Feel like my hair is never blonde enough

[Anonymous]

Girl in my 20s. Natural dark blonde. Been highlighting my hair for around 7 years. Started off with half head then transitioned to full head of highlights as time went on.

Been usually maintaining it every 6 months-1 year. Now even right after getting a full head, I never feel blonde enough and can still see my “dark” roots

Seems like only alternative is bleach but don’t know if I wanna commit the time, money, and damage to the hair.

Any alternatives or recommendations for what to ask for? How long is typically to maintain highlighted hair….it keeps getting shorter for me as years go by. The increase in oiliness in my scalp the past year makes me think this may be accelerating the root growth

[Anonymous]

If you only get highlights once a year, you’re going to have visible roots the majority of the time. Get full highlights and refresh every 12 weeks or so. If your hair has obvious, visible, unsightly roots immediately after your visit then they did a bad job. However, it’s also possible you have unrealistic expectations as to how natural it’s going to look if you’re going much lighter. The key is subtlety and variation

[Anonymous]

Lol. Your problem is caused by lightening your hair too much. Your roots look dark because the contrast between your natural color and the blonde highlights is too great.

You need to go the OPPOSITE direction. Go back to partial highlights, don't go so light, and use a toner that helps it blend with your natural tones. This will reduce contrast and make your roots not look so dark.

[Anonymous]

How about a thick headband to lessen the impact of the roots?

[Anonymous]

I mean you sound like you have brown hair, not “dark blonde.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean you sound like you have brown hair, not “dark blonde.”

Dark blonde hair can be darker than some brown hair. Blonde and brown are different colors. You are mixing up level with hue.

[Anonymous]

I have dark blonde hair as well. I have to get my highlights every four months or so. If you get them more often (it sounds like you are only going twice a year or less?) you won't need to do a full head, you can do partial (bearing in mind that if you wear it up all the time you might still want to do a full head). It sounds like you just aren't getting them often enough and have a lot of darker growth.

It's also possible that you just want the highlights to be lighter. Or perhaps they are too yellow and thus failing to blend with your new growth, do you get toner? Potentially you could just drop the highlights and do all over bleach, but that is a pretty serious commitment that I wouldn't recommend to someone who is only getting their highlights done every 6 months.

Lots of things to consider here, but to begin with it sounds like you aren't going often enough.

[Anonymous]

You're not the first brunette to call herself a natural blonde because she had lighter hair as a kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean you sound like you have brown hair, not “dark blonde.”

Dark blonde hair can be darker than some brown hair. Blonde and brown are different colors. You are mixing up level with hue.

This is not accurate according to hair colorists. They use a scale from 1 (black) to 10 (lightest blonde) and a colorist would distinguish between a light brown (level 6) and a dark blonde (level 7). There are not separate scales for blonde or brown hair and blonde hair can never be darker than even the lightest brown hair.

It gets somewhat complicated with tone, as reddish or golden browns can be more light reflective than dark ash blondes, so that might be what you are referring to. But most colorists will view the red or gold tones in hair to be highlights and just evaluate the base color. And a base brown will always be darker than a base blonde.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean you sound like you have brown hair, not “dark blonde.”

Dark blonde hair can be darker than some brown hair. Blonde and brown are different colors. You are mixing up level with hue.

This is nonsensical.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have dark blonde hair as well. I have to get my highlights every four months or so. If you get them more often (it sounds like you are only going twice a year or less?) you won't need to do a full head, you can do partial (bearing in mind that if you wear it up all the time you might still want to do a full head). It sounds like you just aren't getting them often enough and have a lot of darker growth.

It's also possible that you just want the highlights to be lighter. Or perhaps they are too yellow and thus failing to blend with your new growth, do you get toner? Potentially you could just drop the highlights and do all over bleach, but that is a pretty serious commitment that I wouldn't recommend to someone who is only getting their highlights done every 6 months.

Lots of things to consider here, but to begin with it sounds like you aren't going often enough.

OP. I got them 12 weeks ago and even right after treatment, it never felt or looked that blonde

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not the first brunette to call herself a natural blonde because she had lighter hair as a kid.

This. My brother has almost black hair now and was blonde as a kid. It would be absurd for him to call himself a “dark blonde,” lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not the first brunette to call herself a natural blonde because she had lighter hair as a kid.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[Anonymous]

OP here. What should I ask for at hair salon given my problem?

[Anonymous]

You need to go more and ask for lighter. It isn’t going to be subtle when your natural color is dark.