Going back to my roots

[GVmama]

My hair is naturally (I think) a light brown colour with a slight auburn tint but I’ve dyed my hair blonde for the last decade (or two).
I’ve been considering letting the blonde grow out and going back to my natural colour but it always looks so awful when I’ve got an inch or two of roots so I give in and dye it (box dye in lockdown and hairdresser the rest of the time.)
Has anyone put a light brown or dark blonde colour over lightened hair with any success? I really don’t want it to look patchy as it’ll be quite a change after so long.
My hair is quite long so it would take ages to grow out naturally, I really don’t think I can do it.
Have you gone back to your roots after dying it for years? How did you go about it?
Or should I just wait til I can get into the hairdressers and get it done professionally? (I’m now thinking this is the most sensible solution!).

Have you researched a root smudge or root shadow? I started lockdown with bleached hair and then in order to grow it out but retain the lightness I have a semi perm root smudge with some of the colour dragged down the length of my hair as low lights. It grows out well as my natural roots come through. I didn’t match the semi perm to my natural colour either but it seems to fade enough to bend but not so much to lose the effect. It’s probably a hairdresser job though!

That sounds like a good option! If I can cope with the roots in the meantime. I wonder when hairdressers might re-open?

Have you any experience of using toners? I was wondering if a dark blonde toner might darken my hair slightly, making my roots less obvious?

please wait and let a hairdresser do it. getting lightened hair back to its normal colour is very highly skilled colour work, and nothing you can buy in a box will have that real hair look, so you will still end up with a root line anyway. plus, putting anything darker over lightened hair is a gamble as it can come out looking khaki. if it goes wrong, you are looking at a colour correction. Just to give you some perspective on this: colour corrections with me start at £150 and clients should expect to be in the salon no less than 4-5 hours. for this reason I cannot offer weekend or evening appointments. Colour correction may require lightening over hair that is lightened then dyed, in which case clients should expect either to lose a lot of length or to have significantly less healthy hair subsequently. Clients who require colour correction because of being daft with box dyes during lockdown come way down my list of priorities for appointments and will have to wait until I have cleared my backlog of lockdown cancellations and regulars, so would be looking at an appointment approximately 6-7 weeks after we open back up. In short: just say no.

have a look at spray on root touch up stuff, go on youtube and look at scarf tying tutorials, put a tenner in a jar for every week you resist box dye and buy yourself something lovely with it.

I have a root smudge for exactly this reason, although I've foolishly walked around in direct sunlight for the last two weeks and it's turned incredibly orange. Just bought a hat and booked an emergency appointment with a hairdresser (not in the uk) for tomorrow. That is to say that if you're putting dark over blonde it could fade or change colour over time without maintenance.

Ha, that’s me told @MadameButterface! Thank you, I probably needed that. I will step away from the box dyes.
The spray on root touch up, is that wash out stuff? My friend recommended a (John Frieda) root spray that lightened hair, like the old Sun-in but I thought it would cause too much damage. I probably just need a new hat!

yes, you can get stuff you spray on then wash out ( I would give your hair a really good brush before washing to get more out). it's more for grey coverage though than blending darker roots and lighter ends - don't use anything that lightens or does anything permanent to your hair. there are tons of people in your position, so there will be all sorts of ideas about how to disguise roots on Pinterest/insta/tiktok.

You can do this! stay strong, I believe in you.