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

[teela1978]

I finished growing out my dye a while ago. It took a while, and I was often tempted to dye. I started around shoulder length, grew my roots out to about shoulder length (took about a year and a half), and then chopped off all the colored bits. Definitely makes it take longer to grow it out, but my hair feels better now. And I hated dying it. Its such a pain. I hated the smell, the time, the mess. Ick.

[lara grace]

I've dyed my hair nearly all the colours of the rainbow since I was 14, bleaching on top of already bleached bits, black bits, everything. I dyed my hair a neon pink colour in May 2008 and decided that I'd go white blonde in August for the forseeable future.. the pink was so hard to get out and I bleached my hair twice and dyed with a high lift dye. My hair was DESTROYED. It felt like cotton wool and my fringe broke off like 3 inches, and the rest of my hair about an inch or two. I kept it for over a year, doing my roots carefully until I finally got sick of the damage in October 09. I dyed it a medium brown which kept fading, got sick of that in May this year and dyed it with red veggie semi permenant dye, which it still is now. I haven't done my roots since October and I have 3 inches of dark brown roots at the top of my head and about 5 or 6 inches underneath because the last time I bleached my roots, I only did the top half. They look pretty bad but I dont mind cause I'll have healthy hair soon

[Kome]

I still bleach my bangs, but the rest of my hair has like 4 or 5 inches of roots that are brown and then the rest is red from henna. I had the breakage problem in the front when I kept switching hair colors, but my bangs are FINALLY growing out now and are all even in front! It took awhile, but just have patience and you'll get there.

[jackie75]

I have spent quite a long time here reading about different options for my hair. I have dyed my hair about 10 years now, to cover up the white & gray. The problem I always had though was red tones, when my natural hair is a light brown/dark blond with ash & gold tones.

I finally decided last month to get rid of my dyed dark brown/reddish hair by bleaching. My virgin growth clashed with it so bad, it was just depressing. So now, I'm in the process of toning my hair to get it close to my natural, so I can just stop the coloring! I don't care anymore about my grays, I'll try some catnip treatments (already have to pouches of it) or cassia if it starts to bother me.

So, I'm almost there. I will probably have to refresh my length once in a while with a very low developer & color once I achieve the right color mix, but I'm leaving the the virgin growth alone.

I wish I found this place years ago, it would of saved me a lot of grief & frustration with my hair!

[Addy]

BTDT and chopped the evidence off!

WOOT! I'm a virgin!

haha

[jackie75]

BTDT and chopped the evidence off!

WOOT! I'm a virgin!

haha

LOL, wish I could say that! Sad thing is, I bleached my hair a few years back for the same reasons....to get rid of the red. I didn't know about LHC then, and ended up getting brassy/red again with boxed dyes.

I swore to myself I would never bleach again, but oh well. I'm so glad I did, and I'm closer to my natural color. My hair is tough, grows kinda fast & I just did a slight trim, so it looks good!

[melikai]

I've been growing out bleach for about 2 years now.

A month or two after I started:




In May of this year:



I've cut off a ton of damage over the last 2 years, so I haven't gained much length. Now I'm growing without trims to tailbone/bcl, and then I'll trim off the last of it gradually. I think I have about 4 inches left, but some parts have none and some more.

[jackie75]

Your hair is gorgeous melikai!

[SapphiraSilver]

Wow, I can pretty much relate to every single post I read here. This is such a great forum, being able to unite in common experiences and sharing them. Thank you everyone for sharing and the inspiring photos.

And to those just starting out to grow their natural hair, I'm with you all the way

I just can't wait to get rid of this damage, and frizz and grow these broken off bangs long and start properly working on length.

Good luck everyone!! Keep us updated on your progress.

[jackie75]

teela1978,

Your roots look very close to mine! My length was always lighter with golden tones, so I think your hair color is very similar to mine. It's been so long since I had long virgin hair, it might of changed quite a bit. Your hair is beautiful though!