can i go blonde?

[booyhoo]

i am a natural brunette(dark brunette) with a few greys so i home dye the same as my natural colour. i used to have blonde highlights but it was before i had ever dyed my hair brown so the highlights were on natural hair. i would like to go blonde. i know this will be a process of going gradually lighter a few shades at a time and am happy to take a stylists advice on how light to go wrt my skin tone and what will suit me. but the question is. because my hair is shoulder length hair and has been dyed brown for years, is it possible to go lighter or do i have to grow all the dye out. (if that is the case i will just stay dark as it would take years to grow it out to the same length)

You could but you would have to have it bleached and then tinted as just the tint wouldn't lift the old dye out of your hair enough and would prob end up a funny gingery colour.
It would be pretty damaging for your hair and you would need to make sure you got a decent experienced colourist to do it, but it is possible.

I've been googling and it looks like i will have to have the dye stripped out and then the blonde put in. i have a great hairdresser although she never does my colour so i might ask if there are specific colourists in her salon.

You don't need to grow out all the dye but you will have to strip out the colour first and then blond put in. It will take hours and wont leave your hear in great condition and should only ever be done by a really really good colourist.

Incidentally my hairdresser says you should never go lighter than the lightest you were naturally as a child, unless you are prepared to commit to wearing a full face of makeup every day.

You could just leave yr hair base colour as is and go for a full head of foils- a goldy light brown one and some blonde. That would get you gradually lighter over time ( go back to same place and keep adding more of the blonde) Not so drastic as full head of bleach

when you say child.? my hair was blonde until i was about 8/9 when it darkened to the brown it is now. i do wear make-up everyday aswell.

About 3 or 4 - the colour you settle to once all the baby hair has gone.

I also wear make up everyday and went white blonde years ago (think gwen steffani) and I am a natural dark blonde. I had to wear loads of makeup to avoid looking totally washed out. The full face bothered me more than the constant touching up the roots...

I'm constantly going from (dyed)dark brown to blonde through boredom. A good salon can do it and it'll look good.