Want new hair colour! Advice sought form ye pro's :)

LadyMayBelle

Okay, regulars and newbies, I need advice on hair colour.

My natural colour is dishwater blonde (or so I have always called it). During the teenage years I was mad into highlights. When I was about 23 I went to brown and since then have gone, brown, black, mahagony (and all those shades in home dyes!) light brown and currently bright red ish.

My colouring seems to have changed the older I got, which I find odd but it has; I don't have as reddish a complexion as I used to, and generally wear pale makeup. Part of me would love to go back to blonde for the laugh, not manky brassy blonde but a nice shade..would it work tho?

The other part of this is for any hairdressers; I got my hair stripped three times in Sept in one sitting cos it went too dark. If i was to go blonde, how long would it take? The hairdresser reckoned it wouldn't take, but some people just seem to go into a hairdressers with dark hair and come out bright...

Posting a pic here that shows the ould gruaig from not long ago..honest answers folks, I have the same hair and fringe now..won't be offended if ye say it wouldn't suit, but I a-wondering:)

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs076.snc3/14342_320973265580_502670580_9815326_4830847_n.jpg


*Oh by the ways, pics of suggestions would be wicked x

stripysocks85

I like the cut and colour.
I think a dark blonde would definitely work in your hair, with some chunky lighter highlights. Something with lots of tones would really make it.

As regards getting your hair lighter, they'd have to probably strip it again in order to get it light. This process really dries out your hair [as I'm sure you know already] so ensure to condition and treat it properly afterwards.

pikachucheeks

Hey

RE: stripping hair

I had this done before. Posted about it on another thread somewhere, but I'm too lazy to go looking for it! :P

My hair was black, I had it stripped twice, had an all-over colour (light brown) applied then highlights (blonde tones).
Process took about five or six hours, done in a salon. Quite costly, if I remember correctly and it does definitely dry out your hair, so if you go for it, use condition treatments and / or a good conditioner to get your hair back in to good shape

RE: colouring

I *think* it was you who posted a picture of your Hallowe'en costume and you had a blonde wig on?
I remember thinking it really suited you! (Apologies if I have the wrong person!)

If I were you, I'd look through magazines / photos online and get a few colour ideas. Go to your hairdresser and see what he / she thinks and what they'd recommend for your hair.

If you do decide to go blonde, bear in mind:

A) You'll have to commit to paying for getting your regrowth dyed every so often. (Although, if your hair is naturally light, you might get away with topping up your roots less than those naturally dark haired women)

Multi-tones are much more subtle than one all-over blonde colour.
This is just opinion I've adopted from my own hairdresser. She always does various tones of blondes when she's highlighting my hair and I'm always pleased with the results. Gives my hair much more depth than if I just had one colour in it.

C) If you attempt to do your hair at home yourself, be careful with timing - it's very easy for hair to go brassy!

Hope that's in some way helpful to you

LadyMayBelle

Wow, great memory pikachu-cheeks! Was gonna post that pic actually to say 'look it kinda suits!!'

I went to the hairdresser the last time to get it stripped purposely, took forever, and it came out orange as expected with all the crap dye I had in it...she dyed it a light brown but it was darker than I was hoping. I just don'y understand when I see girls who I know 'to see' out, one week they have dark hair, next week it's platinum?? How does that work??

I'd love to keep my style and have it blonde but need reassurance. I found a pic of a make up artist in town on a website and I liked her shade but her hair's finer..

I've posted some links to hair I like, Sharin from the Raveonettes, but she has cooler tones than me in her skin:
http://www.musicsnobbery.com/images/2007/10/11/sharin_foo.jpg

Or Leila Moss from the Duke Spirit:http://www.birmingham101.com/music/Duke%20Spirit.jpg
Thanks for your help, I would be lost without boards!

pikachucheeks

LadyPennyworth wrote: »

Wow, great memory pikachu-cheeks! Was gonna post that pic actually to say 'look it kinda suits!!'

You should - See what other people think

LadyPennyworth wrote: »

I just don'y understand when I see girls who I know 'to see' out, one week they have dark hair, next week it's platinum?? How does that work??

Has to be bleach!

A friend of mine did that ALL the time. She had black hair one night, saw her the next day and it was light blonde.
Basically, she'd thrown a load of bleach on to her hair and left it for hours, which stripped the black out and made her hair white blonde.

Most likely seriously damaging for your hair!

LadyPennyworth wrote: »

I'd love to keep my style and have it blonde but need reassurance. I found a pic of a make up artist in town on a website and I liked her shade but her hair's finer..

If your hair is quite thick, multi-tone highlights are definitely the way to go! They suit thick hair much better than one all-over colour.

As for keeping your style, I know how you feel. When you go from having dark hair to being blonde, it is a big change. I found that a lot of my clothes and make-up no longer suited me. (Ie. red lipstick looked cool when I had black hair, but as a blonde, the same shade tended to look a bit tacky.)

I suppose the best thing to do is bear in mind that if you do decide to go lighter, prepare to *most likely* test out new eyeshadows, lipsticks / clothing colours to see what suits your new look.

... Or did you mean keep your current hair style? I'm not sure! Whoops!


I like the second photo you posted. Her hair's quite edgy, very cool!
Personally, I think it's good to have a slightly individual hairstyle, when your hair's light, because blonde can be a popular hair colour and it's nice to be different and stand out a little bit, rather than just blend in.

stripysocks85

I definitely think a colour with different tones would be much better than an all over blonde.

Beetlebum

Hi LadyPennyworth,

I think blonde will definitely suit you once it's got quite a lot of depth and varying tones. You will easily pull it off. I love your fringe and your cut and wanted to ask you how the h*ll is your hair so shiny and healthy looking??
You said you had it stripped and obviously dye it quite often but it looks fantastic. That's not fair!!:pac:

Tell me your secret!

LadyMayBelle

Beetlebum wrote: »

Hi LadyPennyworth,

I think blonde will definitely suit you once it's got quite a lot of depth and varying tones. You will easily pull it off. I love your fringe and your cut and wanted to ask you how the h*ll is your hair so shiny and healthy looking??
You said you had it stripped and obviously dye it quite often but it looks fantastic. That's not fair!!:pac:

Tell me your secret!

Aw cheers! I don't quite know how myself, as I used get me mam to chuck in those home dyes every month and I blowdry it, and straighten it twice a day sometimes! (blow dry every two days usually). Use whatever shampoo is there, at the mo it's Aussie shampoo and Herbal essence conditioner. No product. It's still in good nick tho. I should be shot

Excited about changing hair now but worried because last time when I went to get to changed she made it brown, which wasn't very exciting:( I never seem to get near what I want even after it was stripped.

ha-ya-said-what

Like you because I don't have the pale light blonde, but the meduim blonde yes dishwatery sort, I went from reddish to chocolate brown in the teens then just left it alone from about 18 onwards after all the die had faded out, then was back with the darker dull blonde again and just left it cos I was ahhh f it!!

Went for a full head of highlights years ago then, I always get two shades put in and then I look like I have a load of colours in. Since then I only have to get the roots touched up every 2-4mths, just depends on how good your hairdresser is at getting to the root. Twice I came out with a big dark line down my head!

nicola09

I feel your pain about the dishwater blonde thing, if only Ireland was sunnier to bleach it up a bit!

Anyway to me from the picture it looks like your hair would lighten up a lot with a couple of full heads of highlights, I used to work in a salon (as a assistant not a hairdresser lol so my knowledge is purely what I overheard!:rolleyes:) and whenever people who had dyed brown hair wanted to go back blonde they used to do a full head of highlights then they would come back again pretty soon for another full head, it was kind of a gradual (and expensive :rolleyes:) thing!

I'm not too sure about putting a blonde all over colour over the brown colour because I had brown lowlights in my otherwise blonde hair and when I got a blonde colour to cover it all the brown bits always looked more orange than the rest and I needed a load of highlights to cover it! The pre-lightener for the highlights seems to be better for that platinum cooler toned blonde!

So I think for now highlights might be the way to go, you'd start off quite multitonal because they could blend the brown colour in but eventually you could probably switch to an all-over permanent blonde colour! But then again my knowledge is limited so if you call into a salon they will normally do a strand test anyway to see what colour your hair turns with the blonde colour applied!

Novella

I am in the exact same boat as you! Currently have brown hair and wanna go blonde, well, lighter anyway! (I'm paranoid that I'm going grey even though I'm only twenty :pac: I actually did find some grey hairs :eek:)

I have went from having black hair to blonde before. Had my hair stripped. Took ages, cost a bomb and I thought my fringe was gonna snap off!

Anyway, I really like your hair in that pic you posted, think it looks really cool! I'm sure you could go blonde though, will probably just take a good few hours! Some hairdressers might not recommend it though. Just talk to someone about it, show them pictures of what you were hoping for and see what they think.

Oh, and as Pikachucheeks said, conditioning treatments if you get your hair stripped! Can really dry it out.

Let us know how you get on. Or if I get mine done tomorrow, (weather permitting!) I'll let you know what happened with mine!

pikachucheeks

nicola09 wrote: »

whenever people who had dyed brown hair wanted to go back blonde they used to do a full head of highlights then they would come back again pretty soon for another full head, it was kind of a gradual (and expensive :rolleyes:) thing!

Being blonde is expensive, if you're having your hair done by a professional in a salon. Highlights aren't cheap and it's a high maintenance colour.

For anyone who is considering lightening their hair, bear in mind that you will have to commit yourself to paying for its upkeep.
(My wash, cut, blowdry and highlights costs me 110 euro yesterday, to give a rough indication of price.)

Of course, there is the option of home dying, but blonde is one of those colours that is SO easy to get wrong. It can end up yellow, orange, white or any colour in between, particularly when using bleach.
Be careful and read all the instructions is my advice, if you do decide to go for this option.

I agree with your post Nicola09 - Most hairdressers will do the gradual option, if your hair is darker.
A series of full-head highlights to lighten the hair, rather than doing one all-over blonde colour.
Highlights are much nicer, in my opinion. Much more subtle, natural and easier to maintain than one all over colour in the hair.

nicola09 wrote: »

if you call into a salon they will normally do a strand test anyway to see what colour your hair turns with the blonde colour applied!

Your hair can be turned pretty much any colour, with the right dye and the right development time.

nicola09

Oh and another thing, should you decide to go blonde, I swear by this stuff, especially for highlights:

It's really good at preventing your hair turning brassy in between colours from pollutants and other nasty things and of course getting out the tangles that blonde hair invariably ends up in after you wash it!
I've got longer out of my highlights since I started using it, as Pikachu Cheeks says blonde hair is expensive and the last thing you want to be doing is ending up in a salon every five minutes so products like this are handy allies!

LadyMayBelle

Thanks everyone!

And Novella, you gots get back to me on this; you've darker hair too right? I'm also broke at the mo but my roots are driving me nuts! I'll prob go in next week for something different anyway and gradually build up to blonde, ill go the route ye have suggested!

Ye are all super x