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

**paulownia** · March 14th, 2023, 05:12 AM

I have basically calico hair now

I have no idea how different applications of cassia, katam, manjistha combined with old henndigo could result in this funny shades of cold pink and grey/brown but here we are. At least it's not a very warm tone so the demarcation line will not be that shocking.

**Bat** · March 14th, 2023, 06:50 AM

Oh I thought your hair was naturally growing that way I was about to join you in grey hair takeover

**cookies** · March 14th, 2023, 08:17 AM

Originally Posted by Bri-Chan

cookies uh, nice to see your color! I find natural colors change much more in different light conditions.

For the color analysis, I'm yellow and I tan extremely fast but I'm cool. For my colors, actually deepness and darkness are more important than the temperature itself. I don't look that good with dark red hair, but I look terrible with blonde. On me, the darker, the' better', which means dark color looks extremely natural on me.
Speaking for hair colors, I find that only the 1.0 looks a little fake on me (which helps for the gothish look, ofc). I remember dying my hair a 3.1 and it totally looked like it was my own (if you don't mind the regrowth after some weeks, lol).

Thanks Bri-Chan

Good point that not all identifiers need to be equally important. Just looking at my skin tone and overall contrast, I'd narrow it down to Soft Autumn/Summer or Light Spring/Summer. One day I'll take a full face photo and ask what you all see

paulownia I had to google calico, thank you for that, it was adorable

You're right about the demarcation, looks like a fairly smooth transition which is tough to achieve with gray hair! If you're growing it out, I'd imagine the more it grows, the more intentional it will look.

Bat I'm progressively graying at the temples too and I have a bonus gray patch in the top middle of my head

Very few of them are long enough to have been hennaed, so they've mostly popped up in the past few months.
I'm assuming it's stress related, along with the decreasing thickness (though I am, of course, getting older too).

**rosenester** · March 14th, 2023, 01:19 PM

I measured my hair today in preparation for trimming tomorrow. I grew 1” over the season, probably 1 1/4”. Trying to decide how much to trim tomorrow without setting myself back too far.

I have a lot of splits so probably need more than my regular 1/2” trims but I really love this length the best so far of maintaining WL. I believe 1” would be best, but then that could take me 3 months to regrow.

I have never been so wishy washy about how much to trim, I always just take the least amount. The reason I am posting these ideas in this thread is because one of my goals for the year is to cut 3” of bleach off, so I want to make some strides towards the goal. And I intend to join the 2nd half of the year no trim challenge, so I should really just get some of it out of the way now. The split ends are really bothering me, but also this length is my favorite so far in my months of maintaining as it looks WL when wavy.

why am I so uncertain when I am going to trim either way, it’s just between removing 1/2” or 1”. It’s not that serious

**caissafrass** · March 14th, 2023, 01:35 PM

Hair history (how you ended up in this mess ): I got really bored of my natural (dishwater blonde) hair, and hennaed it red. Then I hennindigoed it black. Then I cut it off and grew out my natural color.... and now (three years later) I've gone red again and, wouldn't you know, I don't want it red anymore.
Goal: Hip-length virgin hair (Unlikely to ever happen, I am naturally flighty + impatient).
Current length: Just shy of mid back.
Length of virgin hair: An inch.

Praying for patience...

**cookies** · March 14th, 2023, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by rosenester

I measured my hair today in preparation for trimming tomorrow. I grew 1” over the season, probably 1 1/4”. Trying to decide how much to trim tomorrow without setting myself back too far.

I have a lot of splits so probably need more than my regular 1/2” trims but I really love this length the best so far of maintaining WL. I believe 1” would be best, but then that could take me 3 months to regrow.

I have never been so wishy washy about how much to trim, I always just take the least amount. The reason I am posting these ideas in this thread is because one of my goals for the year is to cut 3” of bleach off, so I want to make some strides towards the goal. And I intend to join the 2nd half of the year no trim challenge, so I should really just get some of it out of the way now. The split ends are really bothering me, but also this length is my favorite so far in my months of maintaining as it looks WL when wavy.

why am I so uncertain when I am going to trim either way, it’s just between removing 1/2” or 1”. It’s not that serious

All the bolded parts apply to me too, so I can relate! I got a 1” trim a couple of weeks ago and I still had some split ends at the front, so I started S&D. I figured I should get used to it because otherwise I’ll probably hate my hair by the end of the no trim challenge

**Aerya** · March 14th, 2023, 03:47 PM

Paulownia Your hair looks great! The colours blend really nicely, and your waves are beautiful as always. It's getting so long too!!

Rosenester Oh, the ever-present choice between healthy hair and a comfortable length! It's such a tough decision, even if it's just hair. I hope you find a solution you're happy with!

Caissafrass Welcome to the thread! Did you dye your hair with henna, or with regular dyes? Warmer tones on ashy hair can be tough to grow out, but you can do it!

--

I'm in somewhat of a pickle, as my hair is currently three different shades - my natural color, a warm light brown-ish color down to my jaw where my hair is still somewhat healthy, and then below that my hair is so compromised the color has faded to a dark blonde color, that is somehow... ashy. I don't mind the three tone look, but it does bug me to have warmer hair up top and then ashy lengths. I don't really know why they are so cool-toned...

I put on a copper mask the other day, just for a couple of minutes on the ashy lengths, and it made it look a lot more even, but it somehow washed out after one shower. I didn't even shampoo my lengths and I didn't notice any orange water coming off, so I have no idea how that happened. I might just keep up with the copper mask to even things out, or maybe experiment with the ash brown color mask I got on the top parts, to make it less warm. I even considered to just dye my lengths, but I know from experience that it's all too easy to accidentally dye over my natural hair. That's how I'm still in this thread with mere inches of roots even though I joined here several years ago.

My length is also really tangly and gross, especially since I wash it more frequently these days. Chopping off some length has crossed my mind, but I also want it long enough to wrap two braids around my head and have it look somewhat presentable, as that is one of the few styles I can do that works for my annoying scalp. At this point I'm just ignoring my hair, haha. Maybe it will get better once the weather gets warmer. I can hope.

**rosenester** · March 14th, 2023, 03:51 PM

Originally Posted by cookies

All the bolded parts apply to me too, so I can relate! I got a 1” trim a couple of weeks ago and I still had some split ends at the front, so I started S&D. I figured I should get used to it because otherwise I’ll probably hate my hair by the end of the no trim challenge

Yeah the front sections are definitely worse for me, too. I have been unable to keep up with S&Ding this last month there is just too many everywhere now. Seeing as I have been basically just dusting and S&Ding for over a year and made good progress growing out length, now it’s time to work on the next goal of cutting off the damage. I just didn’t expect to be attached to a single inch of hair that no one else will notice the difference other than me!

I think I’ll just being going for 1” tomorrow, my hair will still be at WL, not all will be lost.

ETA: we posted at the same time I suppose, thanks for commiserating Aerya!

& BTW I love that strawberry calico, paulownia

**Bat** · March 14th, 2023, 05:11 PM

Originally Posted by rosenester

I measured my hair today in preparation for trimming tomorrow. I grew 1” over the season, probably 1 1/4”. Trying to decide how much to trim tomorrow without setting myself back too far.

I have a lot of splits so probably need more than my regular 1/2” trims but I really love this length the best so far of maintaining WL. I believe 1” would be best, but then that could take me 3 months to regrow.

I have never been so wishy washy about how much to trim, I always just take the least amount. The reason I am posting these ideas in this thread is because one of my goals for the year is to cut 3” of bleach off, so I want to make some strides towards the goal. And I intend to join the 2nd half of the year no trim challenge, so I should really just get some of it out of the way now. The split ends are really bothering me, but also this length is my favorite so far in my months of maintaining as it looks WL when wavy.

why am I so uncertain when I am going to trim either way, it’s just between removing 1/2” or 1”. It’s not that serious

Why not just let it grow and at the end of June cut off three inches because by the end of the second challenge you'll have grown the three inches back and possibly three inches of extra growth

**rosenester** · March 15th, 2023, 12:38 PM

Originally Posted by Bat

Why not just let it grow and at the end of June cut off three inches because by the end of the second challenge you'll have grown the three inches back and possibly three inches of extra growth

There’s an idea

I have a hard time watching my ends fall apart between trims, 3 months is difficult for me to wait and I always end up messing with and trimming a small section after 2 months

I ended up trimming 1” off the U shape and it overall took 3/4” off the length. I compromised with myself. Will be reminding myself to do the same for my summer trim, and hide the scissors until then