Talk to me like an idiot about hair dye

[TigerWhiskers]

I've got dark brown hair with quite a few white hairs. I'm thinking of getting my hair dyed but my hair is already very dry as it's curly so I don't want to damage it.

Is it possible to dye my hair like a slightly lighter brown without using bleach or a harsh hair dye?

And would that be able to cover the white hairs too...I'm imgaginging that my normal hair would be slightly lighter than it is now and the white hairs would be sort of highlights as they would go lighter than the rest of my hair but still a shade of dark brown....would that work?

I will probs go to a hairdresser but I want to make sure I ask for the right thing.

Thanks

Hi OP, I've been dying and bleaching my hair for over 20 years at home now.

If you're going lighter you need to lighten your hair which does involve bleaching it. You can get bleaches that are less harsh on your hair if you're doing it at home or if you're going to a salon they'll do everything they can to minimise hair damage. The good thing about bleaching is that you only need to do it once then you do the roots after that so you're not repeatedly putting bleach on your hair. The brown hair dye will cover the greys. You could try toning your hair to cover the greys and add a different shade to your hair but this is very temporary so it will need redoing a lot if you choose to go that route, again though it won't be lighter unless some form of bleach is used. I hope this helps!

If you've got grey coming through but not too much what you can do is use a box semi permanent in a slightly lighter colour (so I do red because my hair already has reddish bits though dark brown) and it sort of enriches it and covers gray as well. Worth a try if you don't want to bleach your hair or start the whole expensive lightening and dying cycle!

I've found the advantage of getting older and going a big grey is the grey hairs for act as a sort of mini highlights in that they pick up the dye much more than naturally dark hair... I've found my hair takes colour a lot better.

Hairdressers, get a consultation and skin test pre appointment and take their advice. Don't do it yourself when going for those colours.

I don't intend to do it myself but I really dont want to use bleach. My hair easily becomes brittle.

It is not possible to dye your hair a lighter colour without using bleach. You could use a lighter coloured dye and the lighter colour would probalby come through on the grey and your main hair would stay a similar colour to what it is currently.

I have naturally dry hair and one of the reasons I like dying it is it actually makes it less dry and a lot more glossy.

You can’t make your hair lighter without bleach, if you put a dye over it then the greys that are lighter will take lighter colour but it won’t do anything to the rest of your hair if it’s darker.

It's not true that you can't lighten your hair without using bleach. It is true if your hair has previously had permanent dye on it, but if it is natural, undyed 'virgin' hair you can dye it up to two shades lighter (which is quite a lot) with permanent box dye.