my hair is naturally dark brown. i never dyed it until i was about to start college in 2001. my hairdresser was competing in a hair makeover contest and i was one of his models. he did an awesome job with highlights and cut. (plus it was free!!!)
http://www.nathanlstylist.com/portfolio.html (i'm the first one. can you tell the drastic difference)
after that i kept getting highlights and root retouching. but my hair kept getting blonder and blonder and it started to look brassy. so i did a home dye (cause i was broke. lol) to a semi dark loreal hair color. and i've been doing that for a few months.
i tried dying it black, but it didn't look good on me
i wanted to go back to brown two weeks later and tried that stuff that supposedly removes permanent color when it just bleaches it (i had brown spots, orange spots and blonde spots throughout my hair from it). it turned out ok cause i dyed it a dark brown. but the color is fading and i'm thinking about going to a salon and getting highlights again. i don't want them so bright and so thick cause i HATE HATE HATE when my roots start showing!