Hair color

[TooPatient]

Seeing the conversation in a different thread has me wanting to hear more. What is your favorite brand of hair color? Any tips to make it less messy? My hair is super fine and looks so flat without highlights. Hoping to find a color that I can manage t home to give some life to my hair without spending $$$ every couple of months.

 

[foxinsox]

Are you grey/greying? Wasting to go lighter or darker? Or just highlights on your natural colour?
I do my own bleaching and colouring to have pale rose gold hair from a natural base of dark blonde. I've dyed my hair for years but bleaching took a bit of practice to get right.
I buy salon bleach but box dye for the colour. I use L'Oréal Preference 9.23 (Santa Monica) which comes at the perfect rose gold on a bleached base.

 

[Piper70]

I use L’Oreal Preference 9NB mostly and 9.5 twice a year. My hair is very thick and curly and I can just do the roots most of the time. I’ve figured out how to apply it so it looks lighter on top and around my face and slightly darker underneath so it looks natural.

 

[KaeKae]

I use L’Oreal Preference 9NB mostly and 9.5 twice a year. My hair is very thick and curly and I can just do the roots most of the time. I’ve figured out how to apply it so it looks lighter on top and around my face and slightly darker underneath so it looks natural.

@Piper70
Would you be able to share a more about how you do that?

 

[MissGotRocks]

I use L'Oreal Preference 5G. I too have learned through the years to only apply to roots for the majority of the processing time. I think the gray hair colors lighter to give the appearance of subtle highlights.

 

[Slickk]

I use L'Oreal Preference 5G. I too have learned through the years to only apply to roots for the majority of the processing time. I think the gray hair colors lighter to give the appearance of subtle highlights.

Same. I buy root touch up and use that in between. I also use L’Oréal, but am currently walking the dog, so no idea what color.

 

[TooPatient]

Are you grey/greying? Wasting to go lighter or darker? Or just highlights on your natural colour?
I do my own bleaching and colouring to have pale rose gold hair from a natural base of dark blonde. I've dyed my hair for years but bleaching took a bit of practice to get right.
I buy salon bleach but box dye for the colour. I use L'Oréal Preference 9.23 (Santa Monica) which comes at the perfect rose gold on a bleached base.

Not graying yet luckily or sadly. Just a sort of light brown or dark blonde that is so uniform in coloring much of the time it just has no depth or anything to it. Even a variety of cuts with layers, feathering, and whatever else I am forgetting has never helped much.

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

I use DPHue or overtone for brown hair. My natural gray and white just basically becomes highlights since they're both not that strong.

 

[Lookinagain]

I use Ion Color Brilliance liquid. I mix 6A and 6N (sometimes I throw in a little bit of 4R). And a 10 developer. I have to use color that is PPD free as I'm allergic and ended up in the hospital once using color that had PPD. I just do the roots and then sometimes comb the color through with a wide tooth comb to darken some of the hair that has lightened up from the sun. It gives it a bit of a highlights effect.

 

[Ally T]

I use Clairol Nice N Easy Cream number 5, medium brown. My hair is VERY grey (my mother was completely white by 40 & I suspect I am not far behind at 48!) but I am not ready to embrace it yet. My older sister grew out her colour during Covid & is now also pretty much completely white at 57. But it slightly washes her out, so I decided to stick with the colouring for now.

I try to only colour every 6 - 7 weeks & use a root cover up in between, as I am trying to be more gentle to my hair as I age & it thins. I am also very curly, which helps in some way to disguise the grey. I only do the roots, but every 3rd time I do the whole lot, as the colour in the ends starts to turn auburn with time & I don’t like it. I also have the odd white eyebrow hair now, so I use a cotton bud to carefully apply a teeny blob of colour to my brows at the same time & then it looks really even & natural all round. My greys take colour well, but as it fades they turn golden & would look like lovely expensive highlights if the roots weren’t growing in grey at the same time, letting the side down

 

[Betty Baguette]

I'm debating whether to start dying my slowly graying hair. But I remember the strong chemical odor of L'Oreal Preference in the 1980's when a family member used it regularly, and I don't think I want to deal with that. Does it still smell as strong? If so
is there another product that someone might recommend? Thanks

 

[Ally T]

I'm debating whether to start dying my slowly graying hair. But I remember the strong chemical odor of L'Oreal Preference in the 1980's when a family member used it regularly, and I don't think I want to deal with that. Does it still smell as strong? If so
is there another product that someone might recommend? Thanks

I think hair colour in general has come a LONG way with time. It is much more user friendly, less harsh & less smelly!

 

[Asscherhalo_lover]

I think hair colour in general has come a LONG way with time. It is much more user friendly, less harsh & less smelly!

I completely agree. No one in the house complains about the smell when I dye my hair and my husband is very sensitive to chemical smells. We don't even use fabric softener or scented detergent.

 

[elizat]

I only get a glaze done every 3rd or 4th cut at the salon now. I'm much less concerned than I was years ago.

But, I used to color my hair strawberry blonde. It's an ash blonde naturally. I would do root touch ups with box color and add conditioner to it for non- root areas to the remaining mixture. I would mix the color and developer, then add some conditioner and apply it. It would just "freshen" up the areas to match the roots that way. The roots always needed the most time.

I used Wella products from the beauty supply shop.

 

[DAF]

I use black box Garner Olia, which leaves my hair very silky and shiny without that chemical smell that never goes away from the green box version.

I went from light blonde as a child to dark blonde/light brown as a teen/adult. I'm also pale complected. I have greying at my temples and a tiny concentrated spot at my hairline above my forehead. The color I use is 9.03, light pearl blonde. I do not look good with darker hair. I once tried to grow out my frosted highlights in my 20s and kept getting asked if I was feeling well. This color suits me well.

 

[KaeKae]

I realized I never answered the question
I've used L'Oreal Excellence Light Reddish Brown (6RB?) For several years now
I use two boxes, using about half of the second, and only do the roots. While I try to go 6 weeks between its usually more like 5 because I get really annoyed with root cover spray or wand (which just gets caught in my curly hair)

 

[Piper70]

@Piper70
Would you be able to share a more about how you do that?

I wish I could take credit for it. I think because my hair is so thick, it is very forgiving. I treat it as a root touch up but occasionally drag the color through the front and top of my hair. This picture is probably from the lighter color I do twice a year. There is usually a little more depth but there are so few pictures of me.

 

[KaeKae]

Thank you
That makes sense

I wish I could take credit for it. I think because my hair is so thick, it is very forgiving. I treat it as a root touch up but occasionally drag the color through the front and top of my hair. This picture is probably from the lighter color I do twice a year. There is usually a little more depth but there are so few pictures of me.

 

[danusia]

Wella demi permanent in dark blonde. In my mid 60s it colors my gray roots and I do a touch up every 3 weeks because my hair grows quickly. No smell and very gentle on my hair.

 

[jaysonsmom]

I have used Loreal Preference Medium Ash Brown 5A for many years. I don't have a lot of gray, maybe 20 strands total, so I don't really "need" to dye my hair, I just do it because the shade compliments my skin tone. I dye my hair about 3X a year, and the smell of the Loreal Preference has been changed in recent improved formulas. Less strong, and better scent.

 

[House Cat]

I stopped coloring my hair a couple of years ago. Honestly, I feel so liberated because I don’t have to color it every four weeks. My vote is for natural hair

 

[stracci2000]

I'm with you @House Cat
I never did color my hair. Plenty of white, but I don't mind!

 

[YadaYadaYada]

I have some grays in that birds nest but I just can’t be bothered, shoot, I can’t even be bothered to cut it lol!

See this glam look here? This is the making dinner and about to go to work vibe

 

[Lookinagain]

I'm with you @House Cat
I never did color my hair. Plenty of white, but I don't mind!

it's such a pretty color. Both you and @House Cat look great with the gray. My complexion doesn't suit light hair so I worry about going gray. Also, the right side of my head is much grayer than the left or the back. I'd love to let it all grow out. But I'm a lot older than either of you and wonder if it will just age me even more......

 

[stracci2000]

it's such a pretty color. Both you and @House Cat look great with the gray. My complexion doesn't suit light hair so I worry about going gray. Also, the right side of my head is much grayer than the left or the back. I'd love to let it all grow out. But I'm a lot older than either of you and wonder if it will just age me even more......

When I wear it down, I often get compliments on it.
You won't know what it looks like till you let it grow out!
My mother was always coloring her roots when I was a kid. I saw her always fretting about hair color, and I remember thinking that I wouldn't color mine. So when it started to come in white, I just let it go.

My white is all on the crown of my head.
I stopped blow drying it about 2 years ago, and it is really healthy now.
BTW, I'm almost 59.

 

[Lookinagain]

Well, you look great @stracci2000! And I'm still older than you. I think if mine were at the crown it would be better b/c it would kind of spread out all over. Having one side almost white and the other barely gray I think would make me look like one of those photos of the younger me on the left and the older me on the right. Like those computer generated things....

 

[House Cat]

it's such a pretty color. Both you and @House Cat look great with the gray. My complexion doesn't suit light hair so I worry about going gray. Also, the right side of my head is much grayer than the left or the back. I'd love to let it all grow out. But I'm a lot older than either of you and wonder if it will just age me even more......

I think the secret to looking younger with gray hair is to always have a current, stylish cut. In some instances, I think women look younger once they let their hair grow out. I think harsh, dark colors can be very aging. They were on me.

 

[Lookinagain]

I think the secret to looking younger with gray hair is to always have a current, stylish cut. In some instances, I think women look younger once they let their hair grow out. I think harsh, dark colors can be very aging. They were on me.

I agree. I don't have mine super dark at all. Very much though like my natural color but it looks highlighted even though I don't highlight it. I think its the gray losing color.

 

[House Cat]

I agree. I don't have mine super dark at all. Very much though like my natural color but it looks highlighted even though I don't highlight it. I think its the gray losing color.

Your hair color is really pretty!

 

[AprilBaby]

I am very very lucky to be 64 and my hair is still the same blonde color with no gray or white.