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

[punkgirl89]

Hair History: I've been dyeing and bleaching my hair since I was 14. I've been blonde, raven-haired, auburn, purple, red, turqoise....pretty much every color under the sun. I dyed it from bleached out punk red to brownish using henndigo about a month and a half ago. It is blendable with my natural color, but not a match by any means.

Hair Length: About 3 inches

Goal: BSL, maybe longer

Virgin Hair length: about 1 inch

[paper]

Hair history: Permanent dye to cover grays. I've decided to embrace my grays and see what my natural salt & pepper hair looks like!

Goal: BSL Virgin hair.

Current length: > APL

Length of virgin hair: 2-3"

[Shermie Girl]

*Comes in, looks around, grabs a coffee and settles on the couch.*

Mmmm... Good idea for a thread. I like the idea of a place to give and receive support for the growing out process. And I think that I may belong here. I won't go into my entire hair history or write a looong drawn out, boring assed post. That would take volumes and forcing anyone to read it would probably be deemed cruel and unusual punishment. Or maybe even torture, under the Geneva Convention.

When I joined LHC I had highlighted dyed blonde hair and I was actually pretty happy with my colour. I am a blonde from birth but my hair has gotten darker over the years and now I am a dark dirty dishwater ashy blonde with some natural gold highlights and a ton of silvers. When I found LHC I got caught up in the whole "blonde dye and bleach are evil and must be destroyed" thing I thought I saw and coloured my hair a warm medium brown. I thought that brown dye would be "better" than blonde. (Oh! How little I really knew... ) It was nice, tho inside I was already mourning my goldie locks.

Then I met henna. I fell fast and I fell hard. I had worn chemical red for a short time in my past and knew it looked pretty well on me and I was totally seduced by the promise that henna could give me conditioning, strength and... Shine! Glorious shine! As my reason for living is that glossy, sparkling Pantene commercial shine, like the sucker I am (P.T. Barnum would have loooved me!) I dove headfirst into a romance with henna.

And for a while, it was wonderful. Mixing the mud, applying it, wrapping and stuffing and wearing it. Rinsing and conditioning. Waiting for it to dry. The entire ritual was so enjoyable for me. I really did love every bit of it. And the results. Oh! The results. Gorgeous. Unmatched red like nothing I had ever seen. Strength and silkiness my hair has never seen and the shine! I finally had that glorious glossy, sparkling Pantene commercial shine. My hair loved henna. I loved henna.

Then it happened. That old longing. That whisper in the back of my mind. I missed it. The blonde. For a while, I could push it back. Ignore it. Tell myself I was just being silly. But not for long. Stronger, the whisperings became. Slowly amplifying, they became a call, then a shout. I could deny it, no more.

Blonde. I needed to return to it. And damn the consequences.

So, I started out with lemon juice and conditioner soaks. Got some results as the henna started fading from my tresses. Then I got the wild idea to try a little 10 volume peroxide in the mix and after a strand test, I went ahead. Got even more fadage. And thought that if 10 volume worked so well then 20 must be even better. And, if 20 is working so well, then what about 30? How about 40???!!!

I am firmly convinced that 10 volume peroxide is a gateway bleach. Firms encourage everyone to have it in their homes for "medicinal purposes". But really, it is just a sneaky, underhanded way to lure susceptible women and yes... men, too... into just trying a little on their hair. Just to see what happens. Then they are hooked. The hair gets lighter and lighter and the volumes of peroxide get stronger and stronger. The need for this lightening becomes more and more powerful as the head gets blonder and the poor, hapless victim is completely addicted. And the makers of peroxide sit back, rubbing their hands together and cackling in delight.

Ooops. Sorry about that. Where was I? Oh, yeah. 40 volume peroxide. I was using stronger concentrations of higher volumes of peroxide in my attempt to remove my henna. And for a while it was working. My hair was holding up nicely and getting lighter and lighter. I had it to a strawberry blondish stage. Think Phyllis on The Young and the Restless. I had a feeling my hair was starting to kiss it, condition wise but I was determined to get it just a little lighter before toning it. And I didn't strand test. I just went forward. And destroyed my hair.

My nearly tailbone length hair was a nasty gummy, sticky ruined mess. In a series of chops over the next couple of months I went from long to a bob that was just below my ears. My poor hair was wrecked and toned out to a bad dark blonde and orange. Not pretty.

It is still not pretty. My hair is past shoulder length on it's way to APL. I now have natural hair to my ears. The rest is the peroxided and toned mess and the last few inches are henna residue and sticky and gummy and wrecked. Yes, after all that I still have henna in my hair.

My goals are simple. First to get all the wrecked hair gone. I want to grow a bit more then I can start trimming. I just need to get past this painful length. If my hair remains short for much longer, I can't say what I will do. It has driven me nearly past my last bit of crazy. After the nasty damage is gone, I will most likely be returning to blonde. Now, blonde, I grok. I can dye blonde. And, with my LHC skills, I am now certain that I can have blonde and long, beautiful, healthy looking, strong and shiny hair.

I don't know what my ultimate goal length is. I once, for a very short time had classic length blonde hair. At the time I didn't fully appreciate what I had. But I would very much like to have it, again. Past classic, I dunno. I do know that I can get at least that long, so it might be fun to try for even longer lengths. We'll see what the future brings.

For now, I intend to just enjoy the ride.

Okay, I said I wasn't going to make this a long post, didn't I?

Sorry.

I lied.

[Hatsumomo]

I loved reading everyone else's hair-stories (I'm weird like that). Nice to know I'm not alone in the grow-out stage either!

It just seems like it'll be forever until I can have waist-length hair without some degree of two-tone or unnatural colour. For as long as I've had long hair, it's been two-tone (I dyed it as soon as I decided to grow it out). The red-tinged (I used brown dyes before that ALWAYS faded to red!) ponytail that looked stuck on to the rest of the ash-brown hair has been there too long. I'm just so impatient, I've had my hair almost virgin twice since growing out my short hair and both times, I used a semi and got worried that it had stuck, causing me to give up and go back to permenant measures....just so happened the most recent one was the most permenant of all

[KarenLynn]

Good idea for a thread!

I’m another who’s experimented with color over the years – almost all semi permanent, almost all reddish brown. I even tried brownish black, and think I got away with it quite nicely. The first permanent dye was a fire-engine red courtesy of the first Hungarian hair dresser who claimed to speak English. It did fade a whole lot, but I cut my hair short to get rid of the rest of the dye. Soon after I started up again, but stayed far away from both hairdressers and permanent dyes.

I never had horrible roots from the semi-permanents, but somewhere around 2002 I decided I wanted completely virgin hair. By the end of 2003 it was a tad past shoulder length, and though the ends had seen dye they didn’t have any noticeable color difference.

So of course I had to go and completely wreck my hair. This was the second Hungarian hairdresser who claimed to speak English. He asked if I wanted blonde hair, I said NO. What I wanted was reddish with a few blonde stripes. He said ok. When they unwrapped my hair it was a mix of blonde and carrot orange, and especially the pieces around my face completely fried. Hungarians tend to have much coarser hair than Scandinavians, and I had nasty, nasty breakage. Plus I hated the color. It was way too light and washed me out.

A couple of weeks later, I used a semi-permanent red to cover the mess. It faded before long, and so I repeated it. And again. Eventually, I used a brownish black, which thankfully faded to something close to my own light ashy brown color. I trimmed off nearly all my growth for the first year and a half, and the front pieces I cut even shorter due to the breakage.

Enter henna. I wanted to even out the colors, I wanted to improve the condition of my hair, and I still wasn’t done wanting red hair. Henna gave me all of that.

Now, exit henna. In 2006, I started debating whether to grow the henna out. It was a hassle to do, and it took time. I don’t like the upkeep with any permanent color, and I dislike having visible roots. I was done having red hair. I wanted to see my own virgin hair again. While I went back and forth on the pros and cons, I only did henna glosses for a few months. I figured it would make the demarcation less blunt if I decided to grow it out, and if I didn’t it would be easy to even out with full strength henna.

My last henna gloss was at the beginning of November, 2006. I haven’t done anything drastic to my length to try to get rid of the red, and it really hasn’t budged one bit. I’ve trimmed when necessary, until I did a 5.5” chop last November and finally got rid of the last of the once-bleached parts.

When I first started seeing my virgin roots, I didn't much care for the color. It looked grayish next to the henna, and I remembered how it used to look greenish in certain lights. As it got longer, however, I realized it's actually a very nice color - mostly ashy brown, I think, but with golden strands mixed in. My virgin hair is now a little past shoulder length at the shortest, and about BSL at the longest. The demarcation isn’t blunt at all, and it’s in fact difficult to capture in pictures. I’m happy about that.

Even my updos are becoming more virgin than henna red these days, which makes me even happier. It also makes me impatient to get rid of the henna, and I keep debating on the plan to make that happen. I have no particular urge to grow it back from shoulder length again, so I’m leaning towards maintaining roughly this length for at least a couple of years. We’ll see. I might end up doing another big chop or two.

[HotRag]

I have hennaed for many years. First time 1986 and then I had it virgin when I had chopped it off at shoulders in 1998. I tried a perm (bwahahahaha). When it grewed out, I started hennaing again. About two years without henna.

I have now stopped hennaing again.
Reasons:
- It was itching the last years of hennaing.
- I suspected that my hair got a bit brittle (not much, it is not falling apart or is very easy to damage) from henna and now I want to see how virgin ends will act when having long hair. Hair above henna can stretch more.

My hair is 32+ inches now, and lowest third is hennaed. But when I stopped hennaing, I made weaker and weaker hennaing for a while, to not get a sharp line.

My goal is 50 inches (and then I will see if there will be a new goal).
I will not chop off to get rid of the hennaed ends, they will have to go very slow, when I do mini trims and S&Ds.

If henna would be all good to my hair and scalp, I would gladly keep on hennaing, at least glossing.

[Arctic]

Nice to see so many people here!

My hair grows rather slowly and as much as I would want it to be long I'm trying my very best not to think about it too much. This growing out henna seems to help too

I haven't made any plans yet if I cut the hennaed hair off or just leave them, I kind of like the two toned look.

[Natalia]

Hair history: Well i first started chemically messing with my hair when i was 14. I got weaved highlights in my naturally blonde hair twice but there wasnt enough of a difference to deal with the up keep lol even though my sister in law is a hairdresser and did i for free . After that i didnt mess with it for a few years untill i dyed it dark red brown when i was 16 or 17. I didnt care for the red so after a few goes i found a nice dark brown i loved and could do at home (ive only had my hair salon dyed once). The time i had i done in a salon i got some purpuleish sheen put in it that i adored but she used a higher level developer that really did a number on my fne thin hair . Since the salon thing ive only dyed it twice mainly becasue my health has been so bad and no one really sees my hair but my doctors and family i live with. I havent dyed in (maybe 5) months so i have about an inch (i am a SUPER slow grower) of blondy blone roots and thats some contrast! I really dont like blonde on myself sadly but i am giving up chemical dyeing for as long as i can stand (hey i got nowhere to go and be presentable so what the heck ) to try natural altrnatives even if it only gets me to a light/medium brown even though i prefer the darkness. Thats really about all ive ever done to it. Since i dyed my hair at home i always use the lowest developer 10 especially with my fine hair so hopefully growing it out wont be to horrendous....*crossed fingers wih hopeful look*

Goal: Untimatly i would like waist length (the kind you can almost sit on) non chemically dyed but not blonde hair....Yeah i havent figured that one out either since i dont want to deal with the permenance of henna.

Current length: I havent measured but it deffinatly lower BSL near the thinnest part of my rib cage.

Length of virgin hair: About an inch . I hink the most fustrating part of growing out for me will be that eventually i will have straight light blonde bangs and mixed dark brown/blonde length. A very fustrating thought for me...

Natalia

[Altocumulus]

I agree, good idea for a thread!

Hair history - I've tried to dye my hair red many times over the last 15 years or so...several times with semipermanent color, and once with full head foils at a salon, but it never took. I like my natural color, but have always wanted to try red hair. My hair must be very resistant, because even the professional permanent dye didn't change my hair color (medium to dark ash blonde with a few lighter streaks). I gave up on red, and had two platinum streaks bleached in, one on either side of my face (yes, it was 1997...why do you ask? ) I liked how it looked, but it made my hair break off at chin level. I treated my hair reasonably well at the time (i.e., no heat styling), but I certainly didn't know about LHC level of care, so the fragile bleached hair broke easily, and I ended up growing them out. Then in 2007, I found LHC and henna. I hennaed (actually 50/50 cassia and henna to keep a lighter, coppery tone) for about a year, but grew tired of the upkeep and missed my natural color. I've been growing out the henna since December 2007.

Goal - Length goal? Not sure...not shorter than TB, maybe longer if I can thicken up my ends some more. If I really can't have thicker ends at TB or longer, I might consider cutting back to hip.

Current length - High TB (buttcrack!). I'm currently maintaining to try to increase the thickness of my ends.

Length of virgin hair - Variable, because my hair grows at variable rates in different spots around my head. Mostly around 9" or so.

[GlassEyes]

I'm not sure I should be posting in here for two reasons. One, I do henna my hair, and I like hennaeing my hair. That's not going to change for a while. And two, because the dye I AM trying to grow out it almost gone. But whatever, might as well.

Hair history (how you ended up in this mess )

For a year-and-a-half to two years of my life, I dyed my hair like CRAZY. I had highlights of every color (which wasn't as damaging as the other stuff I did) including white, and then triplle bleached my hair over the course of two months, eventuallyw inding up with green, fried hair. I then dyed it black, and a few weeks after,w ound up here.

Because my hair was pretty much steell wooll at this point, I looked into henna and the like. Before I dyed it though, I used a lot of honey treatments on my dyed black hair, which took out nearly ALL the black dye (I was impressed) and took it to the color I had attempted to dye my hair before (lightish golden brown) which didn't take to my fried hair. It must've developed under it, or the honey just took the black there and the dye didn't matter (either way, it was really awesome to do it with just honey xD).

Then I hennaed my hair. It turned red, obviouslly, and with more and more dye, it turned a dark red-brown color. However, my damaged ends (though at this time, it was a lot of the length) took a lot more dye and turned a really bright orange-red, and later a burgandy. It started irritating me, and because the henna couldn't completely fix my hair, I got a few cuts over the next year to get rid of it.

Now the dye is lingering on the very last inches of my hair (the most at three inches up form the bottom on some strands). I'm going to cut it off because it's damaged, but the color is also irritating me. Sometimes I like having dyed ends, but the comments I get about it bother me. I get asked by people I don't even know too well if I've dyed my ends, and it isn't exactly a color I would've picked to dye the area.

So thus, I'm cutting it off. Though sometimes I am torn because I DO sort of like it...It's weird.

Goal:Classic

Current length: APL stretched with layers, but not even shoulder curly.

Length of virgin hair: 8 inches.