Brunette to blonde? How did you find it? Did it suit you?

[youvegottobekidding]

So I’ve been mid-dark brunette on & off for years, more than any other colour. I’ve had the odd time where I’ve tried being lighter & a redhead but haven’t stayed that way for long. My natural colour is a light auburn/brown.

I am booked to have a full head of highlights, as I am wanting to go back to my natural colour or just as close to.

I know it’ll be a change & I suppose it’ll just take some time to get use to it, I know I can’t expect to be very light straight away but it will be different. I’m in my 40’s now & I feel the dark brown box dyes are only ageing me now! Plus I can’t be bothered with my roots anymore!

How did you feel after going from brunette to blonde or just lighter? Was it the best thing or did it go wrong or look bad & you went back to brunette?

I lighten my hair from mid brown to lighter but with more of a balayage than all over highlights to reduce maintenance. I find lighter hair less ageing.

Very expensive to get the right shade and maintain and very taxing on hair.

Are you Samantha Janus?!

No! 🤣

I went blonde as soon as the hairdresser restrictions were lifted.

Long long process. If your researching hair colour levels i went from a 2 to a 6 all over and highlighted bits of level 8

This took around 4 visits to hairdressers and in the end my hair was in bad condition. Not terrible but having always had silky shiny soft great condition hair it was dry and frazzled especially in the ends and alot of breakage my hair was very dry.

My roots were showing and i thought i cant get more bleach on my hair it will be too dry and damaged so I went to sallys and got myself a 5.6 shade and have gone back to a medium brown.

I would never go back to the dark dark shade of a 2. But id never go blonde again. It was a very expensive episode which resulted in alot of dry damaged broken hair and now im trying to repair this

I may have just had a bad experience though

I also went blonde after lockdown from medium/dark brown.

It ruined the condition of my hair and sort of washes me out. I look a bit insipid and miss my dark hair.

Got an appointment on Thursday to go back to hopefully a glossy rich brown.

I went from dark brown (natural colour) to bronde/caramel with blonde pintura highlights (I am curly).

My colourist recommended it because I am quite grey and in my 40s. It took 2, 4 hour appointments in London and several hundred quid and 3 months later my hair (my pride and joy) was quite knackered. It took about 6 months to get over the trauma (with a lot of Olaplex, Elastisicer and Biotin).

My hair has recovered now, although I was very worried for a few weeks that I had ruined it, and I love the lighter colour.

It's true that lighter hair as you get older is more flattering. Even though my eyebrows and lashes are very dark, and so are 30% of my roots, I still feel that the lighter colour lifts my complexion.

Blonde suits me but the upkeep is horrendous and my condition has deteriorated. Don’t get me wrong, my hair was healthy for the first year or so of being blonde, but after a succession of years it’s gradually got shorter and thinner due to breakage.

I was bleach blonde for years and years and then went brunette. DH said i looked younger. I felt more inclined to wear stronger make up. It was nice not to have the up keep of blonde. Hair looked thicker.

BUT - i went back to blonde again after a year because:

1. Blonde hair still looks faintly glam even when it's a bit dirty or unkempt and you just bung it up.
2. Unless you have lovely hair brunette hair can look boring (see no.1)
3. Blonde hair is gentler on aging skin (if you can get the toning right)
4. You can let greys be greys.
5. I had to have my hair very clean and very done to look nice with brunette hair. Otherwise i looked like .... well, an invisible older woman!
6. These days blended roots and 'darker under dye' is fine, so no more bleaching every time there's a bit of regrowth. The different colours makes your hair look thicker.

@withlotsoflove you are beautiful, and your hair looks lovely both colours 😍

I am brunette with red undertones. I've been having highlights since I can remember and tend to go even lighter in the summer (sun) but my natural colour is very dark brunette.
For the last two years I've been having balayage which I feel makes the blonde look a lot more natural. My hairdresser also weaves a light brown/caramel colour in so there is lots of texture. I've just been to the hairdresser today actually so I'll try and post a picture of it in daylight tomorrow.
Subtle is the name of the game when going form dark brown to blonde, and of course finding a really good colourist.

And like @Laiste I have my roots blended. It means I only have to top up on colour 2-3 times a year and my hair is in much better condition as it's not being over bleached.

I had lots of honey blonde highlights last year mixed with lighter and mid brown highlights. Hair is naturally dark brown.

I loved the lighter colour and would have kept it up if not for pandemic. During lockdown the highlighted parts of my hair became dry and dull. I’m now happy to see the new growth which is shiny and soft.

I’ve been ‘blonde’ before you see, many years ago, but I think the highlights were off, a bit yellowy, I didn’t think it suited me so returned to brown. I think I just need to find the right tone, my roots look so light against the rest of my dyed hair, but that could just be the contrast, maybe I just need to be a warmer shade as when I was little my hair colour was like a golden auburn. I have brown eyes and my eyebrows are brown so it’s weird as i think I have ‘darker’ features than a ‘pale’ redhead, although I am pale & do have freckles! I’m really not selling myself here am I, an odd mix! I did try one of those hair colour change app things & very surprisingly I suited a very very light blonde, almost platinum looked quite good, although I know those app things aren’t really all that accurate.

withlotsoflove - you lucky lucky thing, you look lovely with both colours, I can imagine you can choose any colour hair & look fabulous!

Yes one of things about going lighter is hair condition. My hair isn’t in the best now, and the current colour as well it’s just shit. It’s not in the worst condition but I’ve been trying to grow it & it’s the longest it’s been for years. I’m prepared to lose a couple of inches, as the ends are dry anyway. Going lighter will hopefully mean an end to those box dyes, permanent ones the only ones that would cover my stubborn roots every 4 weeks!

And lastly, should my highlights turn a little brassy, what’s the best toning/purple shampoo? Or do they not really work?

I use a purple shampoo and conditioner once a week, the John Frieda one and it's fine.
If you have any red or auburn undertones in your hair you need to avoid any warm blonde colours and ask for silver toned blonde shades instead or it will go brassy/orange.