Growing out hair dye AND all naturally patchy-heads

[RedRose]

Hi Everyone,

This post could get REALLY long, so I'm going to try and keep it as short as possible so you don't fall asleep reading it!

My Hair is VERY thick (think hair for 4, and when more layers start growing out maybe hair for 6...) and is naturally patchy in colour and texture.

I have (chemically) dyed my hair a lot, most recently red, which I then wanted to get rid of so I could get back to my natural colour. Stripping left it patchy and stripey with roots - hideous. Plus being warm toned which doesn't suit me :-( So after a long time and with a friend's wedding coming up, I felt so hideous that I went to my colourist and she put a semi permanent brown in to cover it up. Result - a fairly even hair colour and one that suits me - yippee!

But I would still like to grow out my natural hair colour - I'm fed up of being dye-dependent to look good, root growth annoys me, and even the gentle dyes are bad for my hair. But equally, this is inevitably a long process (seeing as I don't want to shave my head) and I'd like to not look a mess whilst I'm doing that, as to me having hair I'm ashamed of seems to defeat the point of having it! And, I am worried that I won't be able to kick the habit - whilst I was having the semi put in, my roots were the longest they have been in years and the colour contrast over different areas of my head was severe - think baby blonde contrasted with very dark brown. So I would still be patchy if I was all natural.

So I'd really like some advice from anyone else whose down the growing out dye thing - how did you disguise it? Please bear in mind that I have not only got roots (and about 3 different demarcation lines from different colours) but also patches. Because when the semi fades out in a couple of weeks I'm going to be a patchy mess again because red is apparently very hard to get out (I have 8 months of proof of that!) and my colourist did suggest....bleach to remove the remaining red and then I could dye to match my natural colour(s). Do people think that this would be the best idea in the long term even though it would be short-term bad? I might end up having highlights long term anyway (the canopy is, oddly the darkest part of my hair at the moment) and I do find the patchiness distressing.

I wish I had the strength to just let it grow out as it is, but it does make me so upset that I don't think I'd be able to let it grow out to say chin length and then cut. And does anyone else have patchy hair (the original reason I hit the bottle) and have a way of dealing with it that works for them for when I do have my natural hair colour?

Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom.
Rose

[lora410]

ok think balck dye with light brownish roots :waving: yup that me. First I did coloropps (this will NOT reverse any bleach only dark colors) this left me with dark dark brown hair, and then I did baby shampoo with honey mixed and this lifted even more out (thanks nightshade :flower:) Eventhough I am still a two tone it is more blended and not nearly as obvious.

[teela1978]

I did about what you described, grew it out to about chin length (took a little over a year for me) and then chopped off the dye. Unfortunately, getting rid of dyed bits means growing them out and being 2-toned for a while.

What is your natural color? I dyed mine closeish to my natural color before growing out. It faded as it grew and became a bit more obvious that it was dyed, but it wasn't too bad.

[Islandgrrl]

Hi RedRose!

I think you have heaps of options. The most drastic, shave head, start over. I don't recommend that option :) The least drastic, do nothing. I'm not recommending that option, either.

I think that bleach is a bad option as well - it has no place on your already damaged hair! It really will only make a bad situation worse.

What seems to me like the most logical solution would be to continue coloring with the semi-permanent or even permanent color to match your roots, let it grow and take ridiculously good care of it. Frequent small trims to remove the worst of the damage on a regular basis will help to both improve the condition and transition from color to natural hair over time.

I hope this helps...

[spidermom]

Personally, I like two-toned and more-toned hair. My own is crazily multi-toned, and different lighting brings out different tones. I've got everything from the palest silver to the darkest black.

You might get some clip-in swatches of hair in multiple tones and wear them to make it look like multi-tone is what you're going for. Or regularly use a deposit-only color to blend everything until your natural color grows out long enough that you can bear to cut the old dyed length out. But please do stay away from bleach.

P.S. - wide hair bands and scarves hide a multitude of sins.

[Xandergrammy]

I'm growing out my natural colors without cutting. I wear my hair up alot and in braids and I'm at a point in my life where the color differences don't bother me.

[burns_erin]

Loreal colorpulse mousse is a fairly effective and very simple color depositing only product, it is a 10 washout product but only takes 10 minutes to do so you can do it every 2 weeks and it is not too bad. I also had some success using the fanciful stuff to help blend, but that is a daily washout kinda thing. I used both of these products before I went back to henna.

But I definitely agree with the large headbands idea, it hleps alot. They make some really nice ones that are very flexible and comfortable, I can usually find them at Wal-Mart or Bed Bath and Beyond.

However, I will say, if the red is hard to get out of your hair, it is probably natural to your hair under the brown (yes I know you said you had dyed it red, but if there is red under the brown, when you bleach, the red seems to be what you are left with), and that always makes for some interesting experiences.

[Alaskanheart]

I dont think using bleach to even out your color is a good idea, after all you have been chemically coloring for a long time and you want to stop.To me that would only fuel the coloring compulsion and put more damage into your hair.

Spidermoms headband and scarf idea is a good one, plus sometimes just wearing a simple updo will hide 2 or more toned hair very well.

I feel your pain I do. This month was the one year mark for me.I havent put anything in my hair to change the color.Thats saying something because Ive been dying/bleaching every 2 months for the last 13 years of my life.September is also the one year mark for heat styling which I did everyday for the same amount of time.

If I can do it , anyone can, Im not one to leave the house without make-up!It gets easier the longer you go, because you start to notice the longer you leave your hair alone the healthier and shinnier it gets.The first few months is the hardest, because you have to train yourself to use self control and to ignore the thoughts of not looking "perfect".After awhile it feels very liberating and you will be proud of yourself.

I dont see anything wrong with multicolored hair.I think everyone has at least 3 colors mixed into their hair.Only one color would look pretty dull I think.

[Julesn]

I'm right there w/ya!!

I decided about a month ago to not bleach my hair anymore (I've been doing it for 10+ years). My natural color is light ash brown, so you can imagine how horrifying it's going to look as it grows out (right now, I only have about 1 inch of regrowth). My current heavy highlights are Gwen Stefani blonde. That being said, I will be looking very ghetto in a couple of months~~ha!

I think it's all in your mindset & how determined you are to stop coloring it. You have to be REALLY ready to stop (mentally). YOU CAN DO IT.

I'm with the others as far as wearing your hair up to hide the regrowth. I would also do a demi-permanent color (we use Redken Shades EQ in our salon & I LOVE IT) maybe every 6-8 weeks until your hair shaft becomes really "stained" & you don't have to do it anymore, and of course, you would do that in your target color shade.

Like I said...YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!! :) :) :)

Julie :)

[detritus]

French braids also look nice when you are growing out color. I'm growing out henna and I have naturally light blond hair so it's a pretty drastic difference. But when I decided to stop hennaing I gradually used less and less henna mixed in with cassia to get a gradual transition to blond. So although the difference between my ends and my roots is pretty drastic, there isn't a clear demarcation line. That makes me feel better about my hair as it grows. Maybe you could try something similar?

[RedRose]

Oh wow you guys are the best! Thank you so much! I hadn't even thought of french braids (thanks detritus!) but they would hide so much. And Spidermom's idea about headbands and scarves is just awesome.

lora410 - what is coloropps? is it only available in the US? I'm in the UK. It sounds like a colour stripper like my hairdresser uses, is that right?

Islandgrrl- I was planning on doing as you suggested with the micro trims, I do need to cut this colour out but slowly! You suggested using semis or permanent colours for camoflage - do you think that semis are ok? Or are they still quite damaging to the hair? Burns erins idea about the mousse sounds appealing if that's the least damaging course.

I'm not sure I can quite bring myself to stop colouring completely just yet - I wish I had your strength Julesn and teela, it would be the heathiest option for my hair. Alaskanheart I can't believe you've managed to go a whole year, that's just incredible, congratulations! I think the problem is that because I'm growing out lighter roots than ends I can't dye to match my hair, I would either have to bleach or do nothing or use a darker semi- or demi-perm colour to hide it all until it grows long enough to cut off. But then I'll have short hair!

It's so good to know that other people are going through this too - maybe we should start a support group?! And I agree - I hate flat one colour hair but this is just a little *too* much.

Thank you all so much for your advice :-)

[Elenna]

Dyed hair can be very dry and brittle. Natural hair can be soft and flexible. This is a good reason to stop dying hair.

[JessTheMess]

I had bleached my hair platinum blonde about 3 years ago. Then I dyed over that a dark brown which faded to a coppery red. In May I dyed it soft black to match my roots. I must have had about about 2" of growth since then.

The soft black faded into this reddish brown.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/sweetirishjess/DSC01872.jpg

You can see the amount of growth since May here...
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/sweetirishjess/DSC01889.jpg

In the next picture, you can see the new growth and you can also see where the hairs started breaking off from the chemical damage.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a134/sweetirishjess/DSC01887.jpg

I'll never chemical dye again!!! I'm hoping to try henna to strengthen the hairs, but I don't want to have to grow that out as well:rolleyes: Maybe I'll just do Cassia

[twilight_faerie]

I'd say go with the two-tone. A large portion of my life (*sigh*) has been spent growing out black dye with looooong red roots (from dyeing over the black, not natural). Even now, 2/3 of my hair is faded black, with seven inches of auburn roots. It sucks, but every time I get a trim, I know I'm that much closer to finally becoming fully red again. It's just something I've learned to live with. Also, remember, all dye fades over time.