Any light brown/blondes go from highlights to doing full color?

Anonymous
I am so tired of going to get highlights in my light brown/blond hair (that keeps getting darker as the years go by). I have to go every 6-8 weeks or I start to get bad roots and I hate having to spend 3 hours of free time (ie..babysitter time) to do it. I keep debating about just doing all over color with the thought that maybe I could do it at home rather than having to go to a salon and drop $220. Anyone do this and are happy with the results? Does it look more or less natural than highlights?
Anonymous
I'd just go with your natural color if you're really sick of it. All-over color will look flat compared to what you're used to, and if your roots are dark, you'll have to have the touched up all. The. Time.

Seriously, there are so many bleached heads in DC you'll stand out more with your natural color, anyway. Every time I see women in this town, they have tons of blonde highlights. It gets old.
Anonymous
Anonymous wrote:I am so tired of going to get highlights in my light brown/blond hair (that keeps getting darker as the years go by). I have to go every 6-8 weeks or I start to get bad roots and I hate having to spend 3 hours of free time (ie..babysitter time) to do it. I keep debating about just doing all over color with the thought that maybe I could do it at home rather than having to go to a salon and drop $220. Anyone do this and are happy with the results? Does it look more or less natural than highlights?


I feel your pain. My hair is naturally dark blond and over time I was (unintentionally)highlighting it lighter and lighter until it got to the point where I had to get highlighted every 5 weeks, which is just too much time and money. At this point, I've decided to have my hairdresser work some low lights in and want to get closer to my natural color, so I'm continuing to highlight and lowlight but am not doing either as much, and am using a darker color (still lighter than my natural color though bec I like having highlights). About a year ago I did full color at the salon I was previously going to instead of highlights and I hated it. I tried it twice because the girl doing my color was convinced I would like it but it just did not look good. Both times my scalp looked pink for a week after the wash in color, the hair looked good for about two weeks, and then the roots all come in as one line across the part of your head which to me looked embarrassing and trashy. This was my experience and that was going to an upscale salon to have it done. I would really, really recommend against you washing the color in yourself. I think women who have darker hair may be able to do this successfully, but if you're going blond, you really have to have it done by a professional or it looks trashy -- the color is never right and so many things can go wrong. I would recommend working lowlights in and getting closer to your natural color (although of course not going all the way back to your natural color unless that's something you want) The amount of maintenance you'll need will go down and you'll still have the highlights you want.
Anonymous
I did. And now I'm in the process of switching back to highlights. I wanted to switch for the same reasons as you, but there are a few things that made it even higher maintenance. You have to go at least every 4-6 weeks. 6 weeks is really pushing it. It doesn't grow in like how highlights do. It grows in like a strait line of color. Even if your natural hair is pretty light, it's going to look really dark when it grows in in contrast to the color. If you have to go longer than 6 weeks for some reason, you are going to look like a bottle blonde until your next appointment.

Also, I didn't find the decreased amount of time for color vs highlights to be that significant, as I had hoped.

Your best bet is to find a hairdresser that does highlights faster. Go with a full head about 2x a year. Get partials the rest of the time (saves time and money). And when you have them do a partial, have them put a few foils underneith for if you ever wear your hair in a ponytail.

From experience, don't do it. Although I actually liked the way my hair looked a lot better with color, it looked great for 2 weeks at a time and then I was in an even higher maintenance situation. Don't do it.
Anonymous
yes. and i think my hair looks so much better. the only downside is that at first you have to go darker than normal to cover the highlights. after a few trips to the salon, you start to get the color you like. (unless you want dark brown.)

too many women in DC have the same blond highlights. it's a very generic look around here. also, adding lowlights is a good alternative.
Anonymous
As you get older, you will end up getting color anyway. I get color to cover the grey roots every 5 weeks, and highlights every third visit (15 weeks) at the same time as the base color. It's a lot of time and money but I am not willing to go grey yet.
Anonymous
If you don't have gray yet, work in some low-lights. I have dark blond hair- a really dingy color with no natural highlights so if I go natural it really washes me out. So now I do low lights along with highlights and I go every 8-10 weeks (with very fast growing hair). The roots don't grow in so noticeably because I don't over-highlight, so I can sometimes wait even longer between visits.

I tried the single process at home- color was dingy. Maybe I just picked the wrong color...??? That said, my mom does it all the time and it looks good. Although she is blonder than me and now more gray, too.
Anonymous
I have never done highlights - have always done my hair at home with all-over color and it looks great. It is just not true that home color always looks bad. My stylist travels the country as an instructor in color, and he says he couldn't do it any better in the salon. After 20 years of trying all different brands, I am strongly of the opinion that Loreal Preference is by far the best brand for blondes. Number 9 is my favorite. Love it. Give it a try!
Anonymous
OP here, Thank you for sharing you experiences it is really helpful.
Anonymous
I am a medium-to-dark brown hair with blue eyes. I did highlights until my mid-30s. Then- I got sick of them. They would always end up taking over...and the more often you go (even reputable places) they take on a brassy look.

I completely stopped highlighting and first they did a semi-permanent all over rinse...only once. It looked very natural as my regular hair grew in. My hair is so much shinier, healthier and looks so much better than those mult-hue highlights. I really think highlights age a lot of women...esp women with darker hair.
Anonymous
I've never done highlights, but have always done full color over my blah mid-brown hair. I use a demi-permanent auburn, and its great--it fades somewhat, but that means I rarely have noticeable roots, so I can get really lazy if I want and not go for 6 months. (Of course that leaves me with my blah brown hair, but I think that's better than roots!)

I still won't do it from a box though, but that's because I personally suck at it--I'm sure if you're good, it's fine.
Anonymous
After years of bleaching my hair, I started getting low-lights so that I could gradually get back to my natural color. I also used temporary rinses to tone down the blonde. Now my hair is its natural color and I like it. I have a few grays, but nothing substantial enough to make me go back to blonde. My natural color suits my skin color, but I'll admit it took some getting used to since everybody else out there has highlights. In it's natural state, my hair has never been healthier!
Anonymous
Over the years, I have done everything known to woman to my hair. what pertains to your situation

1) went bleach blond in my 20s (pixie cute, not trying to be natural). Cute, but tons of maintenance (roots) and hair looked like straw.

2) "DIY" lighter color at home after I had highlights. Hated the results. Was a kind of orangey blond and made my fine hair look thinner.

3) "DIY" demipermanent darker than natural color, with glaze. Hair looked good and shiny, but I was super washed out (I am very, very fair, with dark ash blond/light ash brown hair naturally, which is pretty mousy on me). If I could have found the right color on me, I would have done this, but pretty much everyone agreed I looked better with lighter hair.

4) currently: get 3 color highlights--some very light, some caramel, and some low. Stylist does these very finely so there is no 'chunky' or 'stripey' look, but the 3 colors gives my fine hair a lot of dimension. I do it every 3 months.

Bottom line: for me, I would LOVE to find a cheap, faster solution. But I decided that unlike shoes/suits, whatever, I wear my hair EVERYDAY, so would rather spend the time money on it than on more clothes.
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