How easily do you take risks with your hair?

[Fullsteamahead]

I'm 35 and have never had anything drastic done to my hair. I'm a natural brunette but have had to colour my hair for the last 15 years due to going grey very early. My hair colour range has always been somewhere between mid brown to dark brown. In the last year or so my greys have really started driving me mad as the re growth happens very quickly. I decided to go lighter so it wouldn't be too noticeable. I tried stripping my old colour with Colour B4 (used 2 packs of it). Unfortunately, my hair still looked rather dark after that especially at the ends. Since I'd already purchased the new hair dye I decided to go ahead with it. I used Daniel Field Natural Dark Ash Blonde and had practically no coverage at all with most of my greys still visible :( Today I went to Boots and bought Jerome Russell bleaching powder and am now sitting staring at it scared to use it.
Part of me thinks what's the worst thing that can happen? My hair will be overly dry and I'll have to cut it, big deal! But part of me is ridiculously scared!

I think I'm so worried about these things because I don't know what suits me. Maybe some of you on here who are great with their colours can help me.

As I mentioned above I've got dark hair. I think I'm an autumn type with brown eyes and dark eye brows. I have a similar skin tone, hair and eyes to Natalie Portman, Cheryl Cole and maybe Kiera Knightly.

I do fancy a change, not a drastic one but enough to make my greys more manageable. Help me please :)

I would maybe go to a hairdressers and ask their advice. Bleach is very drastic!!

if you are so worried why would you do it yourself bleaching is really hard to get right yourself. get to a professional !

If it was me I wouldn't use it. You run the risk of ending up with patchy orange hair. Get yourself off to a hairdresser.

I could have written your post! I did try and go grey but people thought I was my son's grandmother and it was very patchy. I made the drastic decision to go (very) blonde... and love it. I do think you need to go to a hairdresser though. If you are short of money could you go as a model or check out local hairdressing colleges?

I think yes to the bleach but no to doing it yourself. A mobile hair dresser is much cheaper than a salon and relays on repeat business so tend to do a better job than salons and use the same products, and obviously they come to your house so more convenient :)

I also say go to the hairdresser. I'm someone with a 'It's just hair, it'll grow back/be OK'' attitude. I'll happily shave/trim/cut/dye my own hair.
I went from black to blonde in July. I toyed with the idea of doing it myself - stripping it down as much as possible then throwing a blonde dye on it but after some consideration I went to the Salon.
I'm glad I did because even though my hair is very short (pixie cut-ish) and very healthy plus I had only a little build up of black dye it still took a lot to strip it and even then I couldn't get to the exact colour I wanted without risk of damaging my hair, I had to wait until a few weeks later when the hairdresser was happy to go lighter.

I love it and no longer have to do my roots to cover my grey every 2 weeks. It's something like 10 weeks now, and because I'm naturally a dark blonde with lots of grey, it looks okay for ages so is only starting to really need doing again now.

Thank you all so much for your responses. It's decided, I'm going to go for a consultation next week! As it happens it's my birthday next week so I kind of have an excuse :)

I'm now thinking of something along the lines of balayage. Maybe something like this? Think it would hide the greys pretty well but will still have some of my dark hair underneath. No idea if it would suit me though!

www.nakhair.com.au/uploads/contentFiles/images/kimkardashian.jpg

get a few blonde highlights just on the grey, i have half a head and it's cheaper but makes a difference

I like the hair on the link but have a think about what's more important to you - covering the grey without dying constantly? the regrowth/roots would be similar to what you're currently experiencing = needing roots done more often.

The stylist will help you and may well suggest going for highlights first so it's not such a shock :)
The blonder you go the bigger need for a make up change - With black hair I used quite bold make up - black smudgy liner/mascara, I often needed to darken my brows a little, purple or red based lippy. When I went full head blonde I've had to tone it down and change the way I apply it - so consider that too.

I would also suggest going to a hairdresser. I had dark brown hair and decided to go blonde with 2 applications of bleach at the hairdressers. It all snapped off and I had to get it cropped. I was aware this could happen but it was still a massive shock and has taken me three years to grow it back.
So i'm always the voice of doom on these threads, sorry, it's best to go to the hairdresser at least the first time then you can top up your roots on the virgin hair when it grows in.
There's also the tone factor- you could end up brassy or as I went...orange. eek!!!

I lightened my dark-but-rapidly-greying hair using balyage (at a salon, not cheap but SO worth it).

I would NEVER bleach my hair at home!!!!

ItsGotBellsOn, did you have balayage done over your virgin hair or did you have it coloured first to cover the greys?

And also I'm interested how much lighter did you go? Was it big change?

I had it dyed at the roots first, then the lighter colour layered on. Its a slight dip dye effect - chestnut brown at the top, then dark ombre, subtly lighter as you go down to the ends of the hair (sort of dark blonde), but not block colour obviously as its balyage.

I cheat a bit. I do the roots myself at home every 6 weeks using a Loreal box colour, and only get the balyage touched up every 12-16 weeks ish. My hairdresser was disgusted when I said I was going to do that but even she has admitted it looks very good!