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

[xoxophelia]

Yes XO that is what I am hoping, that summer will blend it all in. Highlights don't fade, tho, and I agree, you cannot fake natural highlights. Most people who have lighter colors of hair have variations. So to dye it all one color may be a natural color, but the natural tones are missing.

I bleached my hair completely many many moons ago and I dyed it and dyed it back to a darker color over and over until it took. I finally was able to match my root color but it still looked unnatural. I still have a little of that hair left in my longest lengths. Shedding also belnds over time. Interesting, according to hair articles (science), our hair is completely replaced through shedding every 6 years. HA! Tell that to someone with knee length hair. Still, thought, shedding does help the blending thing.

I WILL be strong. I WILL NOT color permanent.

Just remember you mostly just have to hang on until summer. And, when your roots are a little longer where they are more noticable there are plenty of tricks to blend them in (pinning side sections back loosely, braid waves, loose french braids, headbands etc). After a year of not coloring I am finally to the point where I honestly do not care but I am lucky that the two colors blend somewhat decently.

Awesome! I'm glad to have someone in the same boat. I was bleach blonde...then went red...then did a semi-permanent, very dark brown. My regrowth looks pretty dorky right now because my natural color is an ashy dark blonde. Oh well, I'm actually more focused on the health of my hair now rather than color, so it helps to distract me.

My focus when I was at your point and with the combo of having used a semi-permanent color was finding gentle enough ways to get it to fade fast enough that it wasn't horribly harsh against my growing out roots. Things I do think helped:
-overnight leave-ins of olive oil and honey
-swimming in a chlorinated pool made a difference
-once a month soaking my hair in a warm bath and then leaving SLS shampoo in the whole length for up to 30 minutes
-at one point I started trying to shampoo my hair every other day to get an extra bit out (compared to only twice a week)

Oh another thing that helped.. avoiding mirrors and my own reflection XD

[laughinglynxie]

My focus when I was at your point and with the combo of having used a semi-permanent color was finding gentle enough ways to get it to fade fast enough that it wasn't horribly harsh against my growing out roots. Things I do think helped:
-overnight leave-ins of olive oil and honey
-swimming in a chlorinated pool made a difference
-once a month soaking my hair in a warm bath and then leaving SLS shampoo in the whole length for up to 30 minutes
-at one point I started trying to shampoo my hair every other day to get an extra bit out (compared to only twice a week)

Oh another thing that helped.. avoiding mirrors and my own reflection XD

Hahaha! No mirrors right now seems to be a good idea (and on a side note, reminds me of "The Skeleton Key"). I'll have to try out the olive oil and honey - sounds moisturing, at the very least! I've seen some good fading otherwise...red is just a clingy color.

[WaitingSoLong]

Thanks for all the comments in my album that my hair looks natural. I will just have to politely disagree. ;o) Maybe it is a "natural looking" color but on me it looks terrible! Ok, well, I think so. LOL.

Demetrue: That sounds like a good way to blend, but I just do not want to do anything else permanent on my hair. I feel like that would be starting over.

French braids bring out the worst of my demarcation line. I guess because it is still so short. Like 2" or something.

If I ever do anything, it may be a semi-permanent dye. I am pretty disappointed my wash out dye did nothing. I am RETURNING IT next chance I get.

[xoxophelia]

Thanks for all the comments in my album that my hair looks natural. I will just have to politely disagree. ;o) Maybe it is a "natural looking" color but on me it looks terrible! Ok, well, I think so. LOL.

Demetrue: That sounds like a good way to blend, but I just do not want to do anything else permanent on my hair. I feel like that would be starting over.

French braids bring out the worst of my demarcation line. I guess because it is still so short. Like 2" or something.

If I ever do anything, it may be a semi-permanent dye. I am pretty disappointed my wash out dye did nothing. I am RETURNING IT next chance I get.

I looked through Target yesterday and stopped by the hair color aisle and saw that Natural Instincts does have a medium/lightish blonde semi-permanent color. That is the brand I used most of the time and if I had stuck with it my hair would have been OK. I found Wella and others to be more damaging.

And I meant french braids for long roots. It staggers things more instead of a line around the head

[Joliebaby]

Here are my roots after 6 months of no dye. I'm officially confused about my hair color again. This picture is taken under natural full spectrum light bulb.
I'm actually surprised to have gone this long without dyeing (darker, which has been my choice of chemical dye ) but since I've come this far it makes me more and more reluctant to give in...
It blends really well with the colored parts:

[Rocket22]

Here are my roots after 6 months of no dye. I'm officially confused about my hair color again. This picture is taken under natural full spectrum light bulb.
I'm actually surprised to have gone this long without dyeing (darker, which has been my choice of chemical dye ) but since I've come this far it makes me more and more reluctant to give in...
It blends really well with the colored parts:

wow I can't tell any difference it looks totally natural to me.. Looks like you have a beautiful blend of beautiful colors

[klcqtee]

So glad you resurrected the thread!

So, I need a new picture soon, badly, so ignore it, because it is not representative in any way. My hair is now at the top of waist length, when wet (YAY!), my undyed (but hennaed) hair is about an inch below my chin, and my virgin hair is just below my eyes.

[Lize]

Hi guys! I am just checking in since I am really busy these days... very little LHC time.

I started the "No trims in 2011 challenge" so I am not cutting my ends for a year now except for S&Ds, so that will be a real challenge for me. But a good one I am sure.

Lately I have begun to just fall in love with my natural color. It's really special and now that it's grown out a few more centimeters it looks sooo much better. The natural hair looks so strong and undamaged also. But the color! The very special ashy blonde that so many people hate. I freaking love it! It's so pretty. So every inch I gain is a pretty one in my eyes. Also this color can not be acheived by dyeing hair, which makes it even more cool.

I hope everyone is doing fine!!

[WaitingSoLong]

[QUOTE]

Hi guys!
Lately I have begun to just fall in love with my natural color. It's really special and now that it's grown out a few more centimeters it looks sooo much better. The natural hair looks so strong and undamaged also. But the color! The very special ashy blonde that so many people hate. I freaking love it! It's so pretty. So every inch I gain is a pretty one in my eyes. Also this color can not be acheived by dyeing hair, which makes it even more cool. quote]

I hope I can feel the same way. I have a dark blonde hair naturally. I am not sure if it is ash or not. I think it is. I dreamt last night that all the sun-in damage turned pink and every time I washed it the pink got darker. LOL. I have about 2" of roots at this time.

[Rocket22]

Since LHC I am now kinda excited to see my natural color as well.. I really have noticed how bad my bleach hair is and how it doesn't even behave well. (no curl and is more frizzy etc.) anyway this is the first time EVER Im looking forward to roots? and I have some hella roots. I seem to be pretty dark I will totally have that Ombre look that keeps me going