Once, not too long ago, I made a big decision about my hair. I love my hair, to bits, and have always done my best to take great care of it which meant never using a curling iron, straightener or even a blow dryer. It also meant never, ever dying or colouring my hair because I knew how damaging it is to hair.
It took a while for me to decide whether I should at least put highlights in once in my life, but eventually I did it. I was also encouraged by family and friends to try something different with my hair. So for twenty two years of my life I had “virgin” hair, until the 08th October 2024 when I highlighted my entire head blonde.
I had reminded myself that in 2020, I had quite literally chopped 80% of my hair for one of those changes and it was quite the shock and relief, if I am being honest. My short hair suited me for a while, but I was happy when it slowly grew back.
So highlighting my long hair didn’t feel as dramatic as chopping it off. It felt refreshing and new…and quite the shock. The highlights were initially intense, almost white instead of blonde, which made me panic at first because I didn’t know it would change after a few washes and I thought my hair would stay that strange colour until it grew out.
But luckily as time went on, the blonde began to settle in and it wasn’t as strong and intense as to when I first got it. I ended up loving my newly blonde hair, but I did not enjoy the maintenance that came with it.
Turns out, if your hair is not used to being dyed or coloured, it gets quite tangled pretty easily. I remember feeling so much frustration every time I had to wash my hair because I knew I would have to put a hair mask on to loosen the knots, which would in turn lead up to me losing more hair than I needed to.
I realised very quickly that as much as I love being a full-on blonde, I would do my best to never use dye or highlights on it again. It didn’t feel worth the trouble and damage that I ended up putting my hair through.
Maybe I will change my mind in the future, but I have waited over a year for my natural hair colour to grow back out and it is almost there. My natural, mousy brown, almost auburn hair to grow out. Maybe I have naturally darker hair, but that’s okay. I love my hair no matter the colour.
There is not much left of the blonde highlights, and my roots took over the blonde really quickly after I highlighted them, so it was obvious after week two that I had just coloured my hair. I am glad to have my natural colour return, whether is has been sun damaged, my darker strands hidden by the surface of my hair and even the length it is at now. I am honestly just grateful to have the hair that I do.
Would I dye/highlight my hair again? Probably not. Did I like the result of it in the end? Yes, I did actually. But the amount of effort I had to put in to keep my hair detangled was frustratingly insurmountable.
I don’t regret any of my past hair decisions, because at least I know I tried different things, especially cutting my hair really short, almost bob length. I don’t really want to do that again. And now I know what it feels like to have pretty, blonde hair, even though it didn’t last forever. I ventured outside of my comfort zone and that’s all that matters. I tried.
Now I can have my dark, blunt hair back, even if it doesn’t suit me as well as the blonde. The darker my hair gets is also an indicator of how much my hair grows, which is a really nice feeling considering I am doing my best to grow it as long and healthy as possible, but that cannot continue the good route it is now if I decide to play around with colours. After all, I am curious to see what happens if I just leave it.
