A Hair Horror Story... with photos!!!

[MoldyCake]

WARNING, if you are sensative to seeing damaged hair, turn back! Turn back I say!!

Also, there is a dirty mirror issue! (don't worry have since switched to using paper towel instead of cloth towel while cleaning it. Even though its not that good for the earth.)

Alright, this WAS my hair in december... :(
Dec. 28th. 08
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/Cheeseistheword/moldy1.jpg

I had made the choice to grow it out, hoping that I could get my virgin hair back too.

The problem is, my virgin hair is very blonde... so I went to my sister, and we bleached, and bleached, and bleached.


Jan. 28th. 08
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/Cheeseistheword/moldy2.jpg

:mad: This is my hair after several bleachings, and a mocha dye to cover up the butter yellow it had become.


Feb. 28th. 08
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/Cheeseistheword/moldy3.jpg
This is my hair after the mocha lightened, I was doing deep conditioning in hopes to repair it.

I skipped march, my hair was upsetting me too much. As you can imagine. AT this point I was :steam
with myself too. *looks lovingly at december photo* I was thinking about :scissors: it all off too.

A darker brown followed in March, but a few glances in the mirror was enough to trigger another deposit of color. Black.

Which brings us to april.

Apr. 26th. 08
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa221/Cheeseistheword/moldy4.jpg
After seeing this I was like. :rockerdud Its not healthy looking yet, but its improving, I'm hoping my the 28th of this month.. it will look even better. It seems like its grown quite a bit too.


I vow to never bleach again.


I also am not trimming until October... because thats when I go to visit my sister and she is the only one I let touch my hair. (She even tried to get me to not bleach, but I can be very... insistent on something I want.)

It was horrible wasn't it!? Do you guys think its looking better?:o

When it comes to your honest opinion of my hair, be brutal.

Hopefully this didn't scare you guys too bad.

[florenonite]

It does look better, and longer, too. Are you planning on growing out your virgin hair or are you going to continue colouring it?

[Faepirate]

I have seen much worse!!
But yes I agree that your hair is looking much happier in the most recent photograph. :) It's nice to hear you're turned your back on bleach!! No more hair-hurts. :]

p.s. your pyjamas (I'm assuming they are pyjamas.. :D) in the first picture are awesome.

[Peggy E.]

Okay, so, you have blonde hair in real life? But now it's black so that you won't do any further harm to it?

I suppose the important thing is that you like the color and are happy with your hair. It doesn't look all that "unhealthy" but it's difficult to tell, particularly as there appears to be layers at work, too, right?

It is longer, though and certainly has a nice shine!

[Unofficial_Rose]

Actually it pretty much all looks OK to me. I am a commuter, and I checked out the hair of everyone on the train today. (Enough to stop me wanting to go back to cones & blowdrying) Anyway, I bet the lot of them would be really happy if their hair looked like yours...

But what I really want to know is - where did you get the shirt avec moon, stars etc?

[flapjack]

Dyeing blonde hair black is the ultimate in pain in the butt, it really is. I'm surprised your hair fared that well, actually. If you are planning on going back to blonde maybe henna during the growing out phases can help? That and you should look at the honey thread, also. That way you don't have to use bleach anymore and maybe you can go red for awhile and then maybe lighter and lighter red until the transition to blonde looks more natural.


Good luck! You can do it, it will take awhile but it will grow faster than you think it will.

[mommy2one05]

when I saw the title of this thread I was expecting some really bad hair, but in all of your pics your hair does not look bad...it looks fairly healthy and the different colors all looked fine too. So are you planning on growing out your roots ?

[FrannyG]

I dyed my hair dark for nine months and decided to remove it in March, so I feel your pain.

I think your hair has come out of all this pretty well. Not much of a horror story, I'm afraid. :)

[kwaniesiam]

I don't think its that bad, at all really. My hair was in much worse shape before joining LHC than yours :flower:

If you want to keep the black color, try looking into henna and indigo. :)

[spidermom]

(screams in horror, covers eyes)

[spidermom]

Just kidding. I can't see the damage from where I'm sitting. You might want to re-think "no trims" though. If it's very damaged, it might break off faster than it can grow if you don't trim. But it might not, so happy growing and good luck.

[MoldyCake]

You guys are all very sweet, although to me I still cringe when I look at the dec. Photo and my hair now, it used to be so much softer, and thicker.

florenonite: :redgrin: Coloring it, deffinitly from now on. I think I looks horrible with blonde, mostly because my skin is so fair and my eyes are so dark.

Faepirate: :D Thank you so much, I'm wearing it right now, I love it!

Peggy E: :hmm: Sorry, yea the blonde thing to black seems like its redundant to not do damage doesn't it? If I wanted vigin hair I could have stayed with the blonde and just let my natural color grow out. I however, am no where near that patient. Rather than sacrafice my length, and vanity by having roots grown in and having the lighter hair look so damaged. The black is to camo the damage, and then I'm going to keep depositing black in it because deposit actualy coats the hair shaft and conditions it much like henna, only I use aveda color instead of henna.

Unofficial_Rose: Thats very sweet of you to say about my hair. I hair watch too when I'm out in public. The pajama shirt, I got it on sale at Bells, about five years ago. 8)


flapjack: Word, it is, and it really didn't hold up that well, I lost handfulls of hair during the final bleach, I thought about doing that actually, gradually letting my hair grow in. I know I couldn't do it though, I'm just too vain and picky about how my hair is :(. Also, I'm terrified about how henna would react to my hair color, and I've heard its impossible to remove.

mommy2one05: You really made me feel better about it, I was freaking out during jan feb march like you would not believe, convinced it would have been almost better to do a britney and shave my head. Not letting roots grow in. However I'm only using a demi color on my hair now so the color will be easy to remove if I ever want to change again.

frannyg: Wow, your hair is beautiful! The color came out so nice, were you using a demi or perm black?

[MoldyCake]

kwaniesiam: Henna scares me. :-(

spidermom: lol, I loved that. I will be trimming, but only when my sister does it, because she's an aveda stylist, I don't trust myself to do it, and I trust every one other than my sister as much as I trust myself.

[spidermom]

Kind of fortuitous how my first comment was separated from my second by the page break. I couldn't have planned it better.

[Isilme]

if the colour is deposit only I wouldn't worry about damage, just the damage from bleaching. It doesn't look as damaged as I would think, but now you know how to care for hair and can start making it healthy again:) No need to hurry henna, research:)

[Patrycja]

LOL spidermom-I was thinking the same thing.I was hoping you were joking when I clicked unto page 2 :lol:

Seriously,Moldycake,you have the healthiest damaged hair I've seen. Obviously-you took great care of it when you were using chemical dyes.I think I need you to teach me a few things :D

[jojo]

I agree regular micro trims, but I honestly don't see any damage, you must have resilient hair

[Islandgrrl]

It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would after reading the title and the first few lines of your post. It's definitely longer than it was in December and now that it's dark again, it's really difficult to detect the damage in the photos.

Admittedly the bleached photos looked a lot scarier.

So, tons of moisture, & gentle care. If it was me, I'd print those scary photos and tape them to the bathroom mirror so you don't feel even remotely tempted to bleach again!

[Aqualily30]

I agree that your hair really doesn't look damaged in the last pic.
Do tons of moisture and oiling treatments to keep it healthy.

[MoldyCake]

:cheese:

Isilme: Henna still scares me, so does indigo. :p

ilovemycop: Not really, lol. All I did was color it once a month, and with perm box color. Maybe the hair gods just decided to be kind to me for my sillyness?

jojo: What exactly is a micro trim?

Islandgrrl: I didn't print them out, but I did make a photobucket slideshow to show myself whenever I'm considering doing anything silly to my hair.

Aqualily30: Oil treatments you say? Have any good ones you'd suggest?

[Aqualily30]

I have found a few natural oils to be very benificial and alternate between coconut, jojoba,apricot, and rosemary. At least 3 nights a week before bed I massage the oils into my scalp and hair. I also put a bit in my hair after washing to keep it shiny and fight frizziness.

[Katze]

your damaged hair still looks better (thicker, heavier) than mine, almost three years after giving up bleach!

Seriously, on a GOOD day my ends look like yours. :(

If you really want long hair, you will eventually have to stop playing bleach-dye-bleach. Since your hair looks thick already, you may be able to get away with more than we fine/thin haired people can...but you will have to deal with the side effects of all that home color. just a thought...it's all about what's important to you. Between the ages of 18 and 23 my hair had every color under the sun at one point, but most often platinum or black. No wonder it never grew!

[tiny_teesha]

Um...I honestly don't think any of them look damaged, from the photos anyway.
If i were you i would....
NEVER DYE MY HAIR AGAIN UNLESS IT WAS HENNA OR GENTLE HERBAL
yup :). I went through the same thing.....i stopped now :)
Just stop touching it. Maybe even to strengthen what you got use henna but ALWAYS strand test first!!!! Make sure it is BAQ henna there is a whole thread and article on henna, do your research first!

Um otherwise your hair looks great, treat it like a baby, no more heat styling etc- if you wouldn't do it to your skin....don't do it to your hair!

[Mitzy]

I don't think it looks all that bad. I recommend some oiling.

Oh AND you still didn't tell us where you got the AWESOME P.J.'s or shirt or whatever in the first pic. Please?

[morgwn]

I think your hair does look better now than in Feb and March. However, I'd second tiny_teesha's advice: stay far away from unnatural dyes and expecially from bleach!!! I only dared to touch bleach when my hair was MUCH shorter (i.e. pixie short and grew out pretty quickly) and I've never worked with artificial colour since. I would say that if you miss your own colour, just have patience and grow it out, slowly trimming off the ends. Otherwise, I'd suggest henna and/or indigo for darker colour.

[RavennaNight]

Im kind of in the same boat. I'm afraid of not being able to go back and I really don't have the time to sit with henna in my hair for hours. The natural aspect is appealing though. My hair is naturally blondish too, and I really don't want it to turn out red. Your hair doesn't look bad at all. From all you said you did to it I was expecting worse.

[missy60]

When you go from black to blonde you have to use a color remover first then bleach. It makes the bleaching much faster and not as damaging. Your hair does look in good condition but just a word of caution you will have to be careful with your ends they look darker now and if you dont get someone that is familiar with correction they will go darker if you put more color on them. That happens alot after recoloring after bleaching if you continue to apply color there it will just get darker and darker. There are things that can be done in a salon to correct this but at home at least cover them with oil before applying color so it doesnt saturate into the ends.

[talula_fairie]

I hate to tell you this, but if you are not ok with dying your hair forever you're going to have to cut it off. Having any kind of length and then trying to bleach hair from a dark color to blonde will not only be almost impossible but will severely damage your hair. I found this out the hard way, as did you.

I think your hair *looks* ok, although I will say, you may not be able to get very long with hair that damaged. It was my personal experience that it starts breaking a lot right and looking stringy right at about BSL.

I had hair a little longer than yours that was dyed black, and I knew from past experience how badly hair gets fried when you turn it back to a lighter color. I cut it all off, had it color corrected, and then waited out the months until I cut off all the dyed parts. It's been a 5 month project. Now I have to wait the 3 years for it to grow to the length I want. *sigh*

[Elenna]

Black to brownish to blondish to black again?

You might want to try daily deep moisturizing with coconut oil which does wonders for color-dyed problem hair.

[Kaif]

OMG! This reminds me of (gulp, sniff) my past experience. After I grew my hair down to my waist, I had a brilliant idea of coloring it black (my own is light brown), HA-HA, I bleached too, to match natural, but eventually had to chop it all off.

I don't touch hair color now, I learned my lesson.

[fatmoogas]

Looks good. I didn't feel scared at all!

[MoldyCake]

You guys rock. You have all made me feel much better and I'm not nearly :slap: beating myself up so much about it now.