Naturals who permanently dye their hair, I have a few questions.....

[JBunnie]

I really want to permanently dye my hair but I'm worried about my curl pattern and/or texture changing. I also wanted to know if you changed your reggie any after coloring. I started my HHJ back in April and since then my salon visits have brought back nothing but positive feedback. My hair is healthier, it's growing and I'm retaining my length. And though I don't have my whole HG and reggie down I have a good blueprint that has been working thus far. I just wonder if I'm going to have to make drastic changes once I decide to color.

I'm natural and I'm working on using less heat and understanding and wearing my curls more often. I have pretty bad heat damage on the front 1/3 of my head. I have fine - average strands (though I've been finding some coarse ones in my shed hairs) I'm worried about caring for my curls after coloring overall but I'm really worried about protein treatments after coloring.

Did anyone see or have to make any major changes after permanently dying your hair?

 

[NaturalfienD]

JBunnie,

Here's my experience on permanent dye … I dyed my hair with a box brand dye at the house. Prior to dyeing it, my hair was fairly healthy- a little shedding and some breakage but nothing too outrageous, or so I thought. I followed the directions to a T and the color took (went from 1B to 33) well. A week or so later I had hella breakage, dry, brittle, and wack hair. No matter how much I m&s my hair, it would look terrible. It was so bad … I regretted dyeing my hair, it was a huge set back.

I had or created porosity issues by dyeing. I had to do a lot of work to repair my hair including Roux porosity control shampoo and conditioner, using semi permanent to dye it back to 1B, and hella TLC. For me personally, I wouldn't dye my hair again cause my hair couldn't handle the bleaching necessary to get to a lighter color. Although I love the look of dyed hair, I would have to scratch that itch by adding colorful tracks via flat iron or weave. Please keep us posted and send pix if you choose to dye your hair. HTH!!!

 

[ManiiSweetheart]

Okay my experience has been great! Ive only dyed my hair twice, both times with Jet Black, and i get 20 developer and the creme color ion is the brand i think... i need 4 tubes of the creme.

I prep a month starting a month before soo week 1 and 2 i pack in the moisture super hard.. week 3 is a hard protein treatment and week 4 is dyeing week...

Never experienced excess shedding or breakage with this ^^
No change in curl pattern or anything

 

[westNDNbeauty]

My hair has been bleached blonde and then rinsed to a red color years ago.

Since, I've grown out my hair and it is completely healthy but not at the the length I would like. Honestly, I would love to spice things up but will not color my hair until I have reached my goal in my hair journey because you just have to be prepared for your hair to remain the same length as when the color is applied.

I haven't witnessed many retain most of their colored hair. When you color your hair, it becomes painfully obvious how much breakage you experience, especially when your roots have grown out 3 inches and the hair is still at the exact same length.

Colored hair requires much care -- protein treatments, moisture, etc.

 

[Arian]

I did, and I have to say that I NEVER will again if I can help it.

I bleached my hair to lift it and used permanent color twice. Since doing this, my curl pattern has become elongated and not as tight as it used to be. I am hoping that some protein treatments will restore my original curl pattern. My hair is super dry and my porosity has become extremely high and I cannot keep it moisturized to save my life!

But I am/was lazy... if you're diligent in caring for your hair, I'm sure you will have a better experience.

 

[TopShelf]

I dye my natural hair about every 3 months and yes the curl pattern loosened a bit but my hair is still very healthy. There was no bleaching involved. I deep condition every week and I cowash a few times a week

 

[JBunnie]

Oh my gosh, now I'm super scared. I do plan on getting it done professionally. My stylist specializes in color and every time I go to see her her hair is a different color. Her hair is always super healthy but she does have very short hair (I think it's relaxed too). I trust in her skills and getting it done professionally gives me some comfort as opposed to doing it myself. But this still seems a tad scary.

Thank you ladies for your responses and I hope to hear some more stories. I think I'm going to schedule an appointment to sit down and talk to her about it next week. If I go through with it I'm doing it in October so the wait will be a while but I will keep you all updated.

 

[SkySurfer]

I will NEVER dye my hair again. A lot of my hair broke off and while I have gotten to APL with my dyed hair, my hair used to be a lot longer and healthier.
I use henna now if I have a colour itch.

Be careful OP.

 

[Miss AJ]

I've been dyeing my hair since the age of 13 with box colors and never had any issues and im going on 25. I keep it jet black now though and going darker is not as harsh as going lighter so that works in my favor. My hair is fine to begin with so I always have some type of protein in my regimen and I alternate weekly between moisture and protein DCs. I read somewhere online that it was safe to color all of your hair no more than twice a year so since it had been 6 months since I last colored and I changed from soft black to blue black, I did all over color this time around and I plan to use a jet black rinse every other month to maintain it and then do my all over touch up in February ( I will actually follow the directions and do the roots first, then put color on the previously colored hair for the last 5 minutes of processing)

 

[JBunnie]

Miss AJ, I alternate my protein and moisture weekly as well! Your experience and ManiiSweetheart, experience have taken some of the scardy cat out of me, but the overwhelmingly negative experiences still worry me.

 

[claud-uk]

I've had dyed hair before, which I am cutting off as it's growing out. I would say no, especially not so early in your HHJ. It's just one more thing to take care of, and one more thing to go wrong.

JMO

 

[Miss AJ]

If you are still uncertain, don't even bother and just think on it for a while. I had heat damage a couple years ago and I'm still gun shy with the flat iron lol. The last time I straightened my hair it wasn't even close to being a hard press but I didn't care cuz I'm too worried about going through heat damage again. Like someone else said, you are early in your hair journey so focus on your health/length goals first, and play around later.