Returning Long Hair to Natural Colour

I have relatively long hair. Actually I lost most of it a year ago due to hormones, but it did grow back. The top 6 inches is very thick and healthy, and the lower 12 inches is rather thin and a bit damaged. Ive coloured my hair for over 10 years and the lower part of my hair has a mixture of different brands of permanent colour and the top 6 inches is a non-ammonia semi permanent called Modiva by Garnier. My thought was to continue to use this Semi Perm colour and then when the upper 6 inches grows to about 12 inches to cut off all the bad stuff and let the "gentle" semi perm slowly fade to my natural colour. But Im growing impatient. Does anyone have any experience with returning long hair with permanent colour back to a natural shade? Im worried about the damage it may due to the lower portion of my hair that has permanent colour on it. Should I just cut off the lower portion of my hair? I really want to get back to my natural colour so that I do not have to worry about matching my roots any longer to the rest of my hair. The objective is to colour my hair back to its natural colour so that I never have to colour my hair again. Currently it is a medium auburn brown and my natural hair colour is a dark ash blonde.

Siiiiigh....yessss.... I know. :-( Its inevitable. Just hard to imagine myslelf with short hair again after all those years of growing it out. To go from the hair I loved, to losing 50% of it, to having to cut if off completely. Short hair is nice, dont get me wrong, but its just that it took me 4 years to get to the point I was happy with it.... now having to start over. Well... just happy its going back I guess. Thanks for the advice! :-)

This is so tricky. I`ve actually had pretty much exactly the same problem. What is really hard to deal with is the Auburn part. Getting red out of hair requires bleaching, which is SOOOO hard on the hair. Also, the color of your length is DARKER than your natural, this also requires bleaching to remove.

I personally risked the bleaching, a horrendous experience, and to calm the overly yellow color it caused (my natural color is also dark ash blonde) I have used Robert Craig`s gentle, no ammonia, deposit only perminate color. Their ash blonde was a perfect match for my regrowth.

If you are absolutely unwilling to get rid of the length, like I was, the process is long and expensive. Sounds like you have a lot of regrowth though- A good start if you decide to cut it. You may want to visit a really good hair salon (or many) for a free color consultation. Go to several different salons and see what all your options are. GOOD LUCK.


and to the rest of you-
Just Say No to permanent Red haircolor... unless you are ready for a life-long commitment.

Wooziewoo!
Took your advice and cut a good 4 inches off my length. It looks soooo healthy and is still a bit below my shoulders. Going to keep it at this length for a year or until my regrowth catches up with the rest.. then its off to have the colour corrected and hopefully then grow grow grow! (Depending on the condition of my hair afterwards!) Thanks for your advice... and everyones advice really. All this support and the bonus of having a non-scissor happy stylist who listens to me really took the ouch out of the whole process. I feel so much better now... and my hair looks the awesome! Thanks again...everyone! :-)