Suggestions on growing out dark roots from bleached blonde?(picture heavy)

[victoriahart]

I've been dying my naturally dark brown hair ever since I can remember. Every color from purple, blue, green, to my current light blonde. I'm in love with the blonde, but after my recent purchase of a long red wig I am now obsessed with growing my hair out.

Since the bleaching was so damaging I already don't use heat styling, and I plan on doing some more research on this site as to more natural products to start using for my growing process but what I'm most confused about is an attractive way to grow out my roots.

I really don't want to part with being blonde, so I'm thinking I want to go have a salon just match my roots on my top layer of hair (so I still have blonde, but don't have the ugly greasy looking dark roots showing). I am worried about having that trendy "skunk" look, as well as having to use damaging dye to get back brown. Do you have any suggestions as far as dying techniques or pictures of growing out roots for inspiration? In my search of the forums I found someone mention getting low lights to help it blend as it grows out, but I don't understand how that would work considering to go brown from blonde, you need a red filler first.

For fun, here's pics of my natural color, my favorite color, the wig that made me need long hair, my blonde at it's "best" and my current length & roots.

http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/v1.jpg
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/v4.jpg
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/v3.jpg
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/v5.jpg
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/2011-11-18001117.jpg
http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/vickibot/2011-11-18000715.jpg
Thanks so much for any input you may have! Currently 23 inches, aiming for a healthy 36!

[justgreen]

I would suggest getting a professional colorist to dye roots only, and then just a heavy highlight, not all roots. I do this every four to six weeks, for about the last six years. Find someone that can do it without putting a toner on after the bleaching. Someone that can get to the platinum color without yellow, then you won't have brassiness later. Toners can cause brassiness. My colorist uses 40vol for about 40 minutes, but then we are all different. You might try having someone do a test on some of your underneath hair to see how long to leave it on. I have a dark , natural underneath panel that I never bleach. Makes me have interesting up-do's. :smile:

The blonde color suits you, but I did smile at the purple!

[Amber_Maiden]

I like the blonde as well. Just get a stylist to keep dying the roots.

[Kilandra]

I'm growing out highlighted/colored hair as well. My natural color is a medium brown so the difference was pretty intense. I'm trying to go all natural but I did dye my ends with herbal essences medium brown. I did that to get it at least all one color (or as close as possible) so that I could tolerate the growing out process.

Personal opinion - if you are trying to grow naturally healthy hair without dyes, I would stay away from any additional highlighting/lowlighting (unless you are only doing it on your already damaged areas and don't mind them being more damaged). For me, doing an all over gentle color made my hair look natural and didn't fry it. If you continue to do highlights or lowlights, the damage just continues.

[victoriahart]

I would suggest getting a professional colorist to dye roots only, and then just a heavy highlight, not all roots. I do this every four to six weeks, for about the last six years. Find someone that can do it without putting a toner on after the bleaching. Someone that can get to the platinum color without yellow, then you won't have brassiness later. Toners can cause brassiness. My colorist uses 40vol for about 40 minutes, but then we are all different. You might try having someone do a test on some of your underneath hair to see how long to leave it on. I have a dark , natural underneath panel that I never bleach. Makes me have interesting up-do's. :smile:

The blonde color suits you, but I did smile at the purple!
Thanks! I never thought about being able to get that blonde without a toner. But even without toner, I don't feel like my hair can handle it anymore. The hair in my "bangs" and around my face is really fine, and even though I keep chopping the damage off (to the point of baby doll bangs at one point), it's just so obviously fried and unhealthy. I'm also looking to save the 60-80$ every other month :/ But I may very well ask around some salons, thank you!

[victoriahart]

I like the blonde as well. Just get a stylist to keep dying the roots.That's what I've been doing, but every time I visit I have to get at least an inch of damage cut off, my hair is so damaged from it :/ Thank you!


I'm growing out highlighted/colored hair as well. My natural color is a medium brown so the difference was pretty intense. I'm trying to go all natural but I did dye my ends with herbal essences medium brown. I did that to get it at least all one color (or as close as possible) so that I could tolerate the growing out process.

Personal opinion - if you are trying to grow naturally healthy hair without dyes, I would stay away from any additional highlighting/lowlighting (unless you are only doing it on your already damaged areas and don't mind them being more damaged). For me, doing an all over gentle color made my hair look natural and didn't fry it. If you continue to do highlights or lowlights, the damage just continues.
Thank you! :) I guess what I really should do is just an all over color, I'm just having a really hard time making that big leap. It's funny, I was never afraid of any color...but going back dark from blonde is terrifying me!

[lapushka]

Why not go to the salon one more time to have the colorist match up your roots with some brown dye, as close to your own color as possible. It beats trying to do this yourself. Going from blonde to brown takes skill. This way you'll be able to grow it out without much fuss.

[Nightshade]

In your first picture you remind me a lot of Elizabeth from Bioshock Ultimate (http://scrat.hellocotton.com/img/medium/incredible-cosplay-elizabeth-of-bioshock-infinite-1658251.png).

I think it illuminates your eyes a lot more, the dark hair that is.

Honestly I would go and get it professionally color-corrected back to dark. I trust you when you say your hair can't take it anymore. I've been there. Despite all the "It looks great!" I heard here, they couldn't touch it or hear it, and really, it was at the brink.

:)

[GourmetChica]

I think if you could find a stylist that is well versed in ombre, that would be a great transition and so pretty on you! Like this (http://www.heavensalon.com/cm/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2ombre-hair-color-trend-2-1.jpg)

[unknown]

How light did you have to get your hair for the dark purple colour? It's pretty

[jesis]

I loved your hair in the first picture! :)

[victoriahart]

Why not go to the salon one more time to have the colorist match up your roots with some brown dye, as close to your own color as possible. It beats trying to do this yourself. Going from blonde to brown takes skill. This way you'll be able to grow it out without much fuss.
I agree, I plan on going to a stylist one more time, I'm just not sure I'm ready to jump to ALL brown yet. Guess I'm just being stubborn since it was such a process to get my hair light, and I know once I go back dark there's no turning back until my hair has had a few years to repair.


In your first picture you remind me a lot of Elizabeth from Bioshock Ultimate (http://scrat.hellocotton.com/img/medium/incredible-cosplay-elizabeth-of-bioshock-infinite-1658251.png).

I think it illuminates your eyes a lot more, the dark hair that is.

Honestly I would go and get it professionally color-corrected back to dark. I trust you when you say your hair can't take it anymore. I've been there. Despite all the "It looks great!" I heard here, they couldn't touch it or hear it, and really, it was at the brink.

:)
Thanks! I actually love to cosplay, might consider her one day :) And my dad says the same thing about the dark hair, that I was given dark hair for a reason :P Thanks for the opinion<3


I think if you could find a stylist that is well versed in ombre, that would be a great transition and so pretty on you! Like this (http://www.heavensalon.com/cm/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2ombre-hair-color-trend-2-1.jpg)
This is actually a look I was seriously considering! I have tons of pics of her saved too! I just wasn't sure if it was possible to go from blonde to ombre, since it seems most people get the look from either letting it grow on forever, or going from dark to ombre. I'm going to do some salon hopping and see if any stylist sounds confident enough to succeed!


How light did you have to get your hair for the dark purple colour? It's pretty
For all of my fun colors I'd lighten just passed the orange point, usually yellow blonde.
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/VickiHatesYou/HAIRHISTORY/meeeadffsh.jpg
Purple was put on top of this with great results (notice the blonde up top)

I always used special effects brand dye (not harmful at all, and lasts much longer than manic panic and other brands). Funny that my hair was it's healthiest when I was changing the color every month because of the veggie dyes! But you could probably still get a nice dark purple with very little lightening with the right color choice.
Here's two great places to see/ask about fun colored hair.
http://haircrazy.info/gallery/purple/
http://www.hairdyegallery.co.uk/purplepage1.html

[torrilin]

It looks like your hair has some natural wave to it. It also looks like you like GothLolita or fairly Victorian styles? If so, I think going back to your natural dark brown could suit your style very well. Your natural coloring is very much in the vein of a Victorian china doll :). And with long hair, you have an excuse to wear pretty things in your hair. It gives you a little more wiggle room to show your personal style, even if you end up in a day job with a suit.

If you feel like your hair is that fragile, I'd definitely work with a stylist to try and get closer to your natural roots color. You have a decent amount of regrowth, so matching should be somewhat easier.

I also would be at least a little chop happy. I find that split ends on fine hair are just no fun at all. In fact, I find them pretty maddening. Long hair is a lot more fun when you're not crying from hours of detangling. Obviously, balance this out with other factors... I also get driven mad by hair in my face (so itchy!) and ends that are stupidly blunt and won't stay in a bun for anything. But the point of long hair is to be happy and comfortable, so make your decisions based on your personal pet peeves.

[victoriahart]

Thank you jesis:)

Torrilin: I do have natural wave:) and I love lolita fashion! Another reason I want long hair is so I don't have to wear wigs when I dress up. I'll definitly get rid of some hair after I dye it the last time, I want healthy long hair<3 thank you!

[sbhonda]

Bleach and my hair did not get along. I bleached it once and realized I could not put my hair through that again. So after 3 months of being blonde with way-too-grown-out roots, I dyed back to brown. I'm not back to my original color yet, I went to red for a while, but I am unwilling to bleach ever again.

However, my bleached hair did not want to hold brown dye at all. I had it dyed a permanent dark brown, and it always faded back to a light, orangey-brown within about 2 washes. I tried my hardest to wash my hair as little as possible. But my hair was very damaged by the bleach, and other people have much better luck with bleach.

[jaine]

I had bleached highlights with dark brown roots when I started growing ... I went to mehandi.com and got some body art quality henna and indigo. I took an entire weekend and did alternating treatments of henna/indigo/henna/indigo/henna etc. until I got a dark brown color. (Actually I overshot it a little and got black, but it faded to dark brown after about 2 weeks.) It was more reddish compared to my natural color but it was close enough that I could leave it alone as it grew. Henna has a strengthening effect on the hair and would probably leave your bleached hair in much better condition than it is now - shinier and stronger. Henna and indigo stick very well to bleached hair, just be prepared for some bright orange or greenish-blue in-between stages while you work on the color you want. You will need multiple layers of it to get dark brown ...once you get it dark enough you can switch to glosses instead of full treatments to adjust the tone to be less orange (with an indigo gloss) or less greenish-blue (with a henna gloss)

Another option would be to get a stylist to dye the whole thing dark brown to match your roots. I don't know enough about professional dye to know what to ask for though.

[sbhonda]

I wish I had known more about henna when I was going through my horrible bleach nightmare. I knew what it was, but I really knew nothing about it. I think it really could've helped my hair. But all my bleached hair is gone now (except maybe some tiny bits on my ends) and I'm sticking to my natural color for a while once I get back to it.

[AngelDella]

I think you can pull off all of the colors in your pics very well, but I LOVE your look with the red wig...for some reason, you remind me of Angelina Jolie in that pic. No suggestions though, just my thoughts.

[katsrevenge]

If you are well versed in self hair dying you can try to to 'streak' your hair with a semi-perm darker brown. I did this to fix my roots up with the weird orange I once managed to somehow get into my hair. I did it with perm dye but I wasn't too worried about damage or it being messed up.

How I did it was wrap the ends I wanted light very tightly in saran warp and rubber bands and then layer in the dye, thicker at the the top and more piecemeal at the bottom. It looked very nice and was even on trend for my area at the time.

But I was very used to DIYing hair color. If you've been paying someone to do it.. that might be safest..

[Maverick494]

I've been where you are OP and I sincerely suggest getting a professional colorist to color it back closest to your natural haircolor. That is, if you want long hair. There are users here who manage to grow long hair while bleaching it, but there aren't many whose hair is strong enough for that.

I used to be a bottle blonde like you and I kept it like that for at least 2 years while trying to grow my hair, but it kept snapping off and got worse and worse. So at first I tried dyeing it myself because I figured that would save money and bought a brown dye with red in it to counter the green that usually comes with such a big step. Well, it was a disaster because I didn't manage to coat every single strand evenly. After trying again a few times it got better, but it still wasn't what I wanted. Then I went to a colorist and she got it right in one go. That was in June. I haven't had a trim ever since because for once my roots don't show and ends stay healthy. Normally I can't manage longer that 3 months without a trim. Go figure.

So personally, with long hair in mind, going back to natural is the way to go. Your dad was right! :cheese:

[Annibelle]

I think you look beautiful blonde, but I think you look even better with the natural brown. :) I would try henndigo, but only if you're sure you don't wanna go lighter with that hair after that, since it's permanent. :)

[MrsGuther]

I think all the colors in each picture look pretty on you. :) Thanks for sharing the pics. I've battled with the whole roots ordeal and now I just dye my roots about every four months (three inches of dark blonde roots, when I can't stand it anymore).

[luthein]

Wow, you really rock the bob with bangs in the second photo. I second the ombre look for you. You can definitely pull off a dramatic shift from dark to light.

http://www.dailymakeover.com/blogs/beauty-trends-and-news/drew_barrymore_ombre_hair.jpg

[Grillz]

I would have a stylist match your roots if you plan on getting rid of the blonde. It will save you a few years worth of awkward hair.

On another note, I love your eye makeup in the first blonde pic. Very beautiful!

[cheetahfast]

I like the purple hair the best! I'm biased since lately I've been purple crazy.

My suggestion would be to go back to go to a good stylist and have him/her fix your length to be a color very similar to your roots. I used to be blonde (I never bleached, lemon and sun in). My stylist dyed my hair a nice brown with a semi dye. I miss the blonde at times, but nobody has said I looked better blonde. In fact now everyone says that my "natural" color is better. My roots had grown pretty long...I think, since I couldn't tell the difference between the roots and length. I henna'ed recently and buxus'ed over it so I lost all of my good root growth. I'm done with dyes for good now. Natural colored hair is much cheaper and easier to maintain :)

ETA: I think one of my albums shows my blondw hair...it might be private though. I'm not sure :ponder:
Also I blogged about missing my bolnde color recently, but I realized that my hair health is more important.

[Nera]

I have a thing for dark roots, hehe. Ok not helping, I know(:

[Gingerbear]

You look great in all the photos, but the first golden blonde is my favorite. Your hair looks like it might be overprocessed in the second blonde photo--possibly from slightly overlapping the bleach when you do the roots. If you want to stay blonde, I think the best thing to do would be to add in 2 shades of fine lowlights -- one close to your normal hair color and one an in-between light brown/caramel color. Then, have a professional stylist highlight only the root portion in your part and framing your face. That will blend your grow out line so it is not so harsh and you can go at least 8 weeks between color/bleach. Leave the bulk of the sides and back and the undergrowth dark--you really won't see it when your hair is down or in a low bun or pony. You can do that area much less often, like every 9 to 12 months.

I also read somewhere that you should protein load your hair for several days before bleaching to decrease damage. The bleaching process eats away at the protein in your hair, so if you load it up with protein, the bleach will eat away at that, rather than the protein in your own hair. I'm a bottle blonde and protein load with Joico k-pak before bleaching. It has made a big difference for me compared to when I didn't protein load.

You also look great as a redhead and could always go the henna route. You're lucky to look so good in any haircolor!

[HazyMoon]

I loved your hair in the first picture! :)

I also love the dark hair. It goes well with the skin color. (The curls are also nice).

[invisiblebabe]

I like your natural color best on you (and I don't always, or even often, say that :lol:) I'd do what some of the others suggested and get the blonde professionally dyed back to a color that matches your roots.

[PixxieStix]

I think you can pull off all of the colors in your pics very well, but I LOVE your look with the red wig...for some reason, you remind me of Angelina Jolie in that pic. No suggestions though, just my thoughts.

That was my first thought too!

And, wish I had suggestions for you, but I'm following this thread since I too am growing out darker hair , but for me from a bleach with henna over it. I've been considering getting some low lights to match up the ends with the roots a bit ( I have nearly 2 inches of root showing), and even though I don't *really* want to get any permanent dye in my hair, I suppose once I reach my goal length I'll be trimming all the damage away anyway.

[hototogisu]

I love your natural colour on you! I'd go back to that colour if you want to grow - blonde is very pretty on you, but it's so, so hard on hair, and it'll make it difficult to get the length you want.

I'd take the time to find a superstar colorist to take you back to your natural colour, then really pay attention to your haircare. LHC methods really work! Maybe use clip in extensions to get those cute bright streaks in the bottom layers of your hair? You can get them cut to match your length.

Good luck!!

[Alex Lou]

I really like the first photo with the purple tips. Really pretty. But then I usually prefer darker colors so it's just personal opinion.

Have you considered a temporary brown instead of permanent? It won't truly be temporary on bleached blonde, but at least it will fade if you decide that you'd rather go back to blonde.


I think if you could find a stylist that is well versed in ombre, that would be a great transition and so pretty on you! Like this (http://www.heavensalon.com/cm/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/2ombre-hair-color-trend-2-1.jpg) Oh, this would be really stunning.

[jojo]

I think you have the skin tone to carry any colour off! i wouldn't recommend henna or hendigo even though they would help with damage repair, you seem to like to swap and change colours around, which is fun, your young why not experiment!

I loved the blonde and the purple best, you are very pretty too btw if you wanna keep with the blonde id take justgreen's advise, her hair is a prime example of how highlighted hair can grow to excellent lengths and still be in tip top condition.

[jtl45]

I like the blonde!
Jim

[Coan-Teen]

I agree you should either go with henna/indigo, or a semi-permanent plant based dye to help with the growing out process. The plant based dye will need to be redone on a frequent basis but it won't cause any additional damage and it will wash out if you should change your mind. The henna/indigo route will strengthen your hair and help with the damage but will be very, very permanent and commercial dyes notoriously react badly with it so you would not be able to dye over it.

[holomi]

Why not just leave it alone and grow out two toned hair? I think that would look cool. Trust me, if you color over the blonde, you will have to cut it off. If you keep bleaching, you'll never get the length you want. I had bleached hair like yours, so I know first hand. My vote is to just grow it as is.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I'd get a professional to put some low-lights in it that match your natural colour, if you want to give your hair a break without too much of a change - it can be a shock to go straight from blonde to dark.

Either that or JustGreen's excellent suggestion, which is also easier on the hair than bleaching the entire root area.


You can pull off any colour, you are so lucky.

[Lostsoule77]

I think you look good in all the colors, but the blonde is actually my least favorite. As to what you should do to grow out you've been given a lot of good options. It just depends on what color you decide you want to go forward with. If you want to continue the blonde I would listen to Justgreen. She is a perfect example that you can get beautiful blonde and still grow long hair. It won't be the healthiest though, so it depends on what is more important to you. I think the ombre is gorgeous and a good medium. If you can accept how gorgeous your natural color is on you then get a colorist to match your roots.

I think you just need to look over some of your pictures and decide what color makes you happiest and that you can maintain while keeping healthy. Then go to a stylist and make it happen.

Honestly I think if you want to grow it as long as that red wig the ombre would be your best bet. It will give you time to still enjoy your blonde which you really seem to want to keep. You could slowly cut it off and get back to your natural color. It seems like it'd be a happy medium to your happiness and your hair health.

Whatever you decide make sure you post pictures so we can see. :)

[summerjade]

Get lowlights in your natural shade (non permanent color so it will fade out and not be as damaging) or have your stylist use a non permanent color and match your blonde hair with your roots. Using non permanent color will be healthier for your hair than using permanent color. I strongly suggest not doing it yourself because the blonde may be damaged enough that it could be very porous and make your haircolor go too dark by absorbing too much color.
Good luck!