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My hair was dark brown and I used to color it to get rid of stray gray hairs. Then it seemed like I had to do it every 2-3 weeks. Guess what?? I colored it BLONDE!! It's been like this for 7 years now...I do it myself with L'Oreal Blondissimus..works great and keeps my hair soft. I started with a hairdresser and they were ruining my hair with bleach. Anyway, my husband loves it and I could not believe the compliments when I first did it.
Wow, you are brave I don't know that I would trust myself to go blonde....besides, I doubt I have the coloring for it.
Thanks everyone for sharing your stories and your advice! I think I'm going to look into henna (although I remember vaguely something like it could be brassy? Or orangey? if done wrong) And Clairol looks like a good bet as well. I went to their website, and it seems that I have some color choices that may work well for me. And yes, it is only hair and hey, if worse comes to worse I can always wear a hat for a few weeks
Thanks again all, for the help and encouragement
Look for Rainbow or my favorite Logona (google it) henna, it comes in various shades, no chemicals, it just has different plant material mixed in with it to make different shades. They have a burgundy color that isn't orange or brassy as long as you repeat doing it about every 6 weeks or so. The color lays on the hair shaft, instead of penetrating it, so you gradually lose the color, but there is no obvious line either, which is nice.
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I've dyed my hair a lot and have had only 1 experience where it stung my scalp. If that happens rinse and apply a handful or more of conditioner.
My mother dyes her hair and has the exact same situation as you. She uses whatever middle of the line brand at the grocery store. Sometimes she uses a dark blonde or light brown and it covers the gray streaks and looks like really cool highlights in contrast with the dark brown hair....and only for about $7...more or less! If you don't want the highlight look then use any dark brown.
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Originally Posted by camping!
The gray is getting out of control.....I can no longer pretend that its 'highlights'......but, I am too cheap to spend the $$$ to have it professionally dyed, well, if I can help it!
Can anyone recommend an at home dye? My hair is dark brown (with some pesky silver streaks), and I basically want to hide the gray.
THere is no way of going from dark brown hair to blond without bleach.
A lighter color (blond) will not conceal a darker color.
So, the darker color must be removed with bleach and then the lighter color deposited on it.
I am thinking that perhaps the blond dye does not change the brown, but brings the greys into a shade the person likes.
It is following the advice of strangers, perhaps misinterpreting same, which backfires, and makes people feel helpless and dependent upon beauticians for their hair needs.
If someone has a correction to make to this or I have misinterpreted, please let me know. I love to learn.
Ok, just adding my two cents having colored my hair for a long time now. I will gladly pay my hair stylist to do it for me. Not only do the boxed colors ruin your hair but the color isnt consistent. I did it for years,then started getting it done professionally and my hair has never looked better. I also have gray hair - so its worth it to me and WAY less fuss and mess. Face it folks, it's expensive to look great! LOL
Ok, just adding my two cents having colored my hair for a long time now. I will gladly pay my hair stylist to do it for me. Not only do the boxed colors ruin your hair but the color isnt consistent. I did it for years,then started getting it done professionally and my hair has never looked better. I also have gray hair - so its worth it to me and WAY less fuss and mess. Face it folks, it's expensive to look great! LOL
Ah-ha! You are such a great advertisement for the cosmetologist's industry. Maybe they would like to employ you.
Honestly, most of these people are not geniuses. If they can do your hair, so can you. With all of the information available on the net; I mean, gee, you could probably find a recipe for a bomb; I am certain you could teach yourself to be independent.
One of the problems is, as I see it, that many stylists are mediocre and some are even bad. If a person could be guaranteed to look as good as you do, perhaps they would DO as you do. You are so lucky that you have found a really good person who knows what they are doing. Most of us have not.
I would not recommend boxed colors.
I used to use regular hair dye (which I purchased from a beauty supply store, such as Sallys), so long as it is not much lighter than my own color (I found that there are no restrictions in going darker but you cannot go much lighter without having to bleach your hair first), dump it in an applicator bottle along with twice as much developer(merely a strength of peroxide made for the hair). Basically, follow the same directions that are on the Clairol and L'Oreal packages that you buy in the stores, but for way, way, less. And I agree with you, the dye is a better quality.
The developer comes in big bottles, and can be used for many applications. I store mine in the fridge so it does not get out-dated and lose its effectiveness. The bottle certainly is used again and again, so most of the times you only are paying $3 or $4 for the dye, and if you have short hair and have some left over, just cap the bottle tight and store in the fridge next to the developer.
I got brave and got a few bottles of different colored dye and would mix them together - it is such fun, isn't it?
Last edited by goldengrain; 04-18-2008 at 02:11 PM..
I have been coloring my hair since I turned 30. I started getting prematurely grey and now . . . I would be very white headed if I did not color my hair.
I use Preference by L'Oreal. The thing about color is . . . it's easy - no big deal . . . you just put it on . . . let it stay there for a while (according to directions) and then get in the shower and wash it out! It is soooooo easy. Just pick a shade about the color of your own. If you don't like the color you get the first time - try something different in a month!
If you are nervous about permanent hair color - try Loving Care. But I promise you - if you are gonna bother - get something that will actually stay on your hair for a while. Loving Care washes out a bit each shampooing.
I have been coloring my hair since I turned 30. I started getting prematurely grey and now . . . I would be very white headed if I did not color my hair.
I use Preference by L'Oreal. The thing about color is . . . it's easy - no big deal . . . you just put it on . . . let it stay there for a while (according to directions) and then get in the shower and wash it out! It is soooooo easy. Just pick a shade about the color of your own. If you don't like the color you get the first time - try something different in a month!
If you are nervous about permanent hair color - try Loving Care. But I promise you - if you are gonna bother - get something that will actually stay on your hair for a while. Loving Care washes out a bit each shampooing.
Well, I cannot say what happens on other heads, but I once used Loving Care frequently and it ended up leaving my hair in worse shape than dying it. My grey is hard to cover. Loving Care, or anything of a temporary nature has been worse at covering grey than any dye I have tried. On top of that the LC left it, over time, stiff and scratchy.
But even the dye will not adequately cover grey for me, so I frost my hair to about the shade of grey l have and it does a better job than anything else has. The problem with dyes and MY grey is that when the dyes grew in , and after the shampooing (daily) washed the color out of the grey, I ended up with my dyed natural hair color, the darker roots, and the grey, so it was three toned hair.
Even if you dye your hair the same color your natural hair will get somewhat lighter and if you wash your hair often the dye fades a bit and you can notice that the new regrowth is darker.
This peculiarity is because for a dye to work the color is deposited inside of the hair shaft. It cannot get in there if you do not open the cuticle of the shaft. You can do this with a mild bleach. So, every bottle of hair dye contains more or less of an ammonia like liquid, along with the dye. When you add peroxide to the dye, you are also activating the ammonia which opens the hair shaft to receive the color. Lighter colors of dye have more ammonia because they lighten the hair slightly to also pull color out.
Hair is interesting. I have never found anything that adequately covered my grey, but we are all different.
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Anyway, my husband loves it and I could not believe the compliments when I first did it.
I don't know that I would trust myself to go blonde....besides, I doubt I have the coloring for it.
If you don't want the highlight look then use any dark brown.
), and I basically want to hide the gray.
