Dark hair advice

[Creativebee]

I’ve booked an appointment to get my hair done on Saturday (not been done, other than at home, for two years), I’ve been advised that seen as my hair is dry, I should get a full head of colour and no highlights. I have naturally black hair and lots and lots of greys, the greys are driving me mad. I thought highlights would cover the greys better but apparently that will dry my hair out further. I just wondered if anyone knows that if I have the full head of colour and a treatment for the dryness, could I have highlights later on or am I going to be stuck with one colour forever?
I have never had a very light colour in my hair before, I’ve gone one or two shades lighter when I had short hair but that was years ago, my hair is now long (mid back) but very dry, frizzy and falling out a lot 😞.

Did your hairdresser advise this or someone else?

You can have highlights later on of course. Your hairdresser might be able to do it on Sat for you, It depends what they use, bleach of course dries any hair out, my hairdresser uses olaplex in mine and it's never dried out.
Can also get a treatment put on after if you needed it.

A good cut will also help!

When the grey starts coming in people do tend to go lighter as it's easier to hide the greys inbetween colours.

Highlights, on their own, won't disguise your greys. However, if your greys are all they way through, lengths and ends, they can serve as highlights. If you think black will look too harsh, you can ask your hairdresser to use a full head low peroxide colour a few shades lighter than your natural one, to tone your greys and give a softer overall look. Ask about Olaplex and protein treatments too. If you can afford one of these, you might be surprised by the difference it makes.

@Wilmaa it was the hairdresser that recommended a full head colour. I was asked on the phone when making the appointment what I wanted and I said I wasn’t sure and needed advice, when I went for my patch test today, the hairdresser said “you said you wanted a full head colour didn’t you?” I said that I wanted advice on what to have and the HD said well bleach is going to make your hair more dry. I just hoped for a change 😔, I’m 40 this year and wanted something new and thought if I trial it now and don’t like it, it’ll grow out by my 40th.

@Thenose the greys are half grey half black, not full strands, if that makes sense

If you had your heart set on highlights then get them! You sound very unexcited about your full head of dark colour you've been rail roaded into advised.

Your hair is right down your back. Why not go for a big chop, say just below shoulders? That'll vastly improve the feel and condition of dry hair.
You can ask for a half head of highlights or even a T-bar (highlights along your parting and framing your face)

Hairdressers can apply an opalex treatment which will go a long way in protecting your hair from bleach damage.

I say go for something different. You're not even 40 yet; have fun with your look and change it up.

I’ve got almost black hair and have just had a caramel baylayage done - first time in my life I’ve gone lighter and omg I love it, it has has so many compliments!

Have what YOU want. It isn’t for the hairdresser to tell you what to have.

[quote Creativebee]@Wilmaa it was the hairdresser that recommended a full head colour. I was asked on the phone when making the appointment what I wanted and I said I wasn’t sure and needed advice, when I went for my patch test today, the hairdresser said “you said you wanted a full head colour didn’t you?” I said that I wanted advice on what to have and the HD said well bleach is going to make your hair more dry. I just hoped for a change 😔, I’m 40 this year and wanted something new and thought if I trial it now and don’t like it, it’ll grow out by my 40th.[/quote]
Ask for highlights op.
You don't have to get a lot at first and can add more as time goes on if you like it.
Get a treatment afterwards or if not I recommend garnier hair food mask, it's amazing.

Thank you all for your advice, I’m going to ask for some highlights tomorrow, maybe it was the length of hair that the hairdresser thought “I’m not going to have time to do that” or maybe they overbooked but I am going to ask and see what happens. Maybe for my 40th I should learn to be firm 😂

I've got very dark brown hair with a lot of white hair. I hair an all over number 7 (dark blonde) which lifts the brown to mid golden brown and turns the white to pale blonde. The overall effect is golden brown with very fine blonde highlights.

I recently went from dyed black to light brown with blonde balayage. It disguises the grey so much better - with the black as soon as the roots came through it was a white badger stripe along my parting. With the lighter hair I can get away without doing my roots for much longer as they don’t stand out as much. And I also do what nukeit suggests in between hair dresser visits by just putting a dark blonde on the roots, which makes the greys look like highlights. Will post some pics of the several phases.

It took several sessions to get the black out and make it this light, as my HD wanted to preserve the condition of my hair, so she did it in 4-5 gentle stages.

I sometimes miss my black hair, but I wouldn’t go back now because a) it was so much work to get here! And b) I think the solid black was starting to age me a bit. If I’d had a more blended tonal variety of colours on the black it might have been better but with a box dye it just looked a bit flat.

Ha ha so much for anonymity!!

@TheShoeLady wow 😮, I love it! It looks so good. I wouldn’t mind actually having a slower process but just knowing it is a possibility. I must admit though, I hate going to the HD it sometimes feels like a chore (finding the time, getting someone to look after the DC etc) so I don’t go as often as I should and maybe that’s why my hair is in the state it’s in. I need to start thinking of it as me time and just go as I should and keep it fresh.

Thank you. I was lucky that my hairdresser is only over the road from me, but it was a good 3 hours or so, with base colour, highlights and trim etc each time!! This is why I always used a box dye before but I’m hoping now it will be a much easier process!

Did you get them op?!

@AnnieBanannie1 No, I’ve had the worst experience ever. I went to the HD straight from work and was looking forward to some “me time/relaxation”, I walked out of there feeling more stressed than I do at work.

The stylist doing my hair had obviously overbooked, I waited half an hour before she started on my hair and when she did, she started on my hair whilst she had another client in foils (the client she was rushing through and why I was waiting). She needed to wash out the foils of the other client so I had part of my roots done and off she went to deal with the other client. She then asked a colleague to do my roots whilst she got payment from a third client, my roots are done at this point, she comes over and said “actually it’s best we don’t do the full head colour because if you want to go lighter it’ll mean stripping the colour back so let’s just comb it through and it’ll look like a balayage.” I was feeling really stressed at this point and asked if this colour would cover my greys because by this point I just wanted my greys covering and she said yes definitely. Anyways, long story short my hair looks like it’s not had a colour, the greys are still showing (given not as much but a box dye would have done a better job at coverage). Another HD cut my hair and after the cut I asked her about the greys I could see and she called over the first HD and she said I can’t see them, they’re blended in, we’ll sort them when you come back for highlights. I got back to work and asked DH and others and they all said they could see the greys, credit where credit is due, the cut is really good but the colour hasn’t covered all the greys. I’ve rang the manager and I’ve got to go back on Wednesday. I’m really upset as it means another afternoon off work. It was really chaotic there, definitely overbooked and not the experience I expected 😔

Sounds like Tony and Guy. I think you need to find another hairdresser at ter they sort this.

Try and get the details of what they've done this time round so you can explain it to the next hairdresser.

@CommanderBurnham not T&G, it’s a local business but I was thinking of going to T&G next time but from the sounds of it, I’ll be no better off?

I've got very dark nearly black hair with quite a few greys and get a balayage with lighter and darker tones and dark dye on the roots

@TheShoeLady Your hair looks amazing.

Ah thank you Cinnamon

Ah what a shame - it’s so annoying when you’ve geared yourself up to do it and then they let you down. Hope you get it sorted how you want it asap

@TheShoeLady
Your hair looks stunning and it lovely condition too, hairdresser did a great job