Hair, yes, brows, no, although I have seriously considered lightening the latter, particularly when I’ve had ombre hair.
The only thing that’s stopped me has been the maintenance aspect. I just haven’t thought I could deal with the upkeep… My brows are naturally dark and, having really dark roots, I can’t imagine the in-between stage.
Oh, too much…
My hair, though, I’ve lightened quite a few times. I think my first attempts were in middle school, and oh, my gosh! — do you remember Sun-In? I remember using it in — I think it was sixth or seventh grade? — and having, like, straight-up orange hair!
I also used that cream bleach made for upper lip hair by Jolene that you could get at the drugstore? Again, I ended up with orange hair…and an orange mustache, haha!
But, you know, I was young and had no absolutely idea what I was doing. All I knew was that it was fun (except for when it really didn’t work out). 🙂
By high school, I’d grown out of that phase and kept my hair mostly dark, but I went through another hair-lightening spell in college when I had a single thick, almost bleach-blonde streak in my bangs, a la Rogue from X-Men.
Looking back on it…I think I might’ve looked a little crazy-pants, but I thought it was hot sh*t at the time, LOL!
Through my 20s and my 30s up till now, I’ve gone back-and-forth between various shades of caramel. I think that with hair color, especially when you lighten it, it almost feels like you’re taking on a different personality. Everything — your clothes and even the way your makeup looks — seems different. I think it’s fun.
My hair is now probably the darkest it’s been in a really long time, but I may go light again soon…
Who knows? I’ll probably do something on a whim. 🙂
How about you? Have you ever lightened your hair and/or brows?
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I used an at-home kit to lighten my hair. I died it back a few days later. Let’s just say that copper is not a good look for me 🙂 I don’t think I could ever go through with changing my brow color…too high maintenance for me!
Hey. I lightened my hair about a month ago from black to platinum blonde. It took ages to get it so light and in the end I didn’t like it so died it back. Now my hair is in constant need of moisture lol. Oh well maybe ill learn next time. Makes life a bit more interesting hey! Ive also bleached my eyebrows to match my hair then ended up having to grow out the orange tinge haha 🙂
karen a cool story! I have done some golden lights in my hair, more so thinly that were hardly believe I had the same feeling as yours, enlighten and wanted nothing more than a whim and even!
I am lately returned to more confeço that dying to do ombre hair natural color! I think too beautiful hair of artists
I love your sense of humor, and of course everything changes, think hair, makeup, clothes finally all talk to each other!
I want to see what you will do in your wires! I’m curious!
Blonde loved you! beautiful as always
kisses
Nice story! I’ve never but at some point I’d like to try.
I had never dyed or highlighted my hair until I turned 17 I’d say. I had this dark blonde/light brown hair –since blonde hair darkens with time– and in the summer I’d get natural highlights. I had this kind of California-beach color that I loved. I think since I am so pale I found that color made my features too aggressive so I decided trying getting highlights. Having a hair stylist at home, my mom, is very handy :-p. So I started highlighting it and I liked it, then I also had a time in which I went chocolate brown but always ended up going back to blonde. I think it suits my features and skin tone much better.
Sometimes I used a lighter base color aside from the highlights to even out my hair color but then stopped doing that and just got highlights. However, after applying them for months it can get rather light if they are very thin like mine. So I definitely have considered lightening my brows, foremost since I started getting a few grey hairs in them –aahhhhh!!– but my hair stylist always told me not to for the very reason you mentioned. You have to maintain it otherwise dark hairs start poking out and it looks horrible, besides, I go to the hairdresser every 3-4 months since my hair is not so dark and when it grows out my highlights look like an ombre. It’s not like those black roots from people with a darker hair color.
I have been thinking about getting an ombré but I am not sure about it, or if my regular hair stylist would know how to do it in a way it doesn’t look like a clear color cut in my hair but rather natural.
I have really dark hair and I have never lightened it. I had a burgundy colour rinse at one stage in the 90’s, the horror, but that was about it. Brows , never. I really love your hair this dark…it suits your colouring the best of all the looks I’ve seen on you.
I have lightened my hair before but never my brows. I’ve actually been considering another dye job but I barely wear my hair since I’m still trying to grow my hair out to waist length. I only have a few more inches to go so maybe I’ll do it soon.
I lighten my hair all the time cause I hate my natural hair color. Speaking of, I have a hair appointment tomorrow, yay and I hope the stylist can figure out a way to make my hair even lighter than normal.
Once when I was in high school I wanted blonde highlights so I bought an at home Loreal Feria kit that I hoped would give me beautiful highlights, instead my hair turned red and brashly looking, it was awful but I learnt my lesson.
The thought of lighter brows makes me laugh, I have to say. Mine are naturally a combo of ash blonde (at their darkest) and white blonde. From a distance, they’re basically invisible so adding color to my brows is a daily requirement. 🙂 I have considered dying them darker though! Haven’t bothered with it yet but I do want to try at some point. I have gone lighter on my hair sort of, with strawberry blonde but never straight up blonde. I’m so fair (NC5-10) that it would be a seriously washed out look and I’m already fighting that battle with reddish brown medium toned hair. 😀
I did have my hair lightened at the salon once, and it was OK, but when you bleach it, my dark blonde hair goes more of a strawberry blonde, oddly enough!
I’m definitely too hair-lazy to bother with the upkeep though!
yes and yes – naturally i have light brown with blonde highlights. someone mentioned that the brown usually gets darker as we age (and trust me I’m doing that more quickly than I would care to admit) so I used to get highlights every 12-16 weeks.
That said, I’m having an affair with dark copper/red hair right now and really blonde “peek-a-boo” streaks underneath. I plan on adding just a few more blonde pieces everytime I go now (every 6ish weeks)and by summer having the dark red and blonde and then just letting it fade to strawberry. Red is hard to keep in the summer and blonde is fun. The main reason I mess with the color is because I keep the cut mostly the same – long with a few face framing layers. IT’s easy upkeep and I can do a lot with it.
In hair school we had a few choice sayngs. One was, “I’ve changed my haircolor so many times I keep forgetting my name.” That one always made me laugh, especially coming from a very tall man with bright indigo hair. And another that wasn’t quite as nice, “It’s a comb honey not a wand.” mean but funny just the same. too bad I never got my license. oh well…
I’ve gone lighter and darker! I’m naturally a mid ash blonde, something I only found out in the last 12 months after dying my hair for over 15 years! I’ve been platinum blonde (my hair goes quite orangey so that was a lot of upkeep), pink, purple, brown, red and black! When my hair was.black I dyed my eyebrows to match, as they are quite light!
Well, I’ve tried. I’m a natural brunette, and I wanted to go blonde. Ended up with orange hair. That was my first and last attempt.
I never have done either. Seen too many horror stories. When I’m gray I might go blonde but then it will darkening 🙂
I tried to give myself blond highlights when I was in high school with blond dye (not the kind for highlighting) – I tried to separate strands without putting anything in my hair to keep the colored parts away from the uncolored.. I guess I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal.. little did I know, the whole front part of my head turned out bleach blonde! I had my bf at the time run to Rite-Aid on his bike to buy me dark dye and I dyed it again that same day! I didn’t realize how fatal that could have been for my roots at the time haha! Never again on my own if I want to do something other than my natural color!
I’ve never done my brows in part because I have heard that you should never get hair dye near your eyes. I have done highlights on myself (first time I ever dyed my hair at home), which looked stripey but I worked with them; I’ve had highlights done at the salon (to start the lightening process for jet black dyed hair); and I’ve done red before on my own gradually lightening it so I wouldn’t damage my hair. Right now I’m a Chocolate Cherry shade (by Garnier Nutrisse) with Auburn Blonde (it’s a beautiful warm red) highlights. I like my hair dark but I also love having red streaks. I feel like the red brings out my personality but also brings warmth to dark hair in these warmer days.
I lighten my hair all the time, because I dye it various colors. Never my brows, though, because I’m afraid I’d look like a naked mole rat.
Once I left it blonde for a week. My mother loved it (she’s blonde) and my father said that I looked like a Latina hooker that stole his friend’s wallet once. OOOOKAY BACK TO GREEN THEN.
My hair is naturally dark brown and it has been almost every color imaginable. My hair dresser hates when I want to gone blonde because she says my hair is so hard to lift but she always manages to do a great job. I have lightened my brows numerous times at home with the Sally Hansen facial hair bleaching kit for the instructed times and it always looks great. I’ll try to find a photo that shows it. If not I plan on doing it again soon anyways and will be sure to send you a photo. 🙂
While I’ve never lightened my eyebrows (I just couldn’t fathom touching them like that) I have ombred my hair once~ from chestnut brown to coral. It looked so awesome! I’ve since cut my hair a bunch, but I plan on doing it again this summer!
Only in high school, I got blonde highlights in my red hair. It looked good I thought, but I looked WAY too much like my mother for me to keep the color in! My senior class pictures will always make me look like her because of those highlights. Now I’m at my natural copper red color which I will embrace until gray do us part.
I’ve never dyed or highlighted my hair, definitely have never lightened my brows – they’re too light as it is, LOL! (seriously, just got my wedding photos back, and I thought I had them super dark that day, but they look very natural in the photos – I could have done a little more!) I like my red hair – in middle school I wanted brown hair with blonde highlights (bad late 90s ones) like all the other girls, and am glad I never got them, haha!
I am going to the salon later this week to get my hair highlighted 🙂 I’ve been highlighting it blonde since I was in like 8th grade. I remember in gym class we were forming teams by hair color, blondes vs brunettes and I got put on the brunette team! That was it, i told my mom that day that I wanted to highlight my hair. I was born a baby blonde and I just don’t feel like myself if my hairs not light blonde!
I have no need to lighten my brows although they are a dark ashy blonde it works with my blonde hair. I’m not a fan of true blonde brows.
When I was in high school back in the 80’s I used peroxide on my hair. I used to put a little on every day with a cotton ball. It started turning orange and man were my parents mad! It’s pretty funny now when I look back on it. I leave my brows alone ’cause my hair is natually dark brown so any other color might look kinda funny.
I always lighten my hair.
I lighten, then dye my hair all the time. I’ve thought about doing my brows but never tried it before.
I hilighted my hair a few times in my teens. The last time I lightened my hair was in my early 20’s when I took an impulsive risk and lightened all my hair. I liked it the first few times as highlights but for the latest, I’d gotten used to my dark hair, which had naturally lightened since I was in my teens. I immediately regretted lightening all my hair after it was done. Since then, I’ve had my natural hair colour. Oddly enough, people have thought it was highlighted or dyed but it isn’t.