Brunette to Blonde: My Hair Transformation

Over the past few months, I’ve been making a rather dramatic transformation to my hair. It wasn’t until I started editing the photos for this post, that I realised just how dark my hair used to be! Today I thought I’d share with you how my hairdresser transformed my hair from a dark brown, to a summery sun-kissed blonde.

I started dying my hair about three years ago and used to use the good old Nice N Easy box dye in the shade 116 Light Brown. I’d dye my hair around 3-4 times a year with this colour, until I came across Naturigin, which is a natural dye. I did a full blog post about this one here. I started off using the shade 4.0 Brown which was pretty close to my natural hair colour once it had washed out a little. Towards the start of this year, I felt like a change, so I started using the 3.0 Coffee Brown shade instead (also a blog post about this here). When this shade was first applied it was super dark, and while I liked it for a while, I decided I wanted to go back to something a little more natural. I found that as my lighter ashy coloured roots started growing through, it looked like I was starting to go grey! This meant I was having to dye my hair so often, and this was something I didn’t want.

I tried dying my hair again myself and opted for Naturigin’s 6.0 Dark Golden Copper Blonde in order to try and lighten it, but this did basically nothing. In fact, it made my hair nearly as dark as it was when I was using the coffee brown! I decided it was time for some help, so I went to see Krystle at Dream Hair and Beauty, who I had been getting my hair cut with a couple of times prior. She is an absolute magician and in just a couple of months, my hair was exactly the colour I hoped it would be.

I wanted a natural looking ombre, so first up I had to try and let my roots grow out as much as possible. I’m not gonna lie, this was kind of tough as there was a clear line as to where my natural colour started, and since it was so ashy, I was worried that I looked grey (or like I was going bald!). I have no photos of this time, and I’m sure you can understand why 😂 After about a month of regrowth, Krystle did a full head of slightly lighter, ashy highlights throughout my hair. Even after this first session I could really see my hair lightening up and I was thrilled with the results.

At my next session about one month later, we did another set of full highlights and by this time, most of the dark hair had pretty much gone. My hair was a gorgeous and natural looking ombre – slightly darker at the roots fading out to medium blonde ends.

Two months after that, I booked in for an another appointment for a bit of a touch up. I wanted to go even lighter for summer, so Krystle did what’s called a “sombre” – blonder on the ends, with a few natural looking blonde highlights through the top of the hair. You can still see a bit of my natural colour, so as it grows out it won’t look awkward. All of the dark brown is now gone. I’m so happy with the final result – this colour feels so much more like “ME” and I’ve noticed that the colours I wear are now also lighter. In fact, I’ve even started wearing pink, a colour I felt never suited me when I was dark.

It turns out that trying to put any ashy colour over a reddish colour is really hard. I knew it was hard to go from light to dark, but never knew that putting red tones in your hair made them very hard to remove. We expected it might take a few sessions to get my hair to the right colour without damaging it, and I’m amazed that it only took three! My hair is still in really good condition and it feels soft and has no breakages. I’ll be doing a full hair care routine post soon too, so keep an eye out for that one!

If you are in Dunedin, I highly suggest going to see Krystle at Dream Hair and Beauty, especially if you are wanting to go blonde. She is so skilled in choosing the right colours and placing the highlights, and each time I’ve visited I’ve been so happy with the final result.

Disclaimer: This post isn’t sponsored, and I paid for my hair transformation all myself. I’m just so thrilled with it and wanted to share!!

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