demarcation and ease into it. I am going to henna/cassia until my stash is gone and then just stick with Cassia. Definately no more indigo. I still have an unopened bag of that I may try to get rid of.

TheBlondeApple
May 12th, 2008, 07:27 AM
I love the way BlondeApple has the bottom couple of inches of her hair hennaed.

Wow, thank you! :flowers:
Anja

Marysmirth
May 12th, 2008, 08:35 AM
I'm two-toned now. Not too drastic, and I love the texture of my virgin growth. Also, I'm free from "root patrol"! I wish I had done this years ago.

Jeni
May 12th, 2008, 04:22 PM
OK, so I'm kind of in love with BlondApple's hair. That is awesome!

boukje
May 13th, 2008, 06:35 AM
Hello fellow LHC'ers :waving:

I am so sorry I didin't stop buy earlier to leave another message.

How wonderfull to see there are so many people who are in the growing out dye to natural hair process.

I am sure we can support each other and share some nice stories.

I don't think it is hard to grow out to natural (as spidermom said) but I do not like my natural hair colour which makes it harder (are there any of you too who don't like their colour but are still going for the natural look)?

I will try to keep up with this topic and I will try to reply to many messages from now on :D

MsBubbles
May 13th, 2008, 07:25 AM
I read this topic while sitting on the fence between should I or shouldn't I (touch up my roots)?! I also dislike my natural root color. However, once my hair has been hanging around outside my head for a few months, I like the natural color ok. It's so porous and fine that any exposure to sunlight brightens it up. But that stage where it comes out the most drab ash light brown around my face, just makes me look old, sick and dirty! It's SO tempting to just lighten it up the minute those roots poke through. I'm still undecided, but the fact that others are in a similar situation might be enough to make me hold off on the bleach for now:D. Besides, I want my hair to make it to waist if possible, which it probably won't do with bleach.

TheBlondeApple
May 13th, 2008, 12:28 PM
OK, so I'm kind of in love with BlondApple's hair. That is awesome!
Wow, thank you :flowers:

I do have something to contribute to this thread:
I used to bleach my hair. I also dyed it brown, which turned reddish at my nape, which I hated. In summer/autumn of 2003 I decided to quit bleaching (still reddish at the nape) and because I dreaded the roots, I used a darker blonde colour bleach. I couldn't see roots. I just maintained my hair at just-ponytailable-length until the reddish nape hair had grown out.
Anja

Jeni
May 13th, 2008, 09:27 PM
Boukje- I'm not sure how I feel about my natural color. I have been dying it for so long....I guess I'm just worried my natural color will look flat and boring. I do know (at least last time I let my roots grow a few inches) they lighten up giving me a dark/med blond. I do use cassia (i still count this as not dying), so I'm hoping the shin it gives me will give my natural color an oomph.

BlondApple- your welcome!

Unnamed
May 13th, 2008, 10:25 PM
I'm about 3.5 years into the growing out (last dyed my hair black in mid-October 2004!), and I don't particularly like my natural colour: Un-sun highlighted dark ashy blondish...whatever. :rolleyes:

But, it still does manage to lighten a tad from what little sun it gets, so I have like 6" or so of the ashy stuff before it gets a bit more golden (except in the front, it's all lighter)...which doesn't make me like it any more, just makes it more colours. :lol:

Lize
May 14th, 2008, 04:27 AM
I don't think it is hard to grow out to natural (as spidermom said) but I do not like my natural hair colour which makes it harder (are there any of you too who don't like their colour but are still going for the natural look)?


I am. I don't like my natural color but to be honest I have no idea what it would look like all grown out. It would probably be a little sun lightened and so on. Also all I can see now is what it looks like compared to the dyed hair. It's an ashy dark blonde.

BUT I just love the look of healthy undyed hair. I love the deep shine that does not appear in dyed and especially not in bleached hair. That's what I'm going for! And healthier hair in general of course. I want to be able to grow it long. Also I DO find natural hair color very pretty on other people. Even my own color. :)

justinekay
May 14th, 2008, 05:17 AM
I don't like my natural colour either :-( But I've been growing out box dye golden blonde for three years now and I love the feel of it and the freedom from root re-growth. My hair's naturally mousey, dark blondish - I don't mind it too much until I see a photo of me or catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror inadvertently. I always think "who is that? That can't be me!". I guess it will take a few more years until I accept my hair colour properly - by then it will be turning gray :-)

AprilElf
May 14th, 2008, 05:53 AM
No more dyeing for me either!
My hair seems to be quite attached to 'boxed' colour because it doesn't want to give it up! By that I mean there hasn't been much fading even though I've only ever done one permanent dye job, and a handful of semi-permanents (last one Oct 2007)

I really like the colour my hair is now (darker than natural), but I'm willing to give it up for the health of my hair and body, my wallet and the environment. :) I'm actually kind of interested to see again what my hair looks like in its natural shade.

Periwinkle
May 14th, 2008, 01:58 PM
Well, I've never dyed my hair, so I'm not exactly growing out dye, but I wanted to share the experience of a friend of mine:

She has a gorgeous natural colour - a really unusual shade of ginger. It's gorgeous. About a year ago, though, she decided to get into the whole 'goth' scene and dyed it black (and cut it to jaw length with a fringe across her eyebrows, which could not possibly look any worse, especially with the colour).

She is now growing it out without doing anything to it. The result of this is that she has all black hair apart from around an inch at the top, where it actually looks as if she is bald because her natural colour is so pale compared to the black. I don't think I have ever seen a worse hairstyle in my life.

Don't do it! ;)

spidermom
May 14th, 2008, 02:34 PM
Don't do it! ;)

Don't do what? Grow out natural color?

Jeni
May 14th, 2008, 03:49 PM
OK so I have just remembered another reason (besides color) I dye my hair. My hair is oily, when its dyed I can go 2 days without looking like I dipped my head in grease. Now that I have about 1.5" of roots my roots look flat and dirty by the morning after I wash it. It probably doesn't help my roots are slightly darker then my dyed hair making them look dirtier......I think this one reason I keep going back to the box. I'm going to really try and just suck it up and deal with it but its already annoying me.

Anyone else have this problem?

Jeni

Amara
May 14th, 2008, 04:00 PM
I am growing out henna! I have about a year's worth of growth (5-6"). My hair is naturally dark brown. In the sun there's a big different where the henna picks up a lot of red, but it's not really noticeable most of the time.I also have a streak on my left side (blue at the moment) and a red streak in my bangs. Those, I'm not growing out. I let them grow a few inches, then re-dye. A small amount of damage for a lot of fun for me. :D Other than that, I want to go all natural and see what my brown hair will look like long. I haven't had an all natural head since I was 17 or so!

ETA: In my avatar, you can see the brown first 5-6", and the redder henna, plus you can see the beginnings of the blue streak (which starts out as purplish) on the left side of my head and the red streaks on top.

justinekay
May 15th, 2008, 01:58 AM
I have the same problem as you Jeni - greasy hair that's darker than the dyed hair. I used to love the first few weeks after re-doing my roots because I wouldn't have to wash so often and my hair would look cleaner and nicer. But growing it out is still the best thing I've done. The first few inches is definitely the most difficult but it gets easier, I promise :-) My own colour is now past my shoulders, with just a few inches left of the blonde at the ends.

Best of luck!

Justine

rhubarbarin
May 15th, 2008, 07:19 AM
Ooh ooh me! I'm growing out highlights, and damage from both the peroxide and the cones I saturated my hair with for 5 years. It's hard to tell where the highlights are cause my hair is naturally two or three toned (so why did I dye it? I have plenty of natural highlights!!).. but you can definately see the damage. So, trimming. An inch every four months or so, at least until I get rid of these terrible ends.

Anyway the last time I highlighted was in August or September and the last time I used cones was right before I joined LHC. So I have three inches or so of healthy virgin hair.

I want my hair to be as long as possible, and my natural color.

Medvssa
May 15th, 2008, 07:39 AM
I've grown my henna out almost completely :) I didn't intend to cut the henna parts off, but for other reasons I had to. I must have one or two inches henna left, but I really cannot tell where it starts. I dyed over the henna with naturtint or something of the sort, to try and tone down the redness (my hair color is quite cold) but in retrospect that was quite useless.

There are a couple of pictures in my album, of me with henna hair and growing it out, you can also see how it is now, if anyone wants to see.

In the beginning it is hard to grow it out. The itch to try and cover up is great :p but as time passes you kind of forget about it and let it grow.

KarenLynn
May 15th, 2008, 09:11 AM
I've been growing out henna since November 2006. The last four months or so prior to that, I did henna glosses which helped make the transition less blunt. Now I really can't tell exactly where the henna starts. It also helps that my natural color isn't vastly different - it's a medium/light brown, mostly ashy with some golden in it.

My ends are a little brighter than the middle part, due to old bleach underneath the henna. There should only be about 7 inches of that left now.

When growing out color in the past I've usually ended up cutting once the virgin hair is long enough to do a ponytail. I could do one now, but I'm still not planning on any major chops soon. I might later. For now I just put it up and ignore it. The worst of it is over; now I just have two-colored updos that can look quite interesting. It's not so bad.

C_Bookworm
May 15th, 2008, 06:34 PM
Hi I'm growing out my hair too. I was using henna, decided to put in highlights (which turned a horrendous orange) and then covered it all with a permanent color (took about 4 months before i finally matched it with my natural color). Now I'm growing everything out. It was painful chopping my hair back to chin length, but I want to have really healthy hair for the whole process. Keeping my hair chin length til every last bit is grown out. Thank goodness my hair grows 1-1.5 inches every month. But its still hard to deal with. Nice to know other people are going through the same thing

vindo
May 16th, 2008, 09:00 AM
I Henna but I still have to grow out previous chemical dye (with a demarcation line ) Its at shoulder height by now.
I don't know if this would be the right thread for me? :confused: Since Im not all natural colored and use Henna..

tiny_teesha
May 16th, 2008, 09:48 AM
I'm going to join!
15cm natural. below is multiple dyed and bleached hair with henna on top. Cant tell the demarkation indoors, but go outside and the henna glows and gives me away.
Its easier then i though it would be, the only hard part is that the damaged hair is so much more thinner!

-j-
April 1st, 2010, 05:41 AM
I found this old thread and was wondering, how are you naturals doing? Have you sticked to non-dying or have you gone back to old habits? :)

I&#180;m growing my own colour back after almost 15 years of dying. About 13 years I dyed it black and then 2 years violet. I really liked the violet colour but I started to feel it would be good to live without all those chemicals.

Now I haven&#180;t dyed my hair for about 1 year and my own colour looks ok to me. I was afraid it would be too light for me, after black, but it&#180;s darkish brown and just good :)




Edited one typo.

boukje
April 2nd, 2010, 02:40 PM
I found this old thread and was wondering, how are you naturals doing? Have you sticked to non-dying or have you gone back to old habits? :)

Iīm growing my own colour back after almost 15 years of dying. About 13 years I dyed it black and then 2 years violet. I really liked the violet colour but I started to feel it would be good to live without all those chemicals.

Now I havenīt dyed my hair for about 1 year and my own colour looks ok to me. I was afraid it would be too light for me, after black, but itīs darkish brown and just good :)




Edited one typo.

I am still going strong :cheese: this year may will be two years since I have not used any henna on my hair. I have dark medium brown hair myself so you don't really see a clear line between the henna and my natural colour , you do see it in the sun but since I always wear a bun, the bun is red and the rest of the hair is brown. My virgin hair is about 1 inch away from shoulder lengte at the moment so I guess I am making good progress.

I still hate my colour but I want to accept myself for who I am (even though my hair is such a dull colour) and I love the fact that I don't have to put the henna on,;)

guess I still need loads of years to get rid of all the henna unfortunately, but at least I have come a long way (in my opnion).

Jeni
April 2nd, 2010, 03:36 PM
I found this old thread and was wondering, how are you naturals doing? Have you sticked to non-dying or have you gone back to old habits? :)

Iīm growing my own colour back after almost 15 years of dying. About 13 years I dyed it black and then 2 years violet. I really liked the violet colour but I started to feel it would be good to live without all those chemicals.

Now I havenīt dyed my hair for about 1 year and my own colour looks ok to me. I was afraid it would be too light for me, after black, but itīs darkish brown and just good :)
Edited one typo.

I have been chem dye free since March 08 when I joined. I stopped using henna/cassia the spring of 09.

I actually am starting to really like my natural color (in some lights). The only issue is that the strawberry blond color has grown out to the point that when I put my hair up in a bun (which is pretty much always) it just looks like I slapped a red bun on the back of my head....

I can't wait for it to grow out to the point where people can at least see the natural color in my up dos. At least then people can stopped asking me if my hair is fake.

geosangel
April 2nd, 2010, 03:59 PM
I'm trying to grow out my natural after having chi color from a salon put in a few months ago before I joined here. I use the roots as a growth indicator.

Fairlight63
April 2nd, 2010, 05:08 PM
I haven't dyed my hair now for almost 2 yrs. When I decided to grow it long I decided that I didn't want to color it any more so that it would be healthier. Also since I was in my 60's & looking around at other older ladies that colored their hair, I didn't think that it looked good. I thought that they had hair weird colors & it looked all dried out & just not healthy - it didn't look like hair more like dried out doll hair or something.


So what I did was put a light ash blonde color on it so that as it grew out my gray (white) hair would blend in better with it.

oceanwoman111
April 3rd, 2010, 09:48 PM
I just stopped semi permanent coloring, making it darker, in Oct 2009. So far I don't like my natural color. It has these highlights that just dull the whole thing. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about going to the salon and getting a dark glaze. That sounds really dramatic. lol. But, I can't do it. After seeing all of the new growth around my hair line, how it's really filling in, I can't put chemicals on my hair anymore. My BF said "you have all these new sprouts of hair, you have to care for them, don't put chemicals on them!" He made me laugh so bad. :D He sees all the effort that I put into it.

I guess it's an issue of self acceptance and not going for the quick fix. In the long run, we know our hair will look stunning when it's dye free and super healthy ,but it hard to do knowing you could go get a process and feel awesome for like 3 weeks, before the chem drying effect starts making you want to go back for more.

I'm really glad I found this thread. Thanks. :flowers: