Ex Highlight/Colour Support Group

[Kyannah]

I started this thread as I myself am growing out bleached highlighted hair. I am pleased with my progress but still every now and again get the urge to go and highlight. The main thing that stops me is the damage.

Who else is growing out their hair to its natural colour?

[amaiaisabella]

*raises hand* As it says in my profile, I am a former color addict. For 6 years, I went every color from brown, blonde, black, though oddly never red. My hair broke off and it was in terrible shape until I entrusted my color to a stylist. I had always colored my own hair, so that was a lot of trust :) She used a demi permanent to bring my hair back to my natural color, and though it has faded a bit, I'm at 4 months with no coloring, and no roots *claps*

[Elenna]

Well, I have done a whole year with no dye.

The problem is that it takes quite a while to grow out the dyed hair and to grow in natural-colored hair with as little damage as possible.

What to do about the dry, brittle, dyed hair?

[kate46]

I too have been growing out my natural colour for a year now. I found it quite difficult to start with but the more the natural comes in, the easier it gets, I promise :). The odd times I have felt myself faltering I come here and re-read all the positive threads on two-tone hair, it really does help.

[Anlbe]

I keep on starting to grow my colour out, then I look at my face three months later and remember it doesn't actually suit me and I go back to my colourist.
However I am considering stopping this winter and semi permenant dying my ends to match my roots. I'll just have to get used to wearing makeup.

[Hatsumomo]

I've been growing my natural colour out again since May. I was almost there last June but I kinda screwed up lol. Oh well, back on the colour wagon. I've got nice two-inch roots at the front where my natural dark blonde highlights are so it makes it easier to tell how long I've got to go which at this point in time is a while ;) !

[greekprincess]

I started growing out my natural color in Oct 07. I have been bleach blonde, Jessica Rabbit red, blackish purple, brown. I tried to dye my (brown hair at the time) blonde in the spring of 07 and it went bannana yellow...and my ends turned to mush. I then dyed it dark brown which turned it black...as the color started to wash out it turned a lovely shade of grayish/green...YIKES...so I had to keep dying it until my hair would finally accept the brown color. As of today, my natural color has grown to about the top of my ears. The old color has now faded to a light brown and I am not touching it. I have to treat my hair so carefully because of all the hell that I put it through. But it's so worth it. Since I have stopped the coloring my hair feels great...every once and I while I deal with the frizzies in the old dyed hair area...but nothing a little coconut oil cant handle. Just hang in there...the end results are sooo worth it!!!!

[RedRose]

This is just the support group I need! I'm trying to break free from the vicious colour cycle, and hope I can have the strength you guys have! Currently have a semi in my hair to cover up the crazy colour mess it is, going to reevaluate after that, hoping to be able to get the length to match the roots and then I can go colour-free! Hearing you all talk about how much happier/healthier/stronger/shinier your hair is now is making me more determined to do it, even though I know it's going to be really hard.

[greekprincess]

RedRose...It is going to be very hard...I have been coloring my hair since the age of 13...I would try to grow my hair out in the past but after about 2" of new growth I would cave and dye it yet again.

If you are really serious about having long beautiful healthy hair you will stick to it....just when we feel the need to color...just log onto LHC for a intervention!

[Alaskanheart]

Good idea, ill join!I have a long way to go still, so support is always welcome.


1 year of natural hair growth for me.Ive been every color, white/blonde , dark brown, bright red, bright red with blond highlights, and everything else in between.Ive been double processed, triple processed and fried.I started at 14.13 years of changing my color every 6-8 weeks.

It is difficult for the first few months, because I think the roots are more noticable before they reach your ears, and also because of quiting cold turkey on a long term compulsion, and teaching ourselves to think differently towards natural beauty, and accepting ourselves.

My natural hair is a light ash brown , and the old color was a light golden blonde, so its not too dramatic of a two tone, but its definately noticable.I think it would have been harder if my hair was natural hair was lighter than the dye.

Oddly enough, doing something so small as giving up hair color has had alot of positive effects on my self esteem and how I view my own natural beauty.It feels good to know that I dont need to exhaust myself and spend loads of money in attempt to look like someone else.One little change like that makes a world of difference, because it has a snowball effect.I started to think, hmm if I dont need haircolor to look pretty, maybe I dont need these brand name shoes either, or this expensive skin cream.

Ive had a few friends and family ask me questions like "when are you going to color your roots?" Almost like they are worried about my mental state because Im not worried about my two tone hair looking less than perfect. I think its funny that they are more concerned with it than I am.The energy spent on stuff like that is so exhausting to me, I dont miss it much.

I think being patient will have great rewards when my hair is soft and silky like it was before I started coloring.I want healthy long hair, not just long hair.

The growth does make its way down your head overtime and even though its not all grown out it doesblend and become less vivid.

Good luck to everyone.

[AshleyP]

I've been dyeing my hair since I was 13. Nickname in high school was Skittles because I was every color in the rainbow. ;)

I keep getting the urge to go lighter. Grr. But right now, I have a pretty good reason not to dye: because I am pregnant. So, shouldn't have too hard of a time right now. I did good when I was pregnant with DD, but after giving birth, I went blonde, I bleached the crap out of it, decided it was ugly and recolored it the color it has been since (brown). It's probably been a little over 3 months maybe about 4 months since I've colored last. I've also given up the flat iron since that time too. Talk about my hair being sooooo much softer! :)

[Julesn]

I am also growing out bleached, highlighted hair (VERY HEAVY highlight, btw). My natural color is light brown & I have about 1 inch so far. I am very serious about growing it out, so I know I won't cave in :) It might look like crap for a year, but the time is going to go by anyway, so I figured, "Why not start now?" My last highlight was June 22. My roots normally would be driving me CRAZY right now, but I am SO DETERMINED that it is not bothering me ;)

Julie ;)

[EvaSimone]

I've made it one entire year without dying my hair, I finally hennaed/indigoed my hair to make the two toned aspect less obvious. My dream is to have tailbone, virgin hair but it's going to take a while to reach it.

A relative actually said to me the other day "your hair looks so two toned. Why don't you dye it?"

I almost replied, "so?!? you're hair is ugly and you're balding but I don't say anything..." lol but I held back in the interest of family peace... I barely held back.

[young&reckless]

Oh I still snear at people who have the color I wish my hair was, I really miss being a dark brown/black color.

Now I just try to be happy with what I have, and at least my bf is not dyeing his anymore either so were in this together.

I might be happy if it wasn't for that one gray hair that never wants to stay tucked in, but a hair is a hair so it stays on my head.

Happy thoughts people! no roots to retouch or color mistakes to fix!

[Treecrown]

This is slightly off-topic (I haven't decided if I'm growing out my henna and highlights or just putting off re-doing it), but anyway, Anlbe, are you sure your natural hair color doesn't go with your face? Could it be that you aren't wearing the right colors (in clothes, I mean)? Just a thought...I happen to believe that everyone's natural skin, eyes, and hair go together beautifully...

[JessTheMess]

YAY for this thread!!! I have about 2 inches of virgin growth in my head. I too have been every color on the color wheel. ranging from platinum blonde, to strawberry blonde, to red, to black to strawberry blonde again to dark brown and now most recently I died it soft black to match my natural color. My ends are fried! What I recently learned is that no matter how dark you are dying your hair, it still lightens before depositting color. So now what I am dealing with, is reddish toned locks that don't match my roots at all. I'm not going to dye it though.. Just growing away and keeping it updo'd. I can't wait until it's all virgin!!

[Katze]

congratulations to all of you breaking the dye addiction!

After starting to bleach when I was 13 (!) with Sun-In, then constantly back and forth between trying to go natural and going back to bleach, I officially bleached my hair for the last time in July 2005. In June '06 I could not stand the two-tone look any more and went for a corrective, dark blonde dye from a salon. In Aug '07 I bleached mini-strands very subtle highlights, into my bangs again; they have mostly grown out.

Now my hair is about 75% natural. Unless my hair is very dirty or I have it up where the ends are showing (as opposed to, for example, a bun where they are wound around the outside) it is not really noticeable that the ends are bleached. I really like my natural color, and have some nice silvers coming in that mix with it beautifully. :cheese:

It is REALLY hard to get away from bleaching/dyeing especially when society tells us our natural hair color is boring (my natural color for example) or makes us look old (grey/white/silver). The two-toned phase is especially hard; those of us brave (stubborn?) enough to stick it out WILL be rewarded - trust me!

keep on growing and keeping away from the bottle, lol!

Katze

[Amara]

I have been henna free for a year and a month or two, so I have 6-7" of natural growth, except for a streak in my bangs, which is about halfway grown out (I'm not doing that again either). The only thing I am going to continue is a little blonde streak I have behind my left ear - it's maybe 50-100 hairs and I dye the new growth once every year or so, so it's not acquiring damage and I like the flash of color in braids and such. :D

My ends are still pretty damanged, they've been black, blonde, and everything else. I'm hoping as the new virgin growth continues I'll continue to see improvements in strength etc.

At this point I'm not tempted to dye again at all - the henna shows red highlights in the sun whereas my natural ashy brown does not, but it's doesn't bother me!

[QueenBea]

This is what I was going to comment on :) Hair and skin should naturally go together; I believe we are created to be beautiful, not to get into theology here. And that's what I've been reassuring myself with this past year. I had dyed my hair from 8th grade to age 34, pretty much constantly; I quit cold turkey last year after a year of aggressive home highlighting and straightening that left my hair looking flat-out ugly. (Lots of people seemed to like it though; I look back at pictures and realize how bad it really looked).

I have about 5" of natural color, and although I'll admit, it's not the color I would "choose" if I could select any color in the world, it's not what I've been molded into thinking is a "beautiful color", and I want to argue that my skin would look brighter if it were just a tad lighter or warmer or whatever--really, I can see that it does go with my skin tone, and that's the "real me".

I agree with taking a look at your colors too--we had a free "women's event" at church that did the old beauticontrol color analysis (summer/fall/winter/spring), and although I was instinctively making mostly good choices, I discovered some things to tweak. And changing a few makeup choices as well.

The only color I've put on my hair this year is some henna on the OLD hair, not the new growth. The brown dye I put over the bleached hair last June had faded to brassy orange, and I decided I'd rather have my OLD hair fire-y red than brassy orange. So now I've got about a foot of red hanging down my back with 5 or 6" of natural brown. I'm pretty committed to growing it out now.

It has been very freeing this year to find my "real self". Although my mom can't figure out why I don't "fix myself up" anymore, lol. The hair is driving her nuts.

Bea


This is slightly off-topic (I haven't decided if I'm growing out my henna and highlights or just putting off re-doing it), but anyway, Anlbe, are you sure your natural hair color doesn't go with your face? Could it be that you aren't wearing the right colors (in clothes, I mean)? Just a thought...I happen to believe that everyone's natural skin, eyes, and hair go together beautifully...

[DeepRiver]

I have highlighted my hair for 15 yeras and then last year decided to go ahead and let my natural color completely come through (I had forgotten what it looked like). Lo and behold, I have some red in there that I didn't know I had!! I've always had the desire to be a redhead and hopefully now I'll be able to be!!

[Julesn]

Thank God for all of you guys & thank God for this support thread. It is very comforting to read about all of you who had made it through 2 toned hair. I am BOUND and DETERMINED to get my natural color grown out. I only have 1 measly inch and it is already DRIVING ME CRAZY. How do you all just ignore it? Any tips? I feel like I just look so HORRIBLE~~I can't even stand to look in the mirror, which id difficult b/c I'm a hairdresser & am SURROUNDED by mirrors. Ugh. It's SO DEPRESSING :(

Julie

[StrawbryBlondie]

I also have two toned hair. My roots are about a half an inch long right now.... I honest to God don't even know what my real color looks like. That's how long it's been since I started dying my hair, I can't recall what my color is. I started dyeing my hair at 11. I was getting professional highlights then, then dyed black out of rebellion :p then moved in with my liberal father who thought it was satisfying that I was "finding myself" and dyeing my hair every color of the rainbow to express my feelings. LOL Anyway, I've basically been floating between chocolate brown and burgundy but my baby pics so Strawberry Blonde being my natural color. I cannot wait to have tailbone length virgin hair. That is gonna be the chit! :eyebrows:

[StrawbryBlondie]

I meant "SHOW" not "SO strawberry"...sorry!

[RedRose]

greekprincess - I keep caving! I really do want to stay strong and do it, and now I know where to come for support :-) Virgin hair will one day be mine!

Julesn - I completely understand what you're saying about not wanting to look in a mirror, that's how I was feeling a few weeks ago, so....I caved. I got a semi put it to hide the worst of it (i haven't just got roots, I have patches all over where the red has faded differently). I wish I had had the strength not to, but it was really getting me down and stopping me from living my life so I compromised. But I don't recommend that if you can possibly help it! It may not be as bad for your hair but its still not great! But I have had some great advice from people about disguising the unevenness, wearing wide scarves or headbands, wearing hair curly, putting hair in french plaits, wearing a headscarf. It can be done, get creative! Soon you will have loads of inches and they will be beautiful and glossy.

Personally, I still have quite short hair, and when the semi fades out there should be quite a few inches of virgin/relatively virgin (only ever coloured with a semi) hair, so I think I might ask my colourist to dye the ends of my hair (the bottom few inches) to match the rest and then it should look fairly even. This isn't ideal, but I'm selling it to myself in two ways: firstly the bits I'm intending on dying have already been dyed so it won't be creating new damage, and secondly, those ends are fried anyway, if I was sensible I would chop them off now but I don't want to have short hair again, so I'm planning to micro trim out about half my new growth every few months until the damage is out. Assuming my hair grows the standard 0.5 inch a month, I should have trimmed all the dye out and have totally virgin hair in....12-18 months. Sooner, if I maintain length rather than grow. Wow, that sounds so achievable when I say it like that!

I really can't wait to have healthy, virgin hair! The difference between the 3-4 inches of root I have and the rest is just amazing, stupidly it took for me to have it all dyed the same colour before I could really notice and appreciate the condition difference.

[Yttrai]

I'm trying to do the same, but backwards.

I grew up blonde, but as an adult the roots starting growing in dark. So i dyed my hair medium dark brown, in order to cover the blonde and make it all one colour. Well, 4 weeks later my entire head was lighter than when i started, and instead of the stripes where the hair had air oxidised to blonde, now i had a solid line of new growth versus old growth. I tried a second time with a second brand, and the same thing happened again. That was in February.

So instead of a "permanent" dye i've been using Manic Panic (about 6:1 Cobra/Infrared) in an entire bottle of conditioner, to keep the oxidised portions dark. It's working quite well, and the hint of red is fun :)

[Kyannah]

When I started this thread I never realised there were so many of us going through the same things. We all seem to have a lot in common. Many of us started dyeing at an early age, we all seem to have days where we feel we can't stand growing the natural colour out anymore. It's a bit like quitting smoking, as it is a habit.

I am trying to persevere as I want to see what my hair colour is when it has grown out more than just a few inches. I don't think you can really see your natural colour just at the roots, eg. how it looks when the sun shines on it. and I think that is what puts many of us off as we see a dull looking colour at the roots.

Just finding reasons to keep myself motivated. I think keeping hair up also helps as you don't see the contrast in colour, plus its sooooo hot at the moment.

[georgia_peach]

Yeah!! for this thread! I'm growing out henna - a very nice, rich, dark, PERMANENT auburn. My roots are very SILVER. Oh my, the contrast is unbelievable. The roots are barely half an inch long, but I know it's going to be crazy looking the longer they get. I actually miss the texture my virgin hair had. "Don't hate", but this henna hair is so soft and straight, that it doesn't even look real next to my skin. It looks like a wig. A pretty wig, but a wig none the less. Ugh.


Thanks for the great tips like scarves and braids. We shall persevere!

[greekprincess]

It's funny how society has put it in people's heads that if you are not coloring or cutting your hair you look old. MSN.com had a slide show of 6 hair make overs of all women in their 40's with long beautiful hair, except for a couple of shorties and they cut all of their hair short..and the women with already short hair..they cut even shorter. They did not try to enhance their long hair one bit. Just because you are over 40 doesn't mean you have to have a matronly hair cut.

And I think it's hysterical that people think I am losing my mind because I am not coloring my hair and that I am walking around with 5" of my natural hair color with silver streaks popping through. They keep asking me when I am going to color my hair again and when I tell them I'm not...they look at me like I have 3 heads!

[sipnsun]

Add me to the list, I am bleach free since May of 2007. I was so bad that my stylist once accused me of having blondorexia! He just couldn't get it blonde enough for me. (Sad, I know.) But I am reformed now and I love the way my virgin hair feels. It is so soft and slick. (Not strawlike.) I'm not crazy about my natural color which is ashe blonde, but I want long hair so bad that I'm willing to suffer it!

[StrawbryBlondie]

It's funny how society has put it in people's heads that if you are not coloring or cutting your hair you look old. MSN.com had a slide show of 6 hair make overs of all women in their 40's with long beautiful hair, except for a couple of shorties and they cut all of their hair short..and the women with already short hair..they cut even shorter. They did not try to enhance their long hair one bit. Just because you are over 40 doesn't mean you have to have a matronly hair cut.

And I think it's hysterical that people think I am losing my mind because I am not coloring my hair and that I am walking around with 5" of my natural hair color with silver streaks popping through. They keep asking me when I am going to color my hair again and when I tell them I'm not...they look at me like I have 3 heads!


It's funny you said this because last night my boyfriend and I were watching MSNBC and they referenced a woman with long hair who was 42 as "haggard" looking. I mean, they weren't talking directly ABOUT her hair but it was like they had to add in that she had long hair, you know what I mean? I've never understood why women that hit 40 get short hair???? My mother had knee length hair and chopped it off and STILL moans and whines because she can't be patient enough to grow it back. Now she's got like Liza Minely hair style. It's thinning and falling out. She says from medication but I think from blow drying, curling iron, hairspray, and vitamin deficiency.... What do ya'll think? :confused::eek:

[greekprincess]

StrawbryBlondie...

Your mom's thinning and hairloss could very well be from all of the above. I am on the pill..and it causes terrible shedding...very frustrating. And I have had thinning in the past because of stress and vitamin deficiency just from not taking care of myself. She may want to talk to her dr about that.

It makes me angry that society thinks if you are over 40 with long hair that you are "haggered" or trying to hold onto youth.

[StrawbryBlondie]

See, my boyfriend's been hounding me about getting on the pill but I'm too paranoid about the effects. My friend also told me she noticed shedding a lot more and weight gain due to pill.....

[bex487]

See, my boyfriend's been hounding me about getting on the pill but I'm too paranoid about the effects. My friend also told me she noticed shedding a lot more and weight gain due to pill.....

I just want to chime in and play devil's advocate...I've been on various versions of BC pills for 3 years and have never experienced excess shedding or weight gain or any other side effect. You results can be totally different from your friend's. It's just my opinion, but safe practices are worth a little shedding!

[greekprincess]

I have not experience any weight gain or skin break outs or really anything negative from the pill except the shedding. You can't go by all the "negatives" about the pill because each person reacts differently to the pill and there are so many different one out there, if one doesn't work out...there is another one out there that will.

I agree bex487!!!

[jivete]

I'm another one who doesn't really know what color my natural hair is either. I'm trying to go natural for a while to see what it looks like and if I like it. I'm no longer dyeing, but henndigo is always tempting. I think my natural color is a dark ash color. When I was younger it sun bleached blond easily. My goal is to get another inch of natural color and then evaluate the color. If the indigo didn't fade out of my hair so easily, I'd love to stick with henndigo. Unfortunatley, reddish only sort of suits me.

[Yttrai]

You can't go by all the "negatives" about the pill because each person reacts differently to the pill and there are so many different one out there, if one doesn't work out...there is another one out there that will.


So very true. Everybody's enzymatic and metabolic profile is unique to them. Until you try a regimen, you can't begin to guess if you'll get the (mostly statistically minimal) side effects or not.

Don't forget the pill alternatives, Nuvaring and the patch being the top two. There were concerns about the amount of estrogen and estrogenoids in the patch, and i've no idea how the FDA and prescribing institutions resolved that. Check with your doctor on that, but i can tell you first hand that Nuvaring had far fewer side effects than oral contrceptives, and is incredibly easy to use, and extra convenient to boot. I highly recommend it to everyone considering birth control, especially those prone to migraines, or allergic to the binder in pills.

[/threadjack]

[Isilme]

See, my boyfriend's been hounding me about getting on the pill but I'm too paranoid about the effects. My friend also told me she noticed shedding a lot more and weight gain due to pill.....

Hijack, I never went on the pill because I didn't want to deal with hormones and then I wanted something foolproof where I didn't have to remember something once a day, once a month etc. The pill isn't the only way to go, look at all the other things, like an IUD for example, I have one and love it. There is a thread about it in health and body beautiful I think, an IUD comes in two vareties, one with hormones and one without, I have had the one without for some years and I very happy!
Sorry for hijacking, hijack over!