Hi girls,
Wondering if anyone can help me with my recent hair dilemma ~

I let my friend dye my hair for the first time about 5 months ago - it was meant to be a dark brown but turned out REALLY poorly. It turned into this fried, orangey THING. She had applied the dye unevenly (Not to say it's her fault, we both had no idea what we were doing! <-- bad idea) and the colour we tried to get was on the bottom but the colour at the top of my head was ... yuck.

After a few weeks, I decided that it needed to be fixed. After a few recommendations I headed to SUKI's and got a very nice, dynamic colour + cut + highlights.

My hair (originally asiany-black) was once very healthy but after months of neglect, suffered greatly from 2 consecutive dye-jobs. To give you an idea how damaged it was... the stylist repeatedly asked me if I had permanently straightened my hair recently. I hadn't but she coudln't believe me! After some scolding, the stylists at SUKI's recommended I shampoo/condition and then use a conditioning masque weekly by L'Oreal (Vitamo Colour).

So here I am months later - I've been keeping up with regular shampoo/conditioning (of course not TOO regular, trying to preserve whats left of my natural oils -_-). My hair has gotten slightly better but since it's been months, my roots have grown out a good 1-2". I was told to go for regular deep conditioning treatments but being a student... I'm almost always broke during the school year!

Whew - long story! My question is... What do the experienced girls out there recommend I do? I see two-three choices (maybe theres more?)

a) Dye my hair back to its natural black so I can re-grow healthy hair less obviously. OR Dye all my hair whatever colour and hope it doesn't fall out.

b) Let it grow out naturally, roots and all

I know a lot of girls that dye their hair frequently yet somehow maintain that gorgeous healthy shine. I know I've been bad to my poor hair - What can I do to fix it? How do I get that nice soft shine?

I don't suggest you dye it Black because the pigments really stick to your hair and it's not easy to take off. Rather go for a shade of brown, possibly a darker richer colour. Anything but black! I dyed my hair black about 6-7 months ago and it slowly faded but when I got highlights down the red pigments really stuck around and you'd have to wait for your hair to grow out enough for you to dye it a lighter shade or you'd have to give it time to fade. If you're like me and you get bored of your hair colour easily, go for a brown shade all over incase you want to do highlights or change it to a lighter colour couple months down the road. I've learned from my mistake and I'll never dye my hair black again~

Thanks for the warning! I don't mind the colour of my hair right now ~ It's a brown with copper highlights that were pretty well done. I am sort of bored of it but I'm starting to think the safest thing for me to do is fill in the roots. Unless there is another way to make black roots grow out more "natural" looking.

Here's what the dye looks like now. I must have straightened it because it is showing the slightest hint of shine. Which is very much not the case lol

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii81/VT950/untitled.jpg

I was reading some other posts about colour stripping? I don't know anyone who has done this (or at least done it and talked about it). Can anyone explain what exactly that is?

omg i love your hair colour. my hair is black, should i go buy dark brown dye, or blonde dye?..ym friend said blonde shows up as brown on black hair. but i remember when my friend did that in gr 5..it looked liek copper ><

Your hair colour is very nice, you should just do roots! But if you want a healthier glow go for shade or two darker. Like a milk chocolate brown.

If shampooing is to drying you can just use conditioner to wash your hair. There are threads on other forums like the Longhair Lovers forum where they swear by just using conditioner to wash your hair. It has to be something without silicones or it can weigh down your hair.

I do it too and I dont have long hair, just short Asian hair that got dried out. Just wet your hair and use a bit of conditioner like it was shampoo. You can leave it on a bit to really condition. You dont need all those pricey treatments just a good conditioner and to not wash so much. It makes the hair so soft and conditioned.

I would just grow out the hair for now cos getting it healthy first before you do any more colour would be best.

Okay I'm dumb I haven't figured out quoting yet. So in response to sw33t...

omg i love your hair colour. my hair is black, should i go buy dark brown dye, or blonde dye?..ym friend said blonde shows up as brown on black hair. but i remember when my friend did that in gr 5..it looked liek copper ><

^
agh! That's exactly what I did the first time. I'm ashamed to show pictures of what it looked like before. Make sure you look at the box carefully!

I picked a really dark brown colour (Darker than it is in the pictures) from shoppers - I think it was L'Oreal. It said it was for dark hair especially. I guess what we did wrong was listened to our friends instead of the box - All my girlfriends that dyed their hair blonde/light colours said they had to pick shades lighter than the colour they actually wanted to get the desired effect on their dark hair. (Kind of Run-On-Sentancy)The box i happened to pick up was MADE for dark hair. We assumed that since my hair was black it would have to be left in longer. It made it really dry + totally the wrong colour.. at least 5 shades too light -_-

sw33t and mArie.. thanks :D Those just happened to be rather flattering pictures of my hair. I just wanted to give you an idea what the stylist did in terms of highlights etc. Right now it's sitting on my head like an unmanageable birds nest.

vicky, under each "message" theres a quote button on the right bottom corner. do you see it?

Celestial - I will try the conditioner-only method but those bottles are so darn expensive! I hate paying salon prices but it's been a lifetime struggle with other brands. Drugstore stuff I've tried and the various reasons theyve failed me...

Herbal Essences - Smells delicious but I'm sure all that scent isn't good for your scalp.
Pantene - Gave me weird breakouts but decent hair. Thought it was just me at first but have heard some other people complain about it.
Pantene for Colour Treated Hair - Still managed to strip my hair of colour. Or it might have been the crappy dye :b
Fructis , H&S + Others - Can't even remember the others because they were all typical shampoos. Not particularily good or bad for hair. Usually very scented.

Darn. I'm supposed to be studying for exams but here I am worrying about my hair -_-

Lol. Yes I see it now :b Thanks!

I guess I should mention since you can't really tell from the pictures..

What prompted me to post this Q was discovering an enormous frizzled mess this morning after my shower. Conditioner usually straightens my hair out nicely and makes it manageable for brushing/styling but not this time! It was so tangled and intricately woven - much like a birds nest or a hairball.

I'm living near UT during the school year so I think the freezing weather is taking its toll. If I don't dry my hair completely in the morning... They turn into frozen icicle hair chunks. No exaggeration! Seen often on the heads of girls on my campus. ;(

You dont have to use salon. Just something without silicones. I used one from the health food store called Mill Creek and it was a large bottle that lasted me quite a bit. Also you dont need to wash everyday as it can make it worse. If your hair gets really greasy you can always dab at the roots with a cottonball dipped in a light body spray or wear a hat that day!

If you have Mega Group I think that's what it called, at least what we have here. They sell salon stuff at what they call ethical pricing so its a few dollars cheaper than other salons. Plus you can bring back your container and get a $1 off for recycling. Besides when you think about it if you drink coffee every day its like two weeks of fancy drinks for one bottle of product.

I dyed my hair with some platium blond streaks...
i have to say it looked nice, but it was super damaging...
what i did was use 4 products that saved my hair! even my stylist said my
hair was in pretty good shape...

1. Aussie 3 Minute Miracle - used it at least 3 times a week. $3.99
2. If you use a blowdryer.. make sure you are using a heat protector
So i spray on Aussie Sydney Smooth heat protector and leave-in
conditioner. $3.99
4. Once a month i used the V-O5 intense hair treatment (kinda like the hot oil but in a cream version)

Yes we do have a Mega Group ... branch store (??) where I live. I got my L'Oreal Vitamino Colour products from there and SUKI's (overpriced as usual). Thanks for the tip about the bottle recycling - I had no idea!

In terms of aftercare... My Routine...
1. L'Oreal Experte - Hydra Repair "encirching treatment" (Basically Leave-In Spray) or Revlon Professional - Hydro Nutritive Conditioner + Grape and Green Tea. I switch between these two every few days because the L'Oreal is over perfumed in an asthma-y way.
2. Axis Basix - Bergamot Orange Lus'tre Serum. After every shower. I really recommend this product! From Axis Salon on Burrard. It "calms" my hair so to speak, and adds a nice 'Lust're' to it. Careful not to overapply and avoid applying on scalp.
3. Revlon Thermal Protecting Spray - whenever I flat iron my hair. Helps keep the frizzies away when clubbing + sweating. yum. :/
4. L'Oreal Experte Vitamino Colour Deep Conditioning Masque. Once every two weeks for 1-2min. My hair is immediately calm and soft after using this but is back to crazy after my next shower.