First of all, my natural hair color is a sort of dark blond/light brown that gets lighter in the summer and darker in the winter. About ten years ago, I streaked it blond in the winter, and was happy with the results. When it started growing out, I streaked it again, and this time I TOTALLY fried my hair. It looked okay, but felt terrible. I haven’t dyed my hair since.
Anyway, I’ve been thinking of going brunette for several years now but basically I’m a big chicken. But I really need to get a haircut right now so I think it might be a good time. I don’t want to do it myself because I’m afraid of fucking up and frying my hair again. I usually get my hair cut at the local beauty school (which is quite nice and I’ve always been happy with their work). But…I’m already nervous about this and am wondering if I should go to a more experienced hairdresser.
I don’t know. I’d appreciate advice from people with experience in coloring their hair.
I agree that going darker won’t fry your hair because it uses much less peroxide than highlighting or lightening.
I’ve been dying my own hair for a long, long time (went gray very young). Never had a problem. I asked my hairdresser at one point which supermarket brand she recommended and she suggested Feria. I almost always use that and have never experienced it damaging my hair.
Of course YMMV. I was born with medium brown hair and when I dye my hair I go with either a medium brown or if I’m feeling spunky, I’ll go reddish brown or dark auburn.
If you’re concerned that the darker color won’t be flattering why not try a semi-permanent. Much gentler on the hair and washes out in a couple of weeks.
What she said. ^^^ I went grey early, too, and have been dying for decades. I second the semi-permanent - those work very nicely. I’ve gone to permanent dyes lately since I’ve got so much grey in front now. I’m pretty fearless about dying my hair, but dark brown hair is very forgiving.
I began dying my hair back in HS during my semi-punk years. About the time I went for a hair color found in nature, my hair had begun to go grey (like velvet and CW, very premature).
Over the years, I’ve tried different salon and home kits. When the budget permits, a salon job is prefarable, but there are some good home kits out there too. My cosmetologist niece reccomends L’Oreal, Garnier or Revlon semi-permanents. I do a permanent dye about once a year and semi the rest of the time.
One of the things you’ll find with a salon color, is that you have a nicer variation of tones, shades and highlights / lowlights. That sort of thing is nigh on to impossible to do yourself.
In my experience “semi-permanent” means half the color washes out the first time you shampoo after coloring, the rest washes out never. But then, thanks to sunbleaching and the pool, my hair’s fairly porous.
I have had success with permanent colors by L’Oreal. A friend of mine does Nice & Easy and her hair looks fantastic, and on her, it does wash out over a period of about six weeks, just long enough to let the colored part blend in with the roots.
I just went by the Halloween Store here so I’m thinking orange would be nice. you can get lots of attention with orange, but I suggest tucking it in a hat when you grease the Dodge Ram.
I’ve always found brown hair color to be just uck. Flat, dull, then in just a few days, brassy. It’s hard to get a good rich brown, IME. I’d suggest going lighter- it’s brighter, prettier, and easier to maintain and highlight than brown. If you’re dirty blond/light brown and/or were blond as a child, it should look natural with your skin. I like a golden/slightly reddish blonde. Gray roots just kind of blend in until you can get a touchup. One caveat- make sure you follow the box’s recommendations regarding regrowth on subsequent dyeings. Just do the roots for the first however many minutes and then just at the end comb it through. If you color it all every time full-speed, that causes damage and brassiness and overprocessing.
I love looking at the beautiful hair, in hair color ads, so many choices! Going darker will not frazzle your hair, and as mentioned you can do this at home yourself. Go ahead and do it! When you get older, dark hair looks artificial and ages you, so live it up and go black, mahogany, copper brown…
My natural hair is light brown (though I haven’t seen it in decades). It’s now a sort of dark blond with a few subtle highlights, put in at the salon, twice a year. Yes, it is a wiry mess after washing, but that’s what those thousands of bottles of conditioner are for.
Well, part of the reason I want to go darker is that I understand that social scientists have found that brunettes are taken more seriously than blondes. I’m…honestly kind of curious to see if that’s true. I’m looking for work right now and if it is true, that could be helpful.
BTW, I don’t have any gray hair, so that’s not really a concern for me. Yet.
I’ve never had good luck with Revlon, in blondes or browns. The color is too uniform, making the result unnaturally flat. I’m a Nice and Easy gal, unless I want reds, when I turn to henna.
And, as said above, you’re unlikely to fry your hair with brown. You fry it with blondes or blond highlights because there’s so much “lift” (that is, bleaching) needed. Browns have little to no lift and more deposit of color, which doesn’t fry.
I’m a big fan of Clairol’s Natural Instincts in 31 (Coffee Creme) or 35 (Ebony Mocha) (they’re pretty much the same color, at least on my hair). They’re semi-permanent, but in my experience the color doesn’t fade in the six weeks or so between colorings. (I have to dye that often to color my gray patches.)
I don’t recommend you go that dark from your current blonde, but the Natural Instincts line has a wide variety of browns to choose from, if you’re interested.
Just fyi, I recently listened to a podcast with my girl Paula Begoun on hair dyes, and she stressed that salon brands of hair dye and expensive brands are not better than the drugstore brands, and neither are the more expensive drugstore brands better than the cheaper ones. The trick is in the shade you select (how well it goes with your skin tone) and the technique you use to apply it. She recommended watching the tutorial videos on the L’oreal Paris website to see the best ways to do it.
(Also, “ammonia free!” is meaningless, since those dyes have just substituted ammonia with another high-pH ingredient that does the same thing. And those high-pH ingredients are necessary for the dyes to saturate your hair, so there’s no avoiding them.) If you want to listen to this podcast (it’s free), you can find it on iTunes under “the Cosmetics Cop” and it’s the 6/25/10 episode, “Hair Dye Dos & Don’ts”. There are a lot of great tips in it, with the science behind them explained.
ETA: She also stresses that shampoo is not what makes your hair dye fade – you don’t even need to buy special “for colored hair” shampoos – it’s sun exposure. Also, protect your hairline from staining from the dye with vaseline.
One thing that works for me the day before getting my hair colored [or doing it myself] is to wash your hair with a clarifying shampoo and use a deep conditioning treatment afterwards. It works quite well for me. Wait about 48-72 hours before washing your hair for the first time.
Also, wash and rinse your hair with the coolest water you can stand, and don’t wash your hair every day [unless you have very oily hair]. If you get sweaty and need to rinse your hair out, use cool water.
If your local beauty school is training stylists for high end salons, then go to the school. The students will be absolutely up to date, and at the school I go to, the teachers approve the dye plan beforehand and check it afterwards.
If your school is training stylists for Supercuts or the like, then go to a more experienced hairdresser.
Highlights can really make a difference in a dye job, and lowlights can also improve it. I usually only go with highlights, though.
If you want to dye at home, another option is to dye with a combination of henna and indigo – you just mix the two pastes together (thoroughly!) before applying. You can vary the color by changing the proportion of henna to indigo. More henna = a lighter, warmer (redder) brown, and more indigo = a darker, cooler brown.
The plants act as natural conditioners/strengtheners, so no worries about frying your hair. Also, the color is translucent, which means you will naturally get highlights and lowlights based on your natural hair color, and not one flat tone.
Kylasounds like your hair is just a shade or so darker than mine. I’m a natural dishwater blonde, but with sun the highlights get nearly white. With chemical highlights and real I tried several times to go brunette. It didn’t work as it faded very quickly where my hair was lighter. I tried to do it once myself, once at a very high end place and once at a mid range place.
To truly go darker the salon suggested allowing both natural and chemical highlights to grow out or to strip all color first. So now I just highlight a bit in winter and own my real blond.
I’ve been dying my hair at home for a long time. When it got really long, my friend and I would dye each others hair, but it was still done with home kits. The only time I’ve had my hair salon-dyed was before my wedding because I didn’t want any risks. That said, I’ve never had a problem with home kits. My hair is naturally a darker brown, so I usually only go with a kit within a few shades of it. More or less adding undertones to it, like a reddish tone or a blondish tone. Onetime I went black. Will never do that again. My hair wouldn’t dye evenly after that, but it grew out and it’s okay now.
I just switched from Ultra Light Ash Brown, which I decided looked just beige to me and matched a couple of beige shirts I have :eek:, to this, Dark Soft Mahogany Brown, and am very happy with the results. My natural color is a very dark chestnut brown, and while the ultra light lifted true to color on the box, I felt my hair was starting to feel a bit fried. To fix that, if it’s not too “fried,” adding some color deposit in the form of a darker color works well. The darker color is true to the box and looks great!
I’ve done every variation – from completely do-it-yourself to completely at-the-salon. Recently, I’ve been dying the grey roots to brown on my own (it’s very simple) and then letting a professional do the highlights/lowlights.
If you’re doing it all at home, I’d recommend getting as close to your natural hair color at first and then gradually going one or two shades lighter or darker after that. I’d also recommend doing highlighting as many of the browns are too monotone to look natural. If you still have some blonde, you’re lucky, because some of the home highlighting kits work really well.
Except my understanding is that if you don’t like the color, that shit does not come out. So, be prepared if you go this route.
At least the first time, get your hair done professionally. You’ll get their ideas and creativity, then you can steal it to replicate it at home if you want. Even though I can and have dyed my own hair (and a BUNCH of my friends’), I still prefer to have it done at the salon. Though I will say: I think the #1 mistake brunettes make is dying their hair one flat brown color. Think about it: blondes get highlights, lowlights, and everything in between— but a brunette will go in and just get one flat color. Makes no sense.
So, I get three colors of brown weaved into my hair-- one that’s the darkest brown, almost black; one that’s a lavenderish reddish brown, and one that’s just a nice espresso brown. Here’s a picture. For me, my hair is fine (but there’s a lot of it), so I like to do panels and weaving of the three colors to add depth to my hair. I COULD do this myself at home, but it’s sort of a pain in the ass, so I just pay.
