The Long Hair Community

Pani_Mniszek · May 9th, 2007, 08:21 AM

Do any of you find yourself nostalgic for a former hair color?

As you can see from my avatar and sig pictures, I'm fairly blonde right now. I have been growing blonder and blonder over the years with highlighting to conceal fairly heavy gray on the crown of my head (the nape of my neck is still fairly dark). I found that growout was easier to cope with if my hair was lighter.

I recently started a photo thread and was reminded again at how much more suited to my skin color my former hair color was.

Here's the problem. Most of the pictures I've posted are of a me who was not only brown-haired but younger, thinner, and frankly prettier because of the latter two qualities.

So am I really missing my brown hair? Or my lost youth? If it's the latter, changing my hair color will disappoint me in its results.

"Oh, moment, stay. You are so fair!"

Pani M.

Buddaphlyy · May 9th, 2007, 08:31 AM

Sometimes I miss my reddish brown hair, but mostly not. My hair is naturally black, so the red definitely took a toll on the health of my hair. Now I want my hair even blacker, so I'm going to start experimenting with some rinses.

Pani_Mniszek · May 9th, 2007, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buddaphlyy

Sometimes I miss my reddish brown hair, but mostly not. My hair is naturally black, so the red definitely took a toll on the health of my hair. Now I want my hair even blacker, so I'm going to start experimenting with some rinses.

Is it overstating matters to say you miss the black hair, Buddaphlyy? ETA: Oh, I think you're saying that your hair is back to its regular color, but you now want to enhance that color.

Pani M.

Buddaphlyy · May 9th, 2007, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pani_Mniszek

Is it overstating matters to say you miss the black hair, Buddaphlyy? ETA: Oh, I think you're saying that your hair is back to its regular color, but you now want to enhance that color.

Pani M.

Yeah, that's what I meant.

Growing up, I never liked having black hair and I begged my mom for highlight and she always said no.

Last summer I dyed it red, but because my hair is black, it was really a reddish brown and I loved it to death. But my hair thinned out and was constantly breaking, so I had to let it go.

It's funny, I still don't like my natural black color, but I think that if I dye it darker, it'll be shinier or something and I'll like it more.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a hair dye fiend.

pookatrina · May 9th, 2007, 08:34 AM

Just my

& I do have an overall bias, but I like the dark. Do you look much different from the halloween pic? One think I have to say about coloring hair dark is that it's a huge pain to get rid of if you change your mind & I'd suggest using some henna/indigo since dark hair dyes have tons of ppd in which is really not good for you at all.

Pani_Mniszek · May 9th, 2007, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pookatrina

Just my

& I do have an overall bias, but I like the dark. Do you look much different from the halloween pic? One think I have to say about coloring hair dark is that it's a huge pain to get rid of if you change your mind & I'd suggest using some henna/indigo since dark hair dyes have tons of ppd in which is really not good for you at all.

I've actually lost weight since that picture was taken but that is pretty similar to what my overall look was. That was a black wig so I wouldn't go that dark.

If I go back to brown I am definitely going henndigo (maybe plus amla).

Pani M.

pookatrina · May 9th, 2007, 08:55 AM

Wellyeah somehow I could guess that wasn't quite the look you were going for, lol, but it does show your face with a dark color. Do you have photoshop or something similar? Sometimes it helps to see a pic first. If you don't have photoshop you could try http://www.lhj.com/makeover/member/i...questid=168025 you have to sign up but you can upload your own pic & try on styles & colors.

Pani_Mniszek · May 9th, 2007, 09:22 AM

That's a good idea. I don't have Photoshop, but it would be good to try it with a current photo. Or I could go try on some wigs.

Pani M.

Pani_Mniszek · May 10th, 2007, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pookatrina

Wellyeah somehow I could guess that wasn't quite the look you were going for, lol, but it does show your face with a dark color. Do you have photoshop or something similar? Sometimes it helps to see a pic first. If you don't have photoshop you could try http://www.lhj.com/makeover/member/i...questid=168025 you have to sign up but you can upload your own pic & try on styles & colors.

I seem to be fairly Internet-dense. I can get this module to change hairstyles but not colors. I wonder if there's any other free site that will let me change haircolors.

ETA: The makeover module at Beauty Riot seems work out okay, although the hair colors tend toward the Manic Panic end of the spectrum.

Pani M.

Labs*R*Us · May 9th, 2007, 09:58 AM

Hi Pani - I don't have the privilege yet, so I couldn't pull up any pictures with your darker hair, but I know what you mean. I am much ligher than I'd prefer to be, though I don't want to be as dark as I once was, as I don't think it would look well anymore, and everyone has told me that the fair hair goes better with my complexion. I'm planning to gradually go a few shades darker (still some kind of medium blond) - just not bumping it up as much as I have been. Let us know what you decide!

akurah · May 9th, 2007, 10:09 AM

Once I bleached the everloving crap out of my hair, then I dyed it the brightest shade of red. I'm talking briiiiiiiiiiight red--think classic lipstick red then go a shade just brighter.

I loved it, it looked awesome, but the upkeep was just not worth it. Plus the bleach fried my poor hair. I still have about 2 inches left of that hair, and even with henna, I can quite literally see through the ends. I'm amazed it doesn't split more than it does.

Bananamae · May 9th, 2007, 10:25 AM

I'll second the idea of using that online program (or another...I think that one of the hair dye companies, like Clairol or Revlon have something where you upload your own photo and change the color from their color wheel)

I can kind of relate: my hair has progressively gotten lighter over the years from sun exposure or chemical mishaps or just aging, I'm not sure, and I rather miss the near-black I had even though the brown I have isn't all that light.

Pani_Mniszek · May 9th, 2007, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bananamae

I'll second the idea of using that online program (or another...I think that one of the hair dye companies, like Clairol or Revlon have something where you upload your own photo and change the color from their color wheel)

I can kind of relate: my hair has progressively gotten lighter over the years from sun exposure or chemical mishaps or just aging, I'm not sure, and I rather miss the near-black I had even though the brown I have isn't all that light.

What's holding me back a little from the Photoshop option is the fact that colors on the computer screen always look a little different. I need to try on wigs and then look in myself in bright sunlight.

Of course then I still have the dilemma of trying to match the wig color with my henndigo concoction.

Pani M.

teadragon · May 9th, 2007, 04:07 PM

I hennaed a couple years ago and loved it. After about ten months, I started to get tired of having dyed hair, and I missed my natural color. About a year later, I'm realizing that my natural color is rather boring, and I miss the henna. So I'm going to re-henna! I'm tempted to leave it on for only a short time so that I can get back to my natural color more easily, but closer the weekend (for hennaing time) gets, the more I just want to go back to bright red. It was a fabulous color, and i'm exccited to have it again.

iris · May 11th, 2007, 12:20 PM

I'm nostalgic for my natural color, and I'm sure I idealize it to some extent. Somehow it's always summer in my fond memories of my ravishingly beautiful natural color, and I'm always about fifteen years old ;-). A tell-tale sign for sure.

It wasn't completely my natural color the year I was fifteen anyway, we'd used a bit of my mother's blond dye to bleach a streak to white, and I may have been using cassia with some henna that year too.

The truth is that my natural color lost quite a bit of its depth and variation about a year before I started hennaing. This may have been because I spent that year indoors, writing my thesis - so the hair got no sun that year, and didn't get the light streaks it gets in the sun etc. (and I looked like a ghost all around). Another possibility is it just lost its depth and variation that year period. The first greys and whites had already made their entrance the year before - entirely possible the whole color just changed to blah the year after that due to hormones or whatever.

I'm growing it out anyway, and we'll see.

One thing I've been wanting to say to you about hendigo - I understand you're going to do extensive testing, that is great, - make sure that you check out the color next to your face in various lightings. If you're worried about red, you must know that the red/orange in hendigo will *always* come out in some lightings. I always hated the orange tones in henna, and one time in my frustration about this I put so much indigo over it that it was a very dark gray indoors. Bluish gray with no red at all. It was sort of brown outside in sunlight. But when light would shine through it (bright light coming from behind, sunshine or artificial light), POOF, there the orange was again. No escape. So make sure you can live with that ;-)

ETA: link about the red appearing in hendigo in bright light.

Iris