Hair Coloring

[snapdragen]

I've done it, but the second round of color was one of the non-ammonia type dyes, like Natural Instincts.

[Crankin]

I'd never color my hair myself. Stylists go to school to learn this stuff and I wouldn't mess with it. Just my opinion, though. Fortunately, what I have done is a simple single process color with no bleach. I had highlights for years, starting in my early thirties, when my blonde hair started getting darker. But, as I cut my hair shorter, they never lasted more than one haircut, which for me is 4 weeks. So, about 2 years ago, I started the color stuff and it's worked out well; it actually looks like highlights growing out and I go about 3-4 months between colorings. Much cheaper, too.
My hair is really dark now, all of the color is gone. My stylist had surgery for carpal tunnel in her wrist, and can no longer cut hair, but still does color. So, I just had my 2nd haircut with a new person and I have an appt. with my original stylist for color in 10 days. For the first time, gray is becoming an issue. I consider myself to be very lucky to have my first good amount of gray at 58, so she will need to make sure that's covered. I constantly go between telling her to make my hair "whiter" or go back to "golden," which was more my natural color. Somehow, the golden shades seem to look red on me, which I hate, and the whiter blondes wash me out. I think if i can find the happy medium between what I had in November and the lighter one I had before that, it will be perfect.

[channlluv]

Not to threadjack, but can sitting in the color chair too long make your hair fall out? I've been having my hair done at a salon for a couple of years and I generally love the work the stylist does on me. This last time, though, about a month ago, she got busy with another client while I was in the timer segment of the color job. I was just sitting and waiting for 25 minutes for the timer to go off. Meanwhile, this young guy walks in and she takes him, I guess thinking it would be a quick trim, but the guy was pretty demanding, I ended up sitting in the color for almost 45 minutes, and I'm not exaggerating.

It looked great when she finished with me, but a few days later I started losing my hair by the handfuls. Not in patches, just large numbers of strands falling out, some in small clumps, but nothing that has left a bald patch.

Now, it could be just a coincidental hormone change, or some kind of reset after that big surgery thing in November. But I'm wondering if it's not having had the chemicals on my head for so long. What do you all think? Anyone had any experience with hair falling out?

I called my doctor. He thinks it may be stress, but he's also setting me up with a hormone specialist.

Meanwhile, my hair has literally lost over half its volume in the last three weeks.

Roxy

[Catrin]

I don't think 45 minutes would have done that because I do that all of the time. I've a fair amount of grey that is color resistant which requires longer exposure - I always have a great outcome (not so much with a shorter duration) and have never lost hair. I follow the directions carefully for color resistant grey.

Now, your stylist isn't using the same hair color that I do - just wanted to let you know that the time of your exposure probably wasn't the problem

[channlluv]

Thank you, Muirenn and Catrin. That article suggests that up to 70% of hair can fall out about 2-3 months post acute trauma like surgery. That is it, I think. The loss has sort of tapered off the last couple of days, thank goodness. It's still a lot, but not as much as last week.

I got my hair cut today and the stylist said that the previous highlights/bleaching could cause the blonde parts to break and fall out, but not so much the darker parts. My fall-out has been all-inclusive.

She did say she saw some breakage, though, although it's hard to attribute that to any one cause. Could be the way I comb it out when it's wet, or from the bleach. She suggested I lay off on the highlights for a bit and if I want to cover the gray, to go with the darker color only/roots touchup, and pull it down to blend with the longer hair so it's not so abrupt a change. Like underlights instead of highlights.

I like my hair short. Well, short for me. It's at my shoulders. I can still pull it back into a ponytail for riding.

Roxy

[WindingRoad]

Ok between getting paranoid about all my hair falling out and the terrible smell of the dye I opted to stop at the first color. I actually really like it now. It always takes a few days to 'grow' on me before I decide if its good or bad It's darker but no one is going 'OMG your hair' when they see me. I feel when my hair gets too light it washes me out and I just don't look good. I think my normal hair color isn't too far off from the color I dyed it. It is kinda strange though because I went with a light ash brown which usually has NO red but I definitely still have a hint of red in there. Must be those redhead genes

[Gypsy]

Ok between getting paranoid about all my hair falling out and the terrible smell of the dye I opted to stop at the first color. I actually really like it now. It always takes a few days to 'grow' on me before I decide if its good or bad It's darker but no one is going 'OMG your hair' when they see me. I feel when my hair gets too light it washes me out and I just don't look good. I think my normal hair color isn't too far off from the color I dyed it. It is kinda strange though because I went with a light ash brown which usually has NO red but I definitely still have a hint of red in there. Must be those redhead genes

My hairdresser recently told me that dark hair is made up of red pigment (it just varies in the concentration of it, to get brown, black, hair). Blonde hair has yellow and red in it (variations in amount equal the different colors).

We were discussing this because my mom was there with me and she was getting her hair lighten up to blonde (she's never been a blonde) and the hairdresser kept checking the color as he lightened it. I asked him about that and he told me that's why a lot of hair turns orange when it's dyed incorrectly.