Has anyone here tried the ombre trend?

[buttercupmcgee]

Once my hair reaches APL I was thinking of getting this done, as a reward:

http://www.boxno216.com/2011/09/biancas-before-and-after.html

The problem is I don't really know what the pros and cons are....I like that it seems to require no upkeep and only damages the lower bits....but I don't know what hidden cons there may be, or perks I haven't thought of. I'd love to hear from someone who's traveled down this path before I take the plunge.

I'm also wondering if it would still look fab were it not styled to perfection....because let's be honest, I'm not going to be curling it daily.

Anyone care to discuss? :)

[Rocket22]

The ombre look is for sure a personal preference. Some think it looks like you were too poor to do your roots. I personally love it and am growing mine out naturally to look like this. I think the upkeep would be pretty darn easy because really you don't have to do anything once you have the lighter streaks on the bottom but just grow.

[artemisjade]

So...people are paying to have their hair colored to look like they have massive root growth? :disbelief

Wow (http://www.boxno216.com/search/label/amazing%20fade). I didn't know I was so stylish. >.> <.<

Personally, I think it looks trashy, but I can see why someone would find it appealing. It's definitely an interesting effect. That said, I think without the waves/curls the color change is going to look more like a bad dye job and less like beach hair.

Like this (http://www.refinery29.com/should-the-ombre-hair-trend-fade-to-black). Or a lot of these (http://blog.meghanhibberd.com/2010/10/13/hollywoods-hair-fade/).

If it's something you like I say go for it -- if you have a good hairdresser s/he can make the transition gradual enough to look good while your hair is straight (like this (http://meghibberd.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/images-181.jpeg)). Just make sure you're very clear about what you want.

[jojo]

I actually quite like it and as Rocket said the upkeep is easy, you do nothing!

[andrea1982]

Some peoples' hair naturally does this as it gets longer. (obviously doesn't look that "done", but with the ends and face framing bits lighter than the roots.) My hair is a light brown, and it bleaches very easily in the sun, so this is sort of the look I get when I grow my hair out. What is your natural hair color? Think a lot about it before you bleach, it causes damage and you'll really have to baby your hair afterwards.

[archel]

I really like the ombre hair look and Drew Barrymore just absolutely rocked it. I don't think it looks like old roots grown out if there's no hard line of demarcation. It just gives the color a lot of depth.

[pepperminttea]

I'm not a fan of it myself, but I do like that the trend makes it more socially acceptable to be growing out your natural colour (because while social acceptance isn't everything, and some people are strong enough just to say 'it's my hair, I'll do what I want with it', it certainly makes it easier). It does seem like a strange thing to have done to your hair deliberately, but each to their own. :)

[Juneii]

It is kind of just like an artificial imitation of sun bleached ends right? There are a few members on here who has that naturally (light brown hair turning blond) so no runs to the salon for them! I think the look is really nice, if done subtly. I think Drew Barrymore's is a bit too much, but the link buttercupmcgee showed us was really nice. It wasn't that obvious.

Besides, I thought if you don't tend to your roots after a dye job you would just see a straight line where the dye ends and your natural hair starts? NOT the same as ombre hair which is supposed to have some amount of fade back into the natural hair.


ETA: Also an extra thought. Can we achieve this look with lemon juice? I know lemon juice is used to lighten hair, what if we strategically applied this to the ends of our hair?

[MsBubbles]

"Re: Has anyone here tried the ombre trend?"

Why yes! There are a bunch of us over on the 'growing out dye' thread doing this :silly:

[buttercupmcgee]

Thanks for the response, all!

artemisjade, that is my worst fear....that it would somehow look trashy if I didn't style it! The look I'm going for is MUCH subtler than Drew's (subtler even than the link I posted.) So I'm hoping that might help.

andrea 1982, my natural color is a medium chocolate brown/light brown in some pics, so I'm thinking of making some of the ends more of a dark honey blonde, nothing too bleached.

juneii, I'd thought of the lemonjuice idea! Too bad there's little sun here now...off to google though!

msbubbles, thanks for the tip! will check it out.

[Vanilla]

I had the accidental Ombre look last year when I was growing out my lighter color corrected hair. I had a very obvious line of demarcation, which ruined the effect.

I personally think it looks pretty.

[AnnaJamila]

You can also try honey- that should be nice and soft with a good bit of gradiation. I like it when it's done subtly- more intense can look really good when it's styled but not so hot on "bleh" days.

[MrsGuther]

I've got the ombre look right now. About 3 and 1/2 inches of root growth. Ha! ;)

[Mountaingrrl]

This is my solution to coloring my grey hair without over-dyeing the darker length and especially the ends. I use a demipermanent color on my roots and just thread a little bit through my length to blend. I end up with a subtle ombre effect.

[Juicematic]

I had this for about 6 months and I really liked it but found that it looked best on wavy or curled hair. I usually just wore braid waves because I'm lazy. If you are young with no grey hair there is really no upkeep. I had to keep up the darker area because I have a few grey hairs.

[xoerincolleen]

My hair does this naturally from the sun!

[dulce]

My waist hair is naturally like this due to exposure and also dyed ends from before when I coloured my gray.I really like it,It looks really interesting and makes for great buns and braids due to the different colour variations.Love my streaky coloured braids!

[Dorothy]

Mine is the result of starting to Henna my greys instead of dying them brown. My very ends are brown, and there is much less grey in the back, so my "face framing bits" are red, my bangs are all red.

Initially, there was a line of demarcation, however the tone of the henna matched the tone of the brown, so it wasn't too bad. As time went on, the line of demarcation blurs more and more, as hairs grow at different rates.

I like it, I'll be happy when my hair is all Henna instead of part brown dye, but more because of the damage from the brown dye. The Henna looks lush, the brown dyed bits look straighter and dull. All in all, I'm glad there's not a hard line, I didn't know that the blending would happen, it's a nice surprise, I thought I'd be sharply two toned until it all grew out.

[Diamond.Eyes]

I kind of sported an ombre-like hairstyle for a while when I was growing out my red hair and I still had black hair dye on my tips, though I eventually cut the black off. :)

[blondie9912]

I personally love the look, but it can go quite wrong. You're going to have to find an extremely talented stylist to pull this off, because an inexperienced one can make it look....well, just awful :D

As a heads up, if your hair is light brown and you want the ends blonde (therefore the hair must be bleached at the ends) watch out for damage. When my hairdresser did this he teased my hair VERY roughly prior to applying the highlights (most will do this if you tell them you want ombre, it helps to make the highlights 'fade' as opposed to having a harsh line of demarcation).

Needless to say, backcombing + bleach resulted in me having quite fried hair after this :(

[Miss Maisie]

I love it, but I don't think I'll be able to pull it off. My hair is really dark, and I feel like it wouldn't look like natural "growing out" of sun-lightened hair. Mainly because my hair doesn't really do that.

[Miss Maisie]

(Oh, and I meant to add a Sad Face :( there) I really like the look.

[joesgirl2011]

I would like to start wearing my blonde "darker" I did some low-lights with dark blonde at home a few days ago. I am trying to get rid of the line of demarcation by doing the low lights. I love the ombre look. I think its the only way i would dare grow my light blonde out. I am so addicted or afraid to change my bleach blonde color because i have had it so long. I have tried so many times to just dye it dark blonde..the next day or even hours..i go grab a bleach kit to go light light blonde again. So yes ombre is what I am aiming for I guess.

[joesgirl2011]

I guess I really have an unhealthy emotional attachment to light blonde..weird I know. :(

[morrigan*]

My colour is something like that for the past few months. That is because i have bleached and orange colored hair a year and a half ago, then i colored with brown, but it fades a lot. My demarcation line is not straight and i have pretty wavy hair, really curly when i was on beach ( salt :)) and it look pretty cool even with straight hair.

[Enigma]

I have to be honest here and say that until I saw this in a magazine, I didn't know it was intentional. I just thought people didn't bother to colour in their roots. And I wondered.... YOU HAVE SO MUCH MONEY! Why didn't you dye your hair?!

But then again.... even my blonde friend who I found out has naturally sun-bleached tips.... I thought she just wasn't dying her roots.

Different boats for different folks I guess! Just my honest impression of it.

[LittleB]

I don't think it's trashy if it's done very subtly (with thinner streaks) and not too far off from your root color. A huge color difference is too stark, IMO. Also varying where the ombre begins looks nice, so it's just not one straight line.

[artemisjade]

Since I read about this I've seen ombre hair everywhere. I'm still not loving it, but I have seen it done pretty well.

If you watch The Big Bang Theory you can see a case of ombre with straight hair that doesn't look trashy. This week's episode (with Sheldon's mom) was when I noticed it on Penny (Kaley Cuoco).

Here's (http://www.tv.com/shows/the-big-bang-theory/clips/the-big-bang-theory-put-a-little-church-in-this-church-10561327/) a clip that I think shows her hair.

If it's what you like, I'd say take in a photo example. That way the stylist will know exactly what you're looking for.

[hs_atreides]

When it's well-done it can look amazing. I have seen only a few ladies in my city give it a go, and even fewer actually pull it off. Well-blended, not contrasty is the key, IMO.