Giving up the dye/bleach and growing out natural? Share your progress.

**cailinbee** · January 25th, 2017, 05:56 PM

Growtivation, congratulations! It's looking really good!

Tracitrace, I love the cut! It looks really good.

I'm tempted to do the same thing, had I not signed on to the no-trim 2017 challenge. I'm at almost half and half (technically I have more than half virgin hair by percentage, most of it is just hidden in the underlayer) but to get a chop like that would really take most of the bleach away. So tempting. We'll see how long I can hold out...

Has anyone had any luck with purple shampoo or conditioner through this process? I feel like having better-toned blonde on the bottom would make me feel better.

**wispe** · January 25th, 2017, 06:47 PM

Originally Posted by cailinbee

Growtivation, congratulations! It's looking really good!

Tracitrace, I love the cut! It looks really good.

I'm tempted to do the same thing, had I not signed on to the no-trim 2017 challenge. I'm at almost half and half (technically I have more than half virgin hair by percentage, most of it is just hidden in the underlayer) but to get a chop like that would really take most of the bleach away. So tempting. We'll see how long I can hold out...

Has anyone had any luck with purple shampoo or conditioner through this process? I feel like having better-toned blonde on the bottom would make me feel better.

If I ever feel like my hair is too yellow (or peachy rather than pink) I use a bit of purple semi-permanent dye in my conditioner to tone it down. I have manic panic purple haze so I use that. I refresh my color probably every 1.5-2 months, but I don't have a ton of yellow to cover either. I don't think it would hurt to try.

**cailinbee** · January 25th, 2017, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by wispe

If I ever feel like my hair is too yellow (or peachy rather than pink) I use a bit of purple semi-permanent dye in my conditioner to tone it down. I have manic panic purple haze so I use that. I refresh my color probably every 1.5-2 months, but I don't have a ton of yellow to cover either. I don't think it would hurt to try.

That's a really good idea, thank you!

**Eriu** · January 26th, 2017, 01:23 AM

Hopefully this works, here is a pic of how the haircut turned out, this is maybe a few days after I did it.

**HairPlease** · January 27th, 2017, 08:24 AM

Ah, very nice, Eriu.

So I decided like many others that my natural color is intolerable, but I still refuse to use chemical dyes and or bleach on my head, so, I will see what I can do. Perhaps a light henna gloss to deepen things up a smidge.

**Eriu** · January 27th, 2017, 05:21 PM

Originally Posted by HairPlease

Ah, very nice, Eriu.

So I decided like many others that my natural color is intolerable, but I still refuse to use chemical dyes and or bleach on my head, so, I will see what I can do. Perhaps a light henna gloss to deepen things up a smidge.

If the henna doesn't float your boat I know lemon juice + uv light lightens hair, still feels drying as bleach though.
I've heard potato juice + uv light darkens hair but I've never tried it myself.

**HairPlease** · January 28th, 2017, 05:40 AM

Originally Posted by Eriu

If the henna doesn't float your boat I know lemon juice + uv light lightens hair, still feels drying as bleach though.
I've heard potato juice + uv light darkens hair but I've never tried it myself.

Potato juice? I haven't heard that one before. Thank you for the suggestions! I guess the lemon juice trick is like primitive sun-in.

**kidari** · January 29th, 2017, 12:43 AM

I have been using purple shampoo and conditioner but it was not enough for me. I went ahead and mixed up some semi permanent dye in purple and silver with some conditioner and coconut milk and applied that to my brassy blonde. I figure it's not bleach and it's not a permanent dye so... I'm still in this, right? I applied a stronger concoction with a more blue base to my roots and applied a weaker concoction with lavender tones to my length. I'm very pleased with the results and the silvers are not noticeable since there are so few and it blends well with the blonde.

**Salt** · February 1st, 2017, 03:25 PM

About a month ago I finally got to a point where I'd cut out all my layers and I was happily all one length around cbl. However, more recently I've been noticing more and more the bleach ends that are left around my face - the back part of my hair is pretty much dye-free. Honestly, every day I was obsessing over them, hating them, plaiting them back and pinning the bleached ends away.

Until a few days ago when I ruined(?) my one-length and layered the front sections of my hair, and actually, I don't hate it. I also semi-layered my whole hair, just the canopy(?)-ish section where any residual bleached hair was still lurking. Now my hair seems to be waving and looks so much healthier and I'm loving the colour at the moment. I can't wait to be entirely bleach-free so I can focus all of my attention on length.

Long-term I think I want to grow out my layers (again

) but for now I actually think it looks prettier? I don't know. I guess its a similar thing to what Eriu talked about. I had considered going over the ratty bleached end with a semi/demi colour but honestly the thought of using any sort of colour now makes me break out in a cold sweat. I guess I'm in this for the long haul!