I'm Sammy and I'm Addicted to Dying my Hair

It's true. I'm a serial hair abuser! I've been quite tame with my hair dying ventures over the last year, keeping it  brown and occasionally popping in some highlights. Last month I decided I wanted to 'ombre' my hair - lightening just the ends of the hair to give the appearance of lots of root regrowth. Then I chickened out because I didn't think it would look good on my mid-length hair, I think it's better suited to longer hair.

By the time I changed my mind, I already had a bleaching kit so I thought I might as well lighten my hair and go light brown for summer. Not all went to plan, but I'm really pleased with the result. Here's the story...

This is the colour that my hair was before I started. This isn't my natural colour, there's about 5 different colours layered on here!

I applied this L'Oreal Maximum Lightening Kit (which is essentially just bleach with a different name on the box) all over my hair, avoiding the roots as it tells you in the instructions. After 30 minutes, I applied the remainder of the product to the roots of my hair and left it for a further 25 minutes.

I know a bot about hair colouring from all my years of experimenting and researching when things have gone wrong. The reason you don't need to let your roots process for as long as the rest of your hair is that it processes faster with the heat which comes from your scalp.

This is the result after 55 minutes of bleaching. What you can't see is that it still had patches of brown and also patches of bright blonde near the roots. I couldn't get a decent picture of the back of my head though where there was a huuuge blonde spot.

It went this colour because I had so much dye on my hair before I started. If you have natural hair, it won't turn out like this!

I wore a hat all of the next day while I decided what to do with it! I was stuck between bleaching it again and still going for the light brown or just buying an auburn dye and trying to even it out.

 I got used to the orange so I decided to keep and and bought this shade from Nice N Easy - Natural Light Auburn.

And here is the final result. I actually really like it. It's a more vibrant auburn and the roots are slightly lighter than the ends but I think it's a nice effect - like ombre in reverse!!

It's so nice to have a change. I've been every colour before other than this one and I love it! I'm definitely going to try and maintain it for a while but we'll see if I still feel that way when I have to fuss around touching up my roots.

I think if you want to do something to your hair, you should just go for it. Whether it's drastic or just a subtle change, the worst case scenario is that you have to dye it back again.

If you don't want to commit or just feel like trying out a new shade, try using a semi-permanent colourant. The Boots range and Schwartzkopf Country Colours are my favourite semi-permanent dyes. And they make your hair super soft and glossy without any lasting damage.