View Full Version : Help me decide to grow out my natural colour...
celebriangel
October 4th, 2011, 04:01 AM
Some background:
I've hated my natural colour all my life. It's...it's basically grey, it's a light ash brown colour that you can't even buy a dye box of, it's so ashy. And my hair was always so frizzy and poofy, I hated everything about it.
I love red hair - it's the colour I've always wanted. When I got to LHC, I gave up the chemical red dye and began to henna instead. I loved the colour, and had no plans to stop, apart from a faint worry about what will happen when I start going grey (I want to show it off! If my family history is right, I'll go that white end of silver).
However. I've always felt that I should *try* to like my natural colour, and I really wanted to like it, I just - couldn't. But last night I had this dream where I grew out my roots to an inch then chopped off all my hair except the roots - and loved it!
I woke up with a terrible urge to grow out my natural colour. I think that, with LHC care, my "grey" hair might actually shine silver, unusual and elflike...and even if it doesn't, I have the option of colouring with temporary veggie dyes. I think my colour is light enough that they would take well.
It's just...my hair is BSL, and it will take years to grow out my natural colour. I'm going to try to remove what I can with colour B4, if I decide to do this, to see if I can get a few more inches of natural roots.
I love what henna does for my hair's condition and texture. I'm just a bit confused I suppose.
Ooh, and my natural colour, I think, looks a lot like spidermom's siggy. I realised that recently, and started liking my own hair much more. So thank you spidermom!
Help? Encouragement? Advice? Thank you all for being awesome, LHC!
Of the Fae
October 4th, 2011, 04:09 AM
I've had the henna removal itchies a few times as well, but after many a failed bleachjob I concluded my hair looked better with henna. I have the same natural colour as you, but blonder :) A friend of mine recently grew out her dye, and her colour, which is the same as mine, looked amazing! So yeah, there's nothing wrong with ashy tones, they can indeed be elflike, and silver looking! You could just keep trimming from BSL, untill it has grown out completely, and in the mean time maybe attempt lightening with chamomile or lemons?
honey?
Don't bleach, in any case ;)
Pixie0763
October 4th, 2011, 05:39 AM
Cutting off chemically dyed hair & going natural is why mine is only 3" long, BUT the texture is so much better! It's a big & hard decision, but it was the right one for me.
MonaLisa
October 4th, 2011, 06:23 AM
I know how you feel. I've felt the same...except that my dream color is black.
Difference is I didn't use henna or anything. semi permanenet dye made me shed a lot.
So i kinda 'had' to go natural. all the color washed off and it was really easy to get my natural color back within several weeks.
So what I can tell you is that...hair will feel much better.
In past when you were hating it, I bet you didnt know how to take care of it properly.
what u can expect is lots of texture, softness and shine.
I gained some thickness too and ends seem to not get damaged at all. just some old damage about...
I don't know if you can love it. To be very honest, i don't think i REALLY love it either.
But you can definitely NOT hate it :)
And there is something special about being all natural :)
If you FEEL this is what you wanna do, and even dream about it.. I say go for it.
Earlier u start working on it, faster you'll get the result!
You can always go back to henna.
That light silver sounds wonderful, magical :) I really love the description.
ya-ya C
October 4th, 2011, 06:42 AM
Funny, I just had the same thoughts yesterday! My haircolor is similar and I do henna too, but I was thinking what shall I do when I go grey and whether I should grow out my natural color now, while I have time (I'm 26). On the other hand my chance of beautiful grey color is 50/50 because my dad's is snowy-white and even (and he went grey early) but my mom is still literally like salt and pepper mixed together and she's 65! I don't want it to be uneven color, but I have quite a few greys already so maybe I'm after my dad in this case. I also have doubts about letting my natural color out, because it's not even ashy-brown, it kind of greyish-sandy-brown with a greenish tinge:confused: (I'm serious, that's what it looks like to me, may be it's just in contrast with henna?).
In any case, you said one of the reasons you're in doubt of giving up henna is the benefits it gives to your hair health, so my advice is to look into using Cassia - an herb that is sometimes called neutral henna. It's supposed to act like henna (give your hair volume and shine) but no color change.
here's a link to more info http://www.mehandi.com/hair/cassiaobovatadoit.html
Good luck! May be one day I'll be doing the same :)
spidermom
October 4th, 2011, 07:03 AM
Thank you celebriangel! I like my color change, too.
Red suits you very well, and it will probably be a long time before you get those silver sparkles, so you have time to plan. Please don't try to bleach out the henna and ruin your lovely hair.
starlamelissa
October 4th, 2011, 07:26 AM
My natural hair color is ashy blonde, sort of a greeny grey blond. It bleaches in the sun, so in the winter I would have dark blonde roots and light blonde ends. The longer your hair gets the more noticeable this will be.
When I had natural hair I was always tempted to bleach the top to match the bottom, of course it never really matched.... Ugh.
My dyed red hair is luminous. I have no intention of going back any time soon, and I am only 23 after all. I'll figure out aging in another 20 years or so.
UltraBella
October 4th, 2011, 07:46 AM
Some background:
I've hated my natural colour all my life. It's...it's basically grey, it's a light ash brown colour that you can't even buy a dye box of, it's so ashy. And my hair was always so frizzy and poofy, I hated everything about it.
I love red hair - it's the colour I've always wanted. When I got to LHC, I gave up the chemical red dye and began to henna instead. I loved the colour, and had no plans to stop, apart from a faint worry about what will happen when I start going grey (I want to show it off! If my family history is right, I'll go that white end of silver).
However. I've always felt that I should *try* to like my natural colour, and I really wanted to like it, I just - couldn't. But last night I had this dream where I grew out my roots to an inch then chopped off all my hair except the roots - and loved it!
I woke up with a terrible urge to grow out my natural colour. I think that, with LHC care, my "grey" hair might actually shine silver, unusual and elflike...and even if it doesn't, I have the option of colouring with temporary veggie dyes. I think my colour is light enough that they would take well.
It's just...my hair is BSL, and it will take years to grow out my natural colour. I'm going to try to remove what I can with colour B4, if I decide to do this, to see if I can get a few more inches of natural roots.
I love what henna does for my hair's condition and texture. I'm just a bit confused I suppose.
Ooh, and my natural colour, I think, looks a lot like spidermom's siggy. I realised that recently, and started liking my own hair much more. So thank you spidermom!
Help? Encouragement? Advice? Thank you all for being awesome, LHC!
I think you should try it. The hardest part is seeing your ashy hair next to the red, the contrast makes it look so awful. But my bet is that as you get more and more root growth, you start to realize that your natural color is pretty. It took me having a good five inches of growth before I could really tell that my natural color was not as ugly as I thought. I still don't want a whole head of it, lol, but I am much more excepting of my natural color now. I get a few highlights and lowlights finely woven in and I love it.
You'll never know unless you try it !!
Dyefree
October 4th, 2011, 08:11 AM
I can only tell you my personal experience. Last year I had extreme damage from extensions, bleach and dye (not saying your hair is damaged..... Just so I can explain why I did what I did)
I would have put myself as a f with a thickness of i. In sept 2010 I stopped dying my hair, I chopped to chin length and let my hair grow with no heat styling or anything. In the one year I grew around 7-8 inches... I then chopped off the ends back to chin and am now almost 100% virgin.
Is it hard? Yes for me, very. I hated having black roots against my lighter bleached ends... Especially when they were around the 2 inch mark...
But the difference in the shine and the texture.... And the thickness....
I went from a i to a solid iii, I no longer need to blowdry or heat style, the texture has changed from a f to a m. And the natural highlights of my natural hair is fascinating to me.. It somehow looks translucent yet never brassy all at once.
I was in hair hell this time last year, with short, damaged hair and jet black roots.... It looked a mess. Yes my hair is still short now, but for me that year of cutting out the dye and keeping short virgin hair was worth it.... Now it's just a growth issue than a two tone/ damage dilemma.
I hope you make the decision that's right for you :)
Kaeita
October 4th, 2011, 08:29 AM
Someone told me once, years ago, that my own hair colour, like my own skin tone, is the one that suits me best, because it's what comes naturally to me. I haven't dyed my hair or worn makeup since. It might not be a bright colour, and is probably not perfect, but it suits my eyes, and my eye brows, and takes far less time. I would like to try henna at some point, but in the meantime, I'm happy with my colouring. In the sunlight, my hair is a reddish colour anyway. I didn't realise that until a few months ago; my hair looks a dull ash-brown in indoor light. You might be surprised at your own natural colour. Give it a shot. If you don't like it, you can always go back to colouring your hair.
kitschy
October 4th, 2011, 08:35 AM
My natural color is very ashy light brown, or dark blonde. This is what it look like as I'm going gray.
Bianca
October 4th, 2011, 10:44 AM
The color will most likely get prettier as it gets longer. Dont know if mine is lighter than yours, but its ashy as well, at the roots and underlayer only. My lenght is golden blonde, but it looks natural, not like its dyed at all :)
Roots ashy, lenght lighter, even in the shade, dont know how dark yours is, but nonetheless, it will probably lighten from the sun.
http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=2008&pictureid=106426
Lenght vs roots http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/picture.php?albumid=2008&pictureid=106371
Just though I would share, I grew mine out from dye and henna too and thought my natural hair color looked quite boring in the beginning. Couldn't love it more today :)
celebriangel
October 4th, 2011, 10:49 AM
Thank you for all the replies everyone! I think I just needed to hear some new perspectives on the matter:)
Bianca, my hair is similar to yours but either it doesn't bleach in the sun or I don't get much sun - could be either!
I am going to try growing my natural colour out. If I don't like it, I can always go back to the henna! And I will definitely pick up that tip about cassia - henna makes a noticeable difference to my hair's health and shine, so it would be nice to achieve the same without the colour.
Kitschy, that is a beautiful colour! I would be very happy if I went gray like that.
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