natural or colored | pad patter 4.24.17

I have naturally dark blonde hair with a sort of strawberry tinge to it. I died it non-stop between the ages of 14 and 26. It was usually more auburn, but sometimes I went blonder too. I stopped because harsh chemicals and $$$. I'm 35, and have no grey. Based on genetics I won't have to worry about that for a while. BUT, I did win a free tube of Loreal Pink Colorista semi-permanent dye. I kinda want to just add the colour to my ends, but I'm chicken. If another lilypadder wanted to do something a little crazy with their hair, that they've been to shy to try, we could make a pact and go in on it together. And then of course, have a scrap-off.

 

Oh, Kayla! I've been there. When I was 21 I worked at a fancy hotel. They gave us spa gift certificates for Christmas to the fanciest spa in town. I used mine to get a cut and dye job (I usually dyed at home) the day before I left for a co-op work term. It came out ... carrot top. After the spa, my Dad picked me up and I went to go say goodbye to all my grandparents. My Grandma opened the door and laughed at me. "Are you supposed to be a clown?"

Because I was leaving town the next day, I couldn't even get that salon to redo my hair for me. AND, I had to wait over a month to get paid so I could afford to go get my hair redone.

 

Natural dirty blonde. I now have white that blends in and looks like I frosted it ... it is evenly distributed with a cool stripe at the front.. I love it and am thrilled on top of everything else I don't worry about dying hair!

 

I have been highlighting my hair for years....my hair is just too blah in its natural state.

 

Aah, this is what you were trying to lure me into the other day. I might be willing to go a little crazy next month. Just not until after my birthday trip, I don't want my hair all crazy in the vacation pics.

 

What colour do you think you would do?

 

Speaking of coloring the ends- we did the koolaid thing for my daughter over spring break! It has been about 4 weeks & there is just a tinge left! It was super fun and not so permanent (and cost only 50cents! )

 

@Juliestcyr I'm leaning towards purple since the pink didn't look great last year.

 

I used to always color mine various shades of brown and then sometimes highlighted. I always did it on my own though - I'm way too cheap to go pay someone else to do it LOL. For the past 2 years though, I haven't dyed because the last time I did I ended up dyeing it pretty much my natural color (I didn't realize that till my roots grew out), so I just decided it was the perfect time to stop. When I go gray, I might end up dyeing for a little while if I'm young, otherwise I'll probably just let it go gray!

 

Well you can see by my avatars that I no longer color my hair. I did it myself for years and years - other than a period when I went to a Goldwater test salon that did it for free. When they started to really have to do testing as opposed to just cutting and coloring whatever I wanted, I got my formula. I used to mix it and I was a medium brownish auburn for a lot of years. I loved that color and used to check my roots from my 40s on to see how grey I was. It took a long long time for me to get to a good salt and pepper which I then got highlighted.

It was the years that we did a lot of international travel that pushed me to give up on any color as i always had to get it done like the day or two before we left so that I could go two weeks without 'roots'. Now it's a silvery white that I like a lot...tho there are days I miss the reddish brown and I think my dh does too.

 

<<This is as close to my natural color as I can get with hair dye. I absolutely dye my hair because my white streak is evil & I've never looked good in the color white. I naturally have dark strawberry blonde hair, but it looks brown in a ton of pictures because of lighting.

My little guy's color is very similar.

 

Grey hairs for me too. Not too much, but still enough to make me annoyed at them and feel insecure about them sometimes. I actually colored it today. I do it all myself, because I don't want to spend so much money on it. I always go with a colour close to my natural hair, so that it doesn't show too obviously after a few weeks. Also, I like my hair colour. I usually choose a "sunny mid brown" colour but it hasn't been in the stores for quite a while. So I've switched to a "caramel mid/dark brown" colour. I like the shine it gives when it catches the light.

 

I definitely color my hair. I've had an annoying grey stripe right in the front since i was about 18. It's actually not grey... it's flat out WHITE. I do have some subtle greys everywhere else, but I don't really mind those. My hair is a dark blonde, so those just end up looking like highlights... but the stripe has to go. My stylist has been keeping most of my hair natural and just fixing the stripe and adding low light one month and highlights the next. It works for me right now.

 

This stuff. I dab it on my roots and it makes them disappear like magic.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B013XGBD8A/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like that it's a sort of powder but not a loose powder - more like applying a powder blush or something like that. It comes with a sponge-like applicator that you rub on the product and then rub or dab on your hair. For a while I used a magic marker kind of root color up but that was harder to use and tended to make my hair "crunchy". I've used sprays too but find them harder to control.