Women( and men) who dye their hair too dark. - Page 6

Ms X · ‎09-13-2012

My hair is dark brown and a bit lighter than my eyebrows. The key to avoiding that flat, one-color hair is to use a semi-permanent color only when needed on the ends and a permanent color on your roots. A fabulous semi color is the Redken Shades EQ. They have a new cream formula that's much better than the old liquid formula, which they still offer. The cream doesn't run so much. Not only does Shades EQ give a nice semi-permanent color, but it is also a gloss, so it adds a ton of shine and so dimension.

My hairdresser has been doing this to my hair, and I do it on my own sometimes. You should go a bit lighter in terms of the final color you want. For example, if you want a 4N effect, try a 5N or dilute the color with the Shades EQ clear gloss. I like having the clear gloss on hand to use when I don't want color but want to replenish the shine. Shades EQ can be found on Amazon.

As for the picture of the "old lady," her problem is her bad make-up job and the funny face she is making. If you fixed that, she'd look good. I believe people should do whatever they can and want to do to keep up their appearance and be happy with that. It's true that everyone gets old, but there's no point in fretting or giving in to despair. Do what you can and then don't worry about it. Some people call themselves old at astonishingly young ages.

ETA: Another essential component to avoiding the one-dimensional look is to use Wen. I prefer the rice restoratives and, secondarily, the Fig. My hair is so much better since I started using Wen exclusively last December.

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

I had my hair colored for probably 25 years before I stopped, since due to heredity I started graying in my 20s. My complexion is pale, almost but not quite red-headed, and my natural hair color was medium brown with auburn highlights. My colored hair just amped up the auburn a couple of densities. It was the same color (and style) as both some of Carol Burnett's and Bonnie Franklin's color/style. I used to be told I looked like BF, lol.

As I aged and passed into my 30s and then 40s, hairdressers would tell me, if I thought my hair was "faded" (I thought) or too light, not the same color as it has been, etc., that it looked better to lighten dyed hair subtly over time, because "too dark" dyed hair, even if it was the color of our own hair at 25, looked artificial and was aging, since for most of us, our own hair "fades" naturally over time.

I was told this by multiple hairdressers over the years, so clearly it's something they are taught and believe - that artificially colored hair that is too dark stands out like a sore thumb as dyed hair. Back in the day, the point was for one's hair to NOT look dyed.

As I've gotten older and look around me, I see what they mean. Darkly dyed hair on someone whose own natural hair color before gray would not have been that dark looks to me like the person doesn't know what they're doing, did it (badly) themselves, and/or has had no professional advice. It also looks as if they're wearing a neon sign that says "DYED."

I stopped dying my hair when I turned 50. I was tired of the time and money spent, and it wasn't that important to me. My hair is now nearly all white and I get compliments on the color - sometimes women think I've bleached it (!) I also get consistently pegged as 10 years younger than I am - good genes, no wrinkles ;-)

And I will add that if money were no object I would probably still have my hair colored.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

Ms X · ‎09-13-2012

@Moonchilde You sound like the lady I saw in the elevator in Boston about a decade ago! She had gray hair and the most beautiful skin I've ever seen. I figured she must have one heck of a dermatologist, but maybe it was hereditary. I actually wished I could have asked her how she got that skin, but I couldn't ask a stranger. I figured she had a lot of $$$ to go to the best doctors. If she'd had any work done, you could never tell. None of the plumped lips and odd look on her face!

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@Ms X, I definitely don't spend big bucks on my skin, though I did buy a Mia 2 and enjoy its effects. My mother passed away just barely shy of 95 and she looked 15 years younger. No wrinkles! I must have her genes for that :-) Oddly, her mother looked older than she was, but had been a smoker for many years.

Life without Mexican food is no life at all

Ms X · ‎09-13-2012

@Moonchilde wrote:
@Ms X, I definitely don't spend big bucks on my skin, though I did buy a Mia 2 and enjoy its effects. My mother passed away just barely shy of 95 and she looked 15 years younger. No wrinkles! I must have her genes for that :-) Oddly, her mother looked older than she was, but had been a smoker for many years.

That sounds like my Italian grandmother. Since I also have the Irish genes, I don't have that perfect skin. At least I have pigment, though, which is more than I can say for my Irish relatives. They get a sunburn and then it mostly goes away. The summer when I was 20 I got a very dark tan because I worked outside at a summer camp. The next spring I still had tan lines!

Alsee · ‎03-15-2010

I color my hair myself and find it difficult to get color that isnt flat and one tone. Can't get fancy myself and feel it's too expensive to have it done - so understand how that happens. In my 30's so it's just nit an "older" woman issue.

Moonchilde · ‎05-23-2010

@Ms X wrote:
@Moonchilde wrote:
@Ms X, I definitely don't spend big bucks on my skin, though I did buy a Mia 2 and enjoy its effects. My mother passed away just barely shy of 95 and she looked 15 years younger. No wrinkles! I must have her genes for that :-) Oddly, her mother looked older than she was, but had been a smoker for many years.
That sounds like my Italian grandmother. Since I also have the Irish genes, I don't have that perfect skin. At least I have pigment, though, which is more than I can say for my Irish relatives. They get a sunburn and then it mostly goes away. The summer when I was 20 I got a very dark tan because I worked outside at a summer camp. The next spring I still had tan lines!

My mother's grandmother was part Native American, and those genes showed up in her skin - she had a completely different, darker complexion than me. I'm a mix of her mother's skin and my father's - pale Scots-Irish & English. My grandmother had red hair & red-headed complexion, my father had coal black hair and pale complexion. Blue eyes everywhere, so yeah me too. 15-20 minutes is my sun limit without sunscreen. I've has several second degree sunburns :-(

Life without Mexican food is no life at all