Attn: Women who highlight their hair...
 

How old were you when you started highlighting your hair? How much lighter than your natural shade did your parents let you go?

I was 16. And I had honey blonde highlights...much lighter than my natural shade of hair.

I was in college, my freshmen year..........i went a few shades lighter with the blonde. I still do it now, I love it!

I was the first person in 8th (age 13) grade to have my hair highlighted. :D It was actually my mom who talked me into it! Strangely, I caught hell from a lot of my classmates at first. :rolleyes: My hair color was almost black, I had honey brown highlights. She didn't really care how light, but she suggested not going any lighter than honey brown.

it was either freshman or sophomore year of college. I had light brown/blondish highlights put in. i still get it highlighted today, but it varies everytime what i do.

I started when I was 17 and, at first, I only got a few strands of hair done. I naturally have light brown/dark blonde hair so I got a few medium blonde strands. My parents were cool about it but, then again, I was a lot older when I started highlighting my hair.

I put a little more highlights in my hair now than when I was 17 since my hair has darkened slightly with age.

I hated my red hair when I was growing up - the teasing is awful. So, when I was a freshman in high school, I lightened my hair for the first time. By my junior year, I was a platinum blonde! I kept it that way until my sophmore year in college, more because I got sick of the upkeep and people saying that, "Eew! You have red roots!" than anything else.

And here I sit, considering a streak or two again - but only in a lighter red, and done professionally!

Honey, you have beautiful hair! Now that you're a grown up, I'm sure you realize that women pay big bucks to try and replicate your color. But it's really hard for a non-natural redhead to pull off that look, IMO!

Thank you so much, KR!!

But growing up with no visible eyelashes or eyebrows, and a ton of freckles was not always a piece of cake! I always thanked my lucky stars that it wasn't curly, too!

When I was only 11, I put on some of my mother's mascara, just playing around, and BOTH of my parents suggested that I start wearing it every day. Believe it or not, I always wanted black hair!

I will be the first to admit that I was a Sun-In girl when I was in jr high. My mom wouldn't let me dye my hair permanently, but she would let me damage it to no end :rolleyes: .

I was a punk rock wannabe back then so I tried to get bleached streaks in front of my dark brown hair... with bleach... yup... I was a dork.

When I was in high school I was allowed to dye my hair semi permanent. And in college, I went and got highlights at the college salon. They weren't bad... but the haircut I had was terrible.

I've done the Feria highlight kit and the Loreal dye and highlight kit... but it grows out so strange so I've nixed ever doing highlights again. I like my mocha brown hair.

LOL, when my oldest was an infant her eyebrows were so blonde they were practically invisible so I used brown eyebrow gel on them just to see what it'd look like. Poor li'l thing looked like a mini Groucho Marx!

Lol, this is a pretty funny story. I have natural very light golden blonde hair. When I was in 10th grade (age 15 or 16), I was sick of my hair and wanted a change. I went to Ulta and bought a box of that hair dye that is supposed to wash out in 6 to 9 washes. Now I know that blonde hair is more absorbant, so I assumed it wold take 15 to 20 washes, or two to three weeks to get out of my hair. The color was called something like "Rockin' Red".

I died my hair and it came out bright red! I loved it but thought it was too bright...so the next day I washed it twice. I dried my hair and it had turned bright pink! Yes, pink is my favorite color, but pink hair?!?! I continued to wash my hair as often as possible without doing too much damage, but four months later is was still a pinkish shade with light blonde roots. My mother suggested I go get something done to it, so I went to a new salon because my old girl had just moved (big mistake). The lady ended up dying my hair a light brown and I was so upset that she had to give me half off a half head of foils to lighten it up! lol.

Luckily, it's two years later and time and the sun has lightened my hair back to where it was. I don't think I'll ever me dying my hair again, however!

ROTFL!!!!!

My much, much older sister used to take me to the beeach when I was younger. She would used that in her hair, so she put it in mine too. I went from dark brown to almost bleach blonde in one summer!

Sun-in is of the DEVIL!!! :mad:

I highlighted my hair only ONCE in my life. I have really dark (practically black) hair... so I basically have to strip my hair to make it another color.

That said, I got really awesome orange-y red highlights my junior year in high school. I LOVED them. THey didn't look weird or anything.. they looked really good...and I had cute short hair at the time. I would have kept them going, but it was too high-maintenance for me, and I hated to think of what I was doing to my hair (stripping the color) for the end results.

I haven't got it highlighted since, and people always compliment me on my gorgeous locks :cool: :p

I actually had the reverse situation. I have reddish/light-brown hair (it gets auburn in the summer but more brown in the winter months) and wanted to get highlights in 10th grade. I told the woman I wanted light brown highlights -- NO BLONDE -- because I thought it looked funny when people with brown hair got blonde hilights. She picked out a BLONDE color and said it would look different once it was actually on my hair -- but no. It was horrible. My hair looked almost greyish from a distance and the highlighted strands felt like straw. I eventually hated it so much that I washed my hair repeatedly with Ultra-Swim shampoo (for removing chlorine) and somehow it took the highlights out almost completely.

I have experimented with sun in as well, but greatly preferred it to my highlights. The sun-in never damaged my hair, and would just make it slightly redder (then again I only used very small amounts). But then again, I was going for more of a lighter-version of what I already had and maybe slightly redder, NOT BLONDE!!! I don't think brunettes should get blonde highlights unless they get their full head done and it matches their haircolor -- too many girls in my jr high had dark dark dark brown hair with a few platinum blonde streaks.

Nowadays I've retired the sun in, but occasionally I use "sheer blonde" shampoo/conditioner by John Frieda and I find that it brings out the red in my hair slightly. ;)

I've been getting natural-looking light blonde highlights (my natural color is dark blonde hair) since I was 15.

LoL that's how it was when I was in Jr. High/High School. Almost everyone had super dark brown hair and bright blonde streaks. That was definitely NOT what I wanted... I thought they kinda looked like skunks :p

I've been highlighting my hair since 7th grade :p I have naturally dark hair, and I highlight it with light brown and dark blonde highlights :)

Even though I'm not a woman, I highlight my hair fuscia, blue and yellow.

http://www.newtonrep.net/images/Doub...ighlighter.jpg

It looks great!

The same here, except I was 16, I think.

I too have dark blonde hair. I used Sun-In in high school and started highlighting my hair sometime in college. Now I spend a lot of money every few months to basically keep my hair at its natural color (the ends turn plantinum blonde and my hair doesn't hold color). My colorist laughs at me somewhat b/c he knows he is basically coloring my hair to it's natural color using a combination of highlights and lowlights. The only real difference is that my hair has a lot more depth with the high & low lights than it would naturally b/c I am never outside anymore.

I was 14, during my freshman year of high school. I naturally have really dark brown hair and I got it highlighted to a light brown. I went with cap highlights first because it isn't as dramatic as foil highlights. Over the years I kept getting lighter and lighter and my hair was practically blonde. Last year I just got sick of keeping up with it and dyed my hair back to my natural color.

I started getting highlights at 14. I would always get them a golden blonde color. I was wierd. Now, I really don't know what my natural hair color is.

I started at 14. I got blonde highlights in my natural brown hair. I did it for my cousins wedding. My mum had no problem but my dad was less than thrilled. But I didn't care what he thought.

I'll come to you for advice in a few years--I'm sure that pretty soon, I'll have red-haired grandchildren!:)

I first did it when I was a junior in high school. I do it more often now than I did then and when I was in college...but just started doing it again within the last 6 months. Not the drastic too much lighter look.

I got my first highlights when I was 18, though I'd been dying my hair myself for about 4 years before that (including the Great Purple-Orange-Light Brown Incident of 1996). I don't keep it up much anymore--I get a half-head set of foils in a dark blonde during for spring/summer and then do an all-over color in fall/winter. My senior year of college I got red lowlights which actually looked pretty good, but I couldn't afford the upkeep on them.

Normally my hair is light brown with a reddish cast.

Tell them to get used to strangers rubbing their heads "for luck", others to avoid them for "bad luck", and brats that try to play "connect the dots" with their freckles!!

And buy them mascara at an early age!! :)

I started using Sun-In in about 6th grade. I routinely used it until 9th grade, when I started coloring my hair. My sophmore year I was platnium blonde. (talk about horrible upkeep!) My junior year I decided to go strawberry blonde, that on top on the platnium color turned pink. I went to my stylist to have her "fix" the problem. She colored it brown, but with too much ash so it turned green! There was nothing I could do but let it grow out-- hair was too weak to re-color. So most of my junior year it was a shade of green (that was a horrible year!) Over that summer I got it colored brown with blonde highlights. I maintained the highlights until a year or so ago. My hair is all grown out (yeah!) but I just made an appointment for color-- not sure what I am going to do with it but I am ready for a change,

Re: Attn: Women who highlight their hair...
 

I was 19. I used the L'oreal Brush On stuff in Burgundy that I'm sure you remember. My parents didn't know about it till I came home, LOL. ;) I seem to remember one of my friends doing this in the middle of our dorm floor by the elevators...it must have been an extraordinarily boring night. I was like "OMG it's so bright, don't put too much on" and of course the next time I did it was like "OMG isn't there any more left? Did you put EVERY DROP on my head?"

Then of course I permed over it, and it turned a coppery color, which I'm sure would have upset some people but which as far as I was concerned was like getting 2 color jobs for the price of one. God, I'm so 80's.

My hair is REALLY dark and REALLY dense, and at the time had no gray, so it was pretty hard to mess up. Everyone's hair is different though. If you've got any gray you need to cover - and you want highlights - please, says the Voice of Experience, get it done professionally.

When I was in 8th grade (1993-1994) was the time that it started to become WILDLY popular for everyone and their mother (pun intended) to highlight their hair. But for my friends and I, it was not 'beauty shop' highlight, it was Clairol :) I dyed my naturally brownish hair auburn and it stayed around for an awfully long time (much longer than 24 washings). Before I first highlighted it, my hair had natural blonde highlights. After though, my more reddish highlights that were natural were accented by the dye and never seemed to go away.
Nowadays I still highlight--I get a partial foil. Blondish highlights. However, the highlights that I have now look similar to the natural highlights I had as a kid. Most people don't notice that I highlight my hair unless they actually see me on a day where I haven't washed it, or if they look REALLY carefully at my hair when it's up in a ponytail (when the darkest parts of my hair are noticeable). Over time, hair gets darker and I missed the blonde it used to have, so just before prom Senior Year of HS (1998), I started highlighting it. Ironically, most people didn't really notice, and when I came to college, no one had ever seen it before, so they all thought it was natural. That's usually the comment I get. However, I've never done a full foil because I think that it would be too noticeable. I don't like it when it's obvious that someone dyes their hair--I prefer it when it's just 'natural highlights'

Re: Re: Attn: Women who highlight their hair...
 

Yeah. Come see DA's middle daughter who is senior colorist at a very upscale spa in Cherry Creek North in Denver.

Bring a lot of money. My granddaughter needs shoes.

When my hair started darkening around 7-8ish, mom started streaking my hair. (I did pagents as a kid.)

In Middle School, I used Manic Panic about every other week. (I still heart Green Day.)

In high school it was always extreme red hues.

Now and back when I was in college, I went back to lots of highlights, though ironically, I dye it darker brown, before doing the highlights.

I have dark dark brown hair and first got it professionally highlighted honey brown for my Sweet 16.... it looked great at first, but I got fed up with having to get my roots done all the time and how after a few months the color would just look gross. I let it grow out which was difficult, then missed my highlights and got it done again before my senior prom (oy).... 1 1/2 years later, they're almost gone, (next haircut). I LOVE my dark hair now and find that the Miami sun has lightened it a bit and Brilliant Brunette makes it look absolutely gorgeous! So I'm done with highlighting.... at least for a while. ;)

I have natural highlights. My hair is dark brown, but I've always had blonde and red streaks that get more intense when I'm out in the sun. So, I've never really had the need for salon color.

I have medium-dark brown hair naturally, that turns almost reddish when exposed to the summer sunlight. I first dyed my hair when I was about 14, it was the Exuberance kind (anyone remember that?), and was Apricot colour (kind of a light reddish). My older sister is a natural redhead, so I knew it would look ok on me and it did. :) Then I did an auburn colour, which washed out pretty quickly. After that I didn't try to colour it again until I was about 15-16. Again I went red, but when it faded and grew out it didn't look weird because it wasn't too far from my natural colour as I'd done it in summer.

Fast forward to last summer. I finally got professional highlights, light auburn and golden red, that looked fantastic! Now I can't decide if I want to get the same colours again or a new look.

LOL! You could be telling my story (except, I'm much older than you, and back in my day, we punk rock wannabes were called "posers!"). Oooh, that stuff killed my hair!

Now, I will not do anything to my haircolor that I can get at the grocery store!!! Nope. My colorist rocks...she may charge an arm & a leg, but it's the only thing I treat myself to, and I love not being mousy-brown-no-color-lady!!!