New Hairss: Gradual & Natural Looking Ombre

I am currently obsessing over the ombre hairstyle although the style has been around since last year. I have always been so envious of those who dyed their hair since I have always wanted to dye my hair but never did because the thought of having black grow-out made me crinnggge. I wanted something different other than cutting my hair (in which I would never cut my long locks, ever! well for now) so coloring was the only other option. I have been wanting to ombre my hair for awhile now and I had put a lot of research into it through YouTube, google search, blogs and whatnot prior to coloring my hair on my own. The thing about ombre that I absolutely love is the fact I can keep my natural dark brown/black hair color at the top and dye the bottom lighter giving my hair the ombre effect.

These photos inspired me to finally do something different to my hair since I am a hair virgin. I found these photos on google search image therefore I do not claim these as my own.

This was the first time I dyed my hair and gutsy me decided to do it by myself since I did not want to spend the money to go to the salon-- big risk I know. I did not want to bleach my hair because the damage does not seem worth it to me so I went with hair dye instead which is less damaging. I chose to go with Garnier Nutrisse Ultra Color in B3 Golden Brown because I have read some awesome reviews about the brand. It is a line from Garnier specifically made to lighten dark hair up to 3 levels for medium brown to black hair. My hair fell under the dark to darkest brown on the haircolor chart on the box since my natural black hair lightened up quite a bit from being out in the sun.

My hair before:

I followed the instructions on how to mix the ingredients into the bottle provided in the box. The one thing I did not follow was the amount of time to leave the dye in my hair. It says to only leave it in for 20 minutes, but risky me decided to leave it in for 40 minutes instead since my hair was dark to begin with. I sectioned my hair in half then sectioned the halves into 3 different sections and started with my ends since that was what I wanted to be the lightest. I covered each section with foil after applying the dye then went on Pinterest for about 40 minutes just to kill time. After rinsing it out with warm water the first time I put more dye in the second time starting at the middle and covering everything below, again concentrating on my ends. I did not want to waste the hair dye so I used the whole bottle. Like I mentioned before, every hair is different so if your hair is lighter than dark to darkest brown you might need to leave the dye in for less than I did or use less dye in general.

And drum rollll...

I absolutely adore the results! My hair turned out to be a reddish brown which I am very satisfied with. I took these photos in three different areas for lighting purposes because every light makes my hair look a different color; my bathroom, bedroom and car (since I figured it would look weird and vain to my neighbors if I just stood outside taking pictures of myself), all taken with my iPhone and it is not filtered or photoshopped whatsoever. One day I will learn how to use my husband's Canon to take better photos but for now these will do. The last photo is the comparison of the dyed hair to my original hair color.

I did not believe my hair could retain such color in a million years but thanks to Garnier Nutrisse I achieved the ombre I was hoping for! I have noticed zero damage from using this hair dye and the conditioner that comes with it works phenomenally. As you can see, I did not go toooo drastic with the ombre look since my natural hair color is on the darker side so I opted to go from my dark brown/black to a more light/reddish brown making my ombre more natural looking.

If you want to try to ombre your hair and do not have the experience I have read everywhere that the salon is the best bet to get exactly what you want. Through my research, I read that your hair can only go about 2 to 3 shades lighter than your natural color (without bleaching that is), but every hair reacts differently to hair dye even if it is the same color and buying the wrong dye can turn your dark hair orange. Yikes! Been there done that. I cannot guarantee you the results I have so do this at your own risk. Somehow I just got lucky.

So, after my risky experiment my virgin hair is virgin no more! Well the bottom half of it anyway. Oh, and except for the one time in high school my best friend and I decided to bleach a huge chunk of my bangs hoping it will turn blonde, but horrifically turned orange. Baha! Grand times. :)


Update: 9/19/12

The color has faded since and looks brighter in the sunlight. I looove it.