Do you color your own hair?

[LAJennifer]

I spend way too much money at the salon - and with the economy the way it is now, I''m looking for some ways to save. My natural color is dark blonde/light brown without much warmth (dish water blonde?). When I leave the salon - I''m Reese Witherspoon blonde.

Do any of you lighten your own hair? If so, what products do you use?

 

[steph72276]

Hey! I''m in the same boat...same dishwater blonde hair without color, but I get highlights. It is sooo expensive, but my hair was ruined one time in highschool when I let my friend color my hair. The stylist made me promise to never color my hair again and I listened! I think that color hair is hard. If I had really dark hair and just wanted a few shades lighter, I think I would experiment, but blonde is just so hard to get right with it still looking natural.

 

[joflier]

I almost always color my own hair. Saves loads of money. And it has always turned out great. Sometimes its difficult to get the roots just perfect because I have such thick hair, but hey, its worth it for the savings. Because my hair is longer and very thick, they usually charge me double as it takes 2 batches of color to do it. No thanks, $15 for 2 boxes works fantastically for me and the checkbook!
I bounce around with brands. Right now I''m using Garnier. I''m pleased with the color. (I''m blond right now, naturally medium brown/red) It starts to fade after about 3-4 weeks, but the roots usually need retouching by that point anyways. I''ve also used revlon. That works ok, although the blond seems a bit brighter with Garnier. Good luck!

 

[LAJennifer]

Date: 1/22/2009 6:49:14 PM
Author: joflier
I almost always color my own hair. Saves loads of money. And it has always turned out great. Sometimes its difficult to get the roots just perfect because I have such thick hair, but hey, its worth it for the savings. Because my hair is longer and very thick, they usually charge me double as it takes 2 batches of color to do it. No thanks, $15 for 2 boxes works fantastically for me and the checkbook!
I bounce around with brands. Right now I''m using Garnier. I''m pleased with the color. (I''m blond right now, naturally medium brown/red) It starts to fade after about 3-4 weeks, but the roots usually need retouching by that point anyways. I''ve also used revlon. That works ok, although the blond seems a bit brighter with Garnier. Good luck!

What specific color of Garnier do you use? Do you have any before or after pics?

 

[LtlFirecracker]

God no, I am terrible with my hair.

 

[princesss]

I like changing my hair frequently, so if I tried to do mine at home, it would be completely ruined. I end up spending $$$, but it''s SO worth it!

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Okay, here''s the thing...lightening hair requires bleach, so chances are if you''ve been lightened, you''ve been bleached out. Professionally speaking, bleach is a scary tool and nothing I''d ever recommend a client to attempt at home simply because so many things can go wrong between where you are now and where you want to be.

When you''re lightening your hair, you''re removing different natural componets of your hair...basically, you''re stripping different colors that marry together to make your natural hair color. Black hair has every natural color--yellow, red, blue, ect...white blond hair has no underlying pigment at all. If you''re a warm blonde naturally, you have low pigment, lots of yellow but probably some red too. Red is by far the worst color to work with when trying to successfully remove pigment.

Also, remember color on top of color only goes darker. Box color alone will never perfectly "lift" natural pigment from your hair. So if you''re serious about getting a beautiful result I would consider changing your color to something one shade lower.

Before trying to color at home, I would suggest getting highlights and low lights. High/lowlights tend to grow out very naturally, and can extend the ammount of time you can pull off between colorings.

Good luck.

 

[LAJennifer]

Date: 1/22/2009 8:43:12 PM
Author: Italiahaircolor
Okay, here''s the thing...lightening hair requires bleach, so chances are if you''ve been lightened, you''ve been bleached out. Professionally speaking, bleach is a scary tool and nothing I''d ever recommend a client to attempt at home simply because so many things can go wrong between where you are now and where you want to be.


When you''re lightening your hair, you''re removing different natural componets of your hair...basically, you''re stripping different colors that marry together to make your natural hair color. Black hair has every natural color--yellow, red, blue, ect...white blond hair has no underlying pigment at all. If you''re a warm blonde naturally, you have low pigment, lots of yellow but probably some red too. Red is by far the worst color to work with when trying to successfully remove pigment.


Also, remember color on top of color only goes darker. Box color alone will never perfectly ''lift'' natural pigment from your hair. So if you''re serious about getting a beautiful result I would consider changing your color to something one shade lower.


Before trying to color at home, I would suggest getting highlights and low lights. High/lowlights tend to grow out very naturally, and can extend the ammount of time you can pull off between colorings.


Good luck.

Thanks for the info! I actually do have both high/lowlights. I''ve got to figure something out, though, as I''m likely to be unemployed in the next few months (thanks Blackstone). I could go darker I guess - but I''m afraid of it turning pink or green. I had red hair about 10 years ago - and it looked very natural on me (but it faded quickly - on top of bleached hair - and I had to get it done often). I have no idea what my stylist currently uses (product wise). I know he does use bleach for highlights, something for lowlights and then a toner.

Years ago - when I lived in WV - my stylist there used Color Graphics (she used the blue and the purple). That seemed pretty fool proof. Is there anything equivalent I could get at Sally''s?

 

[April20]

Be careful with the blonde!!!!! The bleach is a tricky thing and easy to mess up.

I used to try and do mine at home. I did for a long time actually. And then came the day when it had been a little darker and I tried to highlight it back lighter. I turned it school bus yellow. That''s the only way to describe that color. It was HORRIFYING. I was moving from the east coast to the west coast two days after I did it. I spent my entire last day on the east coast trying to book a salon appt on the west coast to fix it. I had to chop my hair off chin length, put temporary color and keep cutting it until it all grew out.

You would think I would have learned my lesson after that. Nope. Few years later I get the bright idea to do at home highights again. So a friend of mine and I set ourselves to highlighting. I ended up with what I can only describe as Tina Turner hair. These weird bright cold color highlights. I think a few black and gold calico cats have a similar look also. That hack job was relatively easily fixed with some toner from Sallys, so I got lucky.

I don''t color my own hair now and haven''t for years. I was spoiled for several years while I was still on the west coast as I had a good friend that did color and did mine for free. I have to pay now and it''s a lot. But in my opinion it''s money well spent. If i don''t color I''m dishwater dark blond and very, very gray and I''m not happy. It''s worth the cost to me and I''ll forgo other things to afford it.

 

[purrfectpear]

L''Oreal or any of the other $14 or so box blonds work just fine for me. My natural color would be mousy brown and I''ve been very light ash blond for years. I''ve had $180 salon color and $14 box bleach and there is no difference at all if you follow the directions carefully, and aren''t trying to take med. dark brown to platinum. Just pick an ash blond, not a "natural" or "golden" blond color. They can tend to go brassy.

 

[joflier]

Ok, its garnier nutrisse - i believe the color I use is 100 - camomile. I''ll attach a couple pics. first is close to what I started with. Its a little lighter than my natural color, but gives you the idea.

 

[joflier]

This is a picture after the 1st coloring. It turned a strawberry blond.

 

[joflier]

And the final product that I have now! It took about 3 or 4 times to get the full on blond look. But I also have red tones, and reds are harder to get blond than brown. Hope that helps you!

 

[LAJennifer]

Date: 1/22/2009 11:15:21 PM
Author: joflier
And the final product that I have now! It took about 3 or 4 times to get the full on blond look. But I also have red tones, and reds are harder to get blond than brown. Hope that helps you!

Joflier - your hair is so pretty! That color looks great on you. So you had to use the Garnier 3 times (of the same color?) to get it that light? How long did you wait between each coloring?

 

[joflier]

Date: 1/22/2009 11:28:37 PM
Author: LAJennifer

Date: 1/22/2009 11:15:21 PM
Author: joflier
And the final product that I have now! It took about 3 or 4 times to get the full on blond look. But I also have red tones, and reds are harder to get blond than brown. Hope that helps you!

Joflier - your hair is so pretty! That color looks great on you. So you had to use the Garnier 3 times (of the same color?) to get it that light? How long did you wait between each coloring?

Thanks Jen. Yeah, it took a couple times. It may be easier for you because it sounds like your hair is maybe a bit lighter and without reds. Those reds are killer. I usually waited 3-4 weeks between colorings. I probably could''ve done it sooner in between, but I liked the strawberry color, so it didn''t matter much.

 

[asscherisme]

No, I''m too chicken. I guess seeing other women with unnatural looking hair scares me.

Its important to me that my hair looks natural so I put it in my hairdressers hands.

 

[platinumrock]

I was the opposite. I fried and damaged my hair for a long time with home coloring experiments gone bad. I finally surrendered to a good stylist 4 years ago and my hair has never been healthier, even with highlights. It actually grew past bra-strap again!

 

[VRBeauty]

THREADJACK ALERT!

Jodi -- I just have to say that your hair is gorgeous, and I love the way the color sets of your beautiful eye color!

END OF THREADJACK. PLEASE RESUME YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED THREAD.

 

[deegee]

Heck no! The last time I had a non-professional color my hair was in college. I let a friend who always highlighted her own hair try to highlight mine. My hair turned the most amazing shade of orange. It was horrible! After that hair color wouldn''t take, and I ended up getting my lovely orange hair cut in layers and really short. I''ll never do that again. Now I go to a colorist who uses very good products, and most people can''t tell that my hair is colored.

 

[packrat]

I used to a lot, and once ended up w/Bozo colored hair, so quit doing it on my own for a while..I was out in the sun so much for a while it lightened on its own and I liked it. I did try last summer again, since it had been years and years, and I ended up calling my stylist to fix it b/c I didn''t like it. So, for right now, I''m too chicken to do anything myself. I just let my stylist play and pick whatever colors she wants.

 

[platinumrock]

Date: 1/22/2009 11:15:21 PM
Author: joflier
And the final product that I have now! It took about 3 or 4 times to get the full on blond look. But I also have red tones, and reds are harder to get blond than brown. Hope that helps you!

Wow, this looks like you just came from a high-end salon. You look gorgeous. That''s a very nice and rich shade of blonde. I''m impressed!

 

[platinumrock]

Date: 1/24/2009 2:58:33 PM
Author: deegee
Heck no! The last time I had a non-professional color my hair was in college. I let a friend who always highlighted her own hair try to highlight mine. My hair turned the most amazing shade of orange. It was horrible! After that hair color wouldn''t take, and I ended up getting my lovely orange hair cut in layers and really short. I''ll never do that again. Now I go to a colorist who uses very good products, and most people can''t tell that my hair is colored.

LOL...tell us how you REALLY feel! I know what you mean. The only person that touches my hair is my stylist and I''ve been going to her four years. Haven''t had any problems since.

 

[diamondringlover]

Nope, I have my stylist do it, its the only time I get to myself

 

[joflier]

Thanks platrock and VRbeauty!

 

[Gailey]

I''m in the "Hell No!" category, but I wish I wasn''t. I''m a reddish sort of brunette who is salt and pepper grey underneath. So that adds up to be around C$150 a month on average. Just think how much jewellery I could obtain with the money I could save if I was prepared to tackle it myself.

I have a fantastic colourist who does an awesome job, but there isn''t a month that goes by that I don''t wish there was another way, so if anyone has the answer I''ll swap my first born for it.

God, I wish I wasn''t so vain.

 

[platinumrock]

Date: 2/15/2009 1:11:27 AM
Author: Gailey
I''m in the ''Hell No!'' category, but I wish I wasn''t. I''m a reddish sort of brunette who is salt and pepper grey underneath. So that adds up to be around C$150 a month on average. Just think how much jewellery I could obtain with the money I could save if I was prepared to tackle it myself.

I have a fantastic colourist who does an awesome job, but there isn''t a month that goes by that I don''t wish there was another way, so if anyone has the answer I''ll swap my first born for it.

God, I wish I wasn''t so vain.

Haha..Gailey, your post cracked me up. Honestly, if you can afford it and your hair looks great, why not? I go to my stylist about 3-4 times a year for highlights. I spend an average of $120 per visit (and my hair is mid-back). But in the grand scheme of things, it''s soooo worth it because she does an awesome job, and I''ve never left the salon in disappointment. My hair is at its healthiest and longest since I left it alone.

I don''t have an answer for you, but if you live in Northeast Florida, I recommend my salon. They won an award from from Elle (or Vogue, can''t remember) magazine for best colorist.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 1/22/2009 9:59:52 PM
Author: purrfectpear
L''Oreal or any of the other $14 or so box blonds work just fine for me. My natural color would be mousy brown and I''ve been very light ash blond for years. I''ve had $180 salon color and $14 box bleach and there is no difference at all if you follow the directions carefully, and aren''t trying to take med. dark brown to platinum. Just pick an ash blond, not a ''natural'' or ''golden'' blond color. They can tend to go brassy.

Big ditto. I am a similar base colour and have used the L''Oreal high lift blondes for years.

 

[trillionaire]

It could be a good time to get re-acquainted with your natural hair color

I color with henna, but I''m not sure that it works well for light colors, better for browns, red and black.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 2/16/2009 2:06:10 PM
Author: trillionaire
It could be a good time to get re-acquainted with your natural hair color

I color with henna, but I''m not sure that it works well for light colors, better for browns, red and black.

I used to use henna years ago, ended up a very deep red, my hair was very shiny when I used it.