“Oh, you SHOULD dye your hair blonde, Crackers—blonde hair would really enhance your filthiness!”
. . . Mary Vivian Pearce, “Pink Flamingos”
OK, I am in one of those dangerous “do something unfortunate with your hair” moods, and am mulling over going blonde. So, being the logical girl I am, I thought I would ask the advice of a bunch of total strangers who have no idea what the hell my hair or skin colors look like.
PROS: Blonde hair (besides enhancing my filthiness) would soften my already harsh and now middle-aged features.
CONS: I have very dark brown hair, which means a double-process; and my hair grows freakishly fast, which means root touch-ups every three weeks. This will cause great damage to my hair, scalp, and wallet.
Of course, I wouldn’t be a suicide blonde (“dyed by her own hand”), I’d have it done by a good professional colorist. I don’t want gold or strawberry, but “Connecticut blonde”—medium ash, with lighter ash highlights. I’ll probably chicken out; does anyone have any delighted or horrified hair-color stories to share and help me make up my mind?
Well, first of all, if you’re getting it done professionally, you won’t do ALL that much damage to your hair and scalp. Wallet, however, is another matter.
While the only picture I have seen is that one on the interview site, I think a nice ash-blonde would suit your personality quite well. Of course, if you trust your hair stylist, ask them if they think it’s feasable. Mine forbid me to go red, as I would look “So white, you’d be translucent.” If the bastard wasn’t so godammed good and so godammed entertaining, I’d fire his ass.
Speaking of which, I have to get my mop cut. The summer curl has taken over, and it’s time to defeat it. I say go filthy, Eve.
Ummm, okay… Does that make blonde little old me filthy?
Cool.
Anyway, Eve, how long is your hair? I ask because shorter hair is much easier to deal with colouring. When I dyed mine, it was amazing how much time it took each time - my hair was down to the middle of my back then. When I decided to grow it out, it took 3 YEARS… and my hair is now only a couple of inches past my shoulders. I had really rough ends, resulting from the colouring. I bought a “revitalize-your-hair” type conditioner. It worked - the roughness was considerably smoothed out - but it coloured the ends of my hair DARK BROWN! I had about 8 inches cut off of my hair, because it looks really, really odd having the ends of your hair darker than the roots.
Now it’s dark blonde, but for me that’s the natural colour.
I was contemplating the same. My sister used to do hair but decided I shouldn’t. I don’t know your coloring but I must assume that since you are very dark brown (or used to be) like myself that you have either a sallow/olive complextion or a fair/medium, perhaps with a few freckles. I don’t know about you but the reason that I do continue to color is because when I do let the gray take over too much it “washes me out”, makes me look tired. Now I do have those dark, reddish brown eyes and dark brows to go along with it all. If you are blue or green eyed then I would say that going blond would look a little more natural on you than it would on me. So if you are not afraid of the “wash out” factor that going blond might bring about then go for it. It is after all only hair. And will grow back or can be recolored in a month or so.
I am rapidly aproaching 50% gray but I do not use permanent color. I still continue to use semi-permanent. If you were buying over the counter then that would be Clairol’s Natural Instincts (my fav), Lasting Color or Loreal’s Casting. These colors have no ammonia and less peroxide. They wash out gradually in, they say, 24 shampoos. It usually lasts me 6 weeks or so. They will not bleach out your hair like permanent color can do, especially during the Summer when exposed the sun and chlorine in tap water or pool. So you don’t get that brassy look two weeks into a new application. I do however have to leave it on the maximum amount of time allowed, 20 minutes. I’m lazy so I don’t do roots. I simply soap cap. I also have to use the dark brown and not medium in order to get the proper coverage. This will result in me having a little bit of an “Elvis” look for about 5 days to a week. If I’d do the roots and leave the ends alone it wouldn’t look to dark, but I don’t care. It washes out some remember. Anyway, these semi-permanent colors are also far less damaging. As a matter of fact they make your hair look shiny. My sister comments all the time about how my hair is so shiny she can almost see her face in it. I just colored mine again last week. As they gradually wash out the color will go from dark brown to almost blond. Of course there will be some roots because your hair is growing. The fade out often looks like sun highlights.
OK, I am VERY pale. “Ivory.” Brown eyes, though, and I guess my eyebrows would have to be lightened, too, to avoid that Lizbeth Scott look. My hair is very dark brown; I have gone red in the past and it just looked fake and brassy on me, which is why I’d like a natural-looking medium ash blonde.
My hair is also below shoulder-length, but I invariably wear it up in a chignon or French twist (yes, I have Tippi Hedren visions dancing in my head . . .).
KimKatt and Spooje, would my hair have to be re-dyed once the base color is in? I know I’d have to have the roots done every three weeks, but wouldn’t the rest of it just need more highlights every few months? I mean, once it’s dyed, it’s dyed, right?
Uh, no, I think you should keep your original color and style, Eve. It looks very nice.
{Mmmmmmmph…}
Frosting! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Yeah, how about Chocolate Fudge? Sweet, yet very tempting! You’d look simply delicious! You’d take the cake!
Eve, I’m at least as fair as you (most makeup manufacturers don’t make shades fair enough for me), I have green eyes. And like Needs2knowI use the Clairol Natural Instincts. It takes my dishwater-blonde hair into a nice, rich reddish brown. I have short hair, so I only mix up 1/2 the ingrediants at a time. It washes out gradually, and doesn’t damage your hair. I don’t have any grey, so I don’t know about covering that. Perhap you could go to one of those salons which make a video image then show you the different possibilities.
So you are fair, like me. Then I wouldn’t recommend it. That is not unless you really want to look trashy. My sister was going to do my hair in a red/gold thing, but changed her tune. Have you also thought about what you will do about your clothes and make up? I did think about that. I don’t know about you but there are certain colors that just don’t look good on me. And my entire wardrobe is pretty suited for the fact that I’m a fair skinned, brunette. If you are frosting or doing a total dye job to cover gray then going blond isn’t going to be any easier upkeep either. Might even be worse. When those dark and gray roots start to show then you’re talking about bleaching all over again. I ruled it out. Even though my current boyfriend is partial to blonds. (What a suprise huh!) He did say he didn’t really want me going blond because he doesn’t want me drawing that much attention to myself from other men. (I know he and I probably won’t last to much longer. What a putz.) He says that most men prefer blonds. It’s just something about it. Oh well, guess I missed out. Of course being a plain old brunette all my life I already knew that didn’t I? (Geez)
I’ve done the blond thing before. I’m naturally light brown. My hairstylist calls it “dark blond”, but everyone who sees me thinks it’s light brown. My advice? Go to the best hairstylist you can afford, and ask their advice. My hairstylist was able to tell me just how blond I could go without it looking unnatural and gave me good advice on what shades to use. She ended up using 3 different colors to give it a more natural look that also blended with my normal color so the roots didn’t look too obvious when it started to grow out.
As far as trashing your hair, the color didn’t seem to do anything negative to mine. In fact, it used to feel silkier after the coloring.
I think you should do it, Eve. Nothing makes you feel like a completely different person than doing something drastic to your hair. I ended my blond stage by going directly to a dark brown a couple shades darker than my natural haircolor. I like the dramatic effect, especially when I walked into work the next day and all the male engineers couldn’t put a finger on just what was different about me.
Ack! No! Don’t bleach your hair! We have far too many blondes as it is! Besides, I’ve never understood why somebody would want to change their hair color. I mean, that’s you. Why change it? Just remember the reinforcing things your school counselor would tell you and back away from the peroxide.
Eve, go for it. No, you wouldn’t have to redo it each time, just redo the roots - I did mine myself, which is why I refer to it as redoing it each month.
In retrospect, a professional stylist would have done a much better job. One big reason - as Athena mentions, they will use multiple shades to achieve a truly natural look. They are also able to redo roots only, thereby avoiding the problem of having the rest get lighter and lighter each time, which I had.
And, as has been said - if you decide you don’t like it, in a month, dye it back. Go to the same stylist, they should be able to get close enough to your original colour to avoid showing any regrowth.
Well, my Mom says, “don’t you DARE, young lady!” and all my friends are going, “Oh, you SHOULD dye your hair blonde, Eve—blonde hair would really enhance your filthiness!”
I start with fast-growing very dark brown hair and very fair skin (and brown eyes as well; I wonder if we’re related?) and I’ve been dying my hair various shades, mostly red, for 20 years.
You can lighten hair quite a bit with single-process coloring – I get a very nice, close-to-strawberry-blonde shade without stripping my hair first (I use L’Oreal professional color). I’d never recommend any color that requires bleaching the hair out first – I’ve done it, and it looks great once and destroys your hair the second time. And colors on stripped hair fade very fast, which is why so many ladies have that brittle, whitish-blonde look from repeating the coloring too often. With naturally dark hair, it’s extremely high maintenance, since your roots will look black.
Lighten by all means, but only as much as you can without stripping your hair first, says I.