Hair - what to do? (Getting rid of highlights)

dame

Hi All,

I am a natural blonde (yes really! ) but I stupidly put highlights in it about 5 years ago and then regretted it. It made me too blonde. I've been trying to get rid of them since but each time some big occassion comes up or I get sick of the state of my hair after 6 months or so and off I go and get a "touch-up".

At the moment my hair is just below my shoulders and the highlights have not been re-done for over a year (June '06). The left-over highlights are far too blonde and my roots (which are nearly to my ears) are a quite nice (although a bit dull) natural blonde colour. The whole thing is a right mess and to be honest it makes me look terrible (although I do look after myself besides).

My question now is:
What should I do?

a. Give up on the growing-out thing and get the highlights re-done.
I really don't want to do this as I'll end up in the same boat again.
b. Get a fairly drastic haircut that chops out most of the highlights.
Hmm, could be a possibility but I'm also job-hunting so I don't want to go too mad with the hair and also the hubby likes longer hair as do I.
c. Get some hair dye and dye the whole head something a shade darker than my own natural colour in the hope of it fading to natural all over.
I'm not too confident of my own hair-dying skills and would be afraid of turning it green or making it fall out. What brand would I use even?
d. Have some patience. Let it grom out but keep trimming it every few months and tie it up in the meantime.
Is this the safest option? It's what I've been doing but I like wearing my hair down and it's taking so long to grow.

By the way, I'm in my late 20's.

I'd be very grateful for any suggestions or to hear how other people have dealt with growing out their unwanted highlights. Thanks!

Nala

Go to a hairdresser and ask for the colour of the highlighted bits to be matched to your roots. If you dye it yourself you run the risk of having green hair.

TinaSparkle

Go to a hairdresser and ask for a consultation - its free. They will tell you the best option.

Heln

Why don't you get darker blonde highlights (lowlights?) similar to your natural colour through your hair and try to blend the two couours together. Maybe if you wanted you could get a few light highlights scattered through your hair to brighten it up a bit but explain to your hairdresser that you want to don't want to go too light.

I know someone whose hair is fairly dark naturally but she got blonde highlights, she wanted to grow them out but she had long hair and didn't want to cut it or dye over the highlights so she let her hair grow for around 4 months before getting a tiny few highlights. She didn't get all of them right into her roots so when her hair grew a bit there wasn't an obvious line between her roots and her highlights. She waited another 6 months or so before getting a few more highlights again and it actually looked gorgeous.

dame

Thanks guys,

I got low-lights put in before and they looked lovely but faded out really quickly.

I'd prefer to go to the hairdresser with a clear plan because they always try to push more highlights. One time I went last year I told the hairdresser she could do anything she wanted with it and she suggested: more highlights and a trim.

The problem is that I'm so fair anyway that the only colour my hair can go is platinum white. Why oh why did I ever put bloody highlights in my hair!!!! Any teenagers reading this: Don't ever put a colour in your hair unless you have to! (Or your own hair is a completely non-descript colour)

dame

In case anyone was wondering....(yeah I know this isn't earth-shattering news :rolleyes: and the world doesn't revolve around me and my hair :eek: )....I went to the hairdresser this morning. She did a lovely job of cutting it (couple of inches off ottom and some layers through it) and blow-drying it nice and straight. A lot of the highlights are gone now and the few bits that are left don't look bad at all, more as if they're meant to be there (however I can never get my hair to look that good when I dry it myself :mad: , so we'll see what it looks like when I've had a go at it). It'll take another good few months before I get shut of them completely though.

Thanks for the advice guys!

meowCat

I don't know what hairdressers' obsession is about highlights. Very rarely I see them done nicely. Usually it looks very streaky and completely unnatural. A lot of bad highlighting jobs running around Dublin's fair city tbh!!!!

I really cannot understand it. I get highlights suggested each time I go to the hairdresser's and I actually like my own colour.

I think they know how hard it is to get rid of them and if you don't want to get a drastic cut you will have to come for a touch up every so often

Good luck with your new hair cut dame! You sound very enthusiastic!! I can never do the blowdrying like they do it...but I find if you have a good straightener that works wonders
Good luck!

jellie

meowCat wrote:

I don't know what hairdressers' obsession is about highlights.

I have naturally blonde hair, its quite long, and the last 2 times ive gone to the hairdresser its been suggested i get highlights. my hairs not a really really light blonde or anything but it seemed to me they just wanted to get more money off me! :rolleyes:

dame

sar84 wrote:

I have naturally blonde hair, its quite long, and the last 2 times ive gone to the hairdresser its been suggested i get highlights. my hairs not a really really light blonde or anything but it seemed to me they just wanted to get more money off me! :rolleyes:

Probably.
Well done you for not doing it.....wish I hadn't!

missmatty

Nightmare tbh

Had 3 different colours put in years ago and they put much more blonde in than i wanted and it was awful. Took me years to grow out. Never again.

Now I'm my natural browny-red again. Only problem now is I'm starting to go grey. ARRGHH :eek:

My hair's a dull brown so I get light brown and honey-blonde highlights once a year or so at the hairdresser. I choose the colours myself, and it usually turns out very well imo.
I'm always careful not to let it come out stripey, I don't want to go around looking like a badger.

I would have suggested asking the hairdresser to chop bits of highlighted hair like they sometimes manage to do and make it look nice, but you have it sorted, so, good!

meowCat

bluewolf wrote:

My hair's a dull brown so I get light brown and honey-blonde highlights once a year or so at the hairdresser. I choose the colours myself, and it usually turns out very well imo.
I'm always careful not to let it come out stripey, I don't want to go around looking like a badger.

where do you get your hair done? It sounds like you have found a really good salon.

Aurian-loh

Reading this thread has made me love my hairdresser. My first hairdresser had been doing my hair since I had any. But she always gave me really good advice. She refused to put any permenent hair colour into my hair for years because she said I would probably regret it. I'm so glad now.

Changed hairdresser there lately to my friend who works in a salon so obviously she isn't going to let me do anything stupid or try and mess me over. If I go in with something completely of the wall she will adjust it to suit me.

With reference to the highlights I'm also trying to grow mine out. I use a semi permenent colour all over which is closer to my natural colour so I don't have to worry about touch-ups because I don't really have roots. Just redo it when the colour starts to fade out.

Niamho!

could you get the highlights Stripped out?? although i think thats a bit Drastic i think it might do damage to the Hair. have a consultation wit h a H/dresser they'll know what the best option is. i think a home job might be dodgy, especially with light hair.
if im just repeating whats in the above
Posts(Didnt really read them all) sorry bout that....

dame

Hi, If the hair is highlighted (or lightened by permanent colour) it can't be stripped because the hair has really been bleached. If you've had a permanent colour put in that's darker than your natural colour then you probably could get it stripped out alright.

Oh, anyone else in same boat; I've discovered you have to wash your hair every day while it's growing out. The hair is brighter when it's freshly washed so the growing out doesn't look as bad.