To Highlight Or Not To Highlight?
Here we go again. Ever since Siobhan asked how everyone’s preparing for the heat, my brain’s been on a one track loop that goes: highlights highlights highlights…
It’s a serious conundrum for a clean girl this whole hair dye thing, one we’ve talked about here and here and here (and about ten other places). There are many reasons not to do it of course. Par example, much like nail polish, there’s just no such thing as a totally clean dye.
Specifically for moi, getting highlights means: 1. some toxic exposure; 2. getting my hair washed and living with the subsequent frizz for a month; 3. feeling like a bit of a hypocrite. On the plus side the place I go to is sorta-natch, the highlights I get don’t touch my scalp, and freaking-A, they’re pretty!
A bit of a late bloomer on this, highlights were something of a revelation when I finally tried them last spring, lightly painted on in places where the sun would naturally lighten (if I surfed, like everyday). For a thick mop like mine, a little caramel color can go a long way in making my head look like less of a curl-helmut, as I’m sure some of you can relate.
And while I know I’m a grown woman who can make her own decisions and all that, S and I have really taken to asking you guys for your (strong, ahem) opinions and advice! So let’s hear em.
More interesting still: What do you do with your hair? Highlights? Au naturelle 4life? And how weird is this picture choice?
I am having the same problem. Maybe I can buy the hair dye from Whole Foods…. thats naturalish right?
Anyways I am loving the new shipment from Quarterly! spoiler alert, I am going to have the most amazing sleep tonight!
Picture is awesome! I vote no on the highlights, as I think there are better alternatives. I quit coloring with regular dye a year or so ago, and it was a hard choice and felt traumatic but I ended up loving the results. I use henna/indigo to cover my grey hair. There are other plants, like cassia, that can give different kinds of results. I think the natural stuff would be more “low lights” than highlights. When I was using conventional dye, I did low lighting and I loved it. For those interested, I found this website super helpful in transitioning to all natural color: http://www.hennaforhair.com/
Ultimately, if you think the highlights will make you happy and you don’t like the other options, go ahead and highlight. But I do feel strongly about this part: don’t wash if you don’t want to! You can just have the chemicals rinsed out and do a conditioner or bring your own really mild shampoo. You don’t have to do the whole salon experience if that’s not what you really want. I bring my own hair products when I go to get a cut, and it seemed a little weird at first but it works well now.
Have you ever tried raw honey? I’ve heard that it can act sort of like Sun-In and give you a gradual, cumulative lightening by releasing low doses of hydrogen peroxide (you could, of course, also just stick some hydrogen peroxide on there. Same idea, but faster and less sticky.) I darken my hair rather than lighten so I haven’t tried it (I just suck it up and use the semi-permanent, manic-panic-esque stuff. Basically food coloring mixed with conditioner- wouldn’t be SO bad if it weren’t scented.)
Do it!!! Maybe everyone will disagree, but the toxicity of highlighting your hair once every year is unlikely to be a big deal. Especially if it doesn’t touch your scalp. Also I think if you’ve been thinking about it and debating it for so long, you’re going to end up doing it. Or, if you’re like me, you think about it so much and then you end up going overboard and will dye your whole head blonde.
Dying my hair is definitely the worst habit I have. I change it every month. And not from like blonde to dark blonde, I mean from blonde to pink to auburn to black to ombre and so on. I know it’s bad but it’s so fun.
Please don’t. Your hair is beautiful, healthy & plentiful. Try some henna… it will give you almost the same effects of highlights (although towards the redish..)
As for the picture …quite funny
I wonder if you could talk to your hair stylist about a better way to wash out the highlights, since you don’t _really_ need them to wash the whole mop. Either way, I feel pretty comfortable with highlights. I don’t do it anymore (I spent a long time getting my hair platinum-blond-ed), and am slowly getting back to my natural brown (it’s still blondish on the bottom), but I’ve thought about putting a few more ombre highlights down there at the bottom.
My feeling now is that as long as it’s not touching my scalp (god, the terrible itching associated with bleaching your hair!!!), it’s alright once in a while.
I can understand the allure.
I have been slowly, over the past year, going more and more natural. I am naturally a dark blonde and for years highlighted and then single-processed and then… basically, I was a very, very light blonde.
And then my best friend told me that my hair looked like a “dead thing” on my head.
So. I went through a gradual process of darkening underneath and then adding more and more lowlights and now I just do a few highlights around my face. I feel a little guilty, but a few well-placed highlights do wonders for my skin and make me feel prettier.
My stylist was a little taken aback at first, but now accepts that I bring my own shampoo and conditioner (JMO). I also might add — she compliments each time I come on how healthy my hair looks :)
What about lemon juice for highlights? That gives a natural look but it does take time in the sun…
Nothing to helpful in the way of chiming in, but oh so much sympathy! I’m getting a haircut this week and feel excited about my dramatic “spring is in the air” change from long hair to super-short….But….I’m also anxious about explaining to the hairstylist that I’m not going to love a cut that requires chemical product to look good as I don’t use any. Neither am I thrilled about the salon hair washing, which causes dry, brittle hair for about two weeks after. And I haven’t gotten over the awkwardness that ensues when my natural beauty preferences collide with the beauty profession.
If you do dye, I say, relish it! I’ve used henna in the past with good results, but I still haven’t found that ideal professional who would let me bring in my own henna dye and apply it to my head with all his/her skill. If you’ve got that kind of stylist, maybe that would be a middle road? Natural product with professional application?
This is the ULTIMATE internal battle that I think all of us woman contemplate… At the end of the day, I go for it. This is the ONLY place where I compromise. I do everything else 100% natural, from household and personal care products to my food and I even do monthly cleansing so this is my breaking point. I LOVE my hair highlighted, and as a brown hair girl who knew they were supposed to be born blond, they make all the difference for me. I think that my emotional well-being and my increased confidence in my appearance outweighs the negative effects of putting highlights in my hair. Plus, the chemicals do not soak in the scalp like they do when you get your hair dyed, so in my opinion this is a much smaller evil. In the healthy living world, you must always remember that it is not just the physical but the emotional as well. If you are the cleanest (toxin-free) person in the world but do not love yourself, than your efforts are in vain. So I always do what is best for me emotionally and physically, and if I need this one thing… than that is alright with me :)
I’m gonna go ahead and quote Trading Places for a moment (because it’s the greatest film ever made, obviously): “I always say: ‘religion is a good thing, when taken in moderation’”. What I mean is, unless you have super-strong reasons for doing and/or avoiding doing something (e.g. a gluten intolerance, folks who have veru strong convictions about being vegan, etc), there really isn’t any reason to get all fundamentalist about it. Getting a few highlights once a year is not going to affect your body or health in any significant way. Even if they are somewhat toxic, problems occur with sustained, regular exposure. Your super-clean lifestyle will most certainly ameliorate whatever minute exposure you might have to any toxins.
And if someone thinks that getting a few highlights makes you a hyppocrite? Well, I’m sorry to say, but that would make them a busybody killjoy. You are being hugely upfront about your dilemma and come on – it’s not like you are claiming to be vegan, while going on baby seal clubbing holidays! Not to get over-dramatic, but it IS your body, your helath and your choice. I also think that the choice to be clean is mostly motivated by concerns for one’s health. I mean, sure, it’s also more sustainable, environmentally friendly, etc., but in this particular instance I believe we live (more or less) cleanly because it makes us fel safe and helps us looks good. So no need for you to be the Pope of the Church of Clean Living.
I used to color my hair farily regularly and I kind of miss it. Funnily enough, I stopped dyeing since I started to get gray hair because my husband loves it and thinks it’s crazy sexy. Isn’t he a wonderful weirdo? I also can’t really do highlights because I have a pixy cut. That said, few things can make one feel brighter and fresher than some good highlights. So yeah – fo for it and enjoy it without reservations! Oh, but! Do bring your own shampoo to the salon. You might need to suffer through a wash, but no need to get the straw hair from toxy shampoo. I’m sure your stylist won’t mind!
I say go for the highlights! I have introduced many clean, organic beauty products to myself in the past year, since reading your amazing book! Thank you! But I haven’t replaced every item, for various reasons. One item is hair dye. I’ve looked at the dyes in the health food store and just haven’t been able to give them a try. So I have stayed with the mainstream brand I use. As you mentioned in your book, some people are crunchy organic, and want every product they use to be as natural as possible, while others are less so, and will use many, but not exclusively 100% clean products. It is a continuum, and I have found where I am confortable on this continuum. And for now, it includes a few mainstream products, including dye, although I still love,love,love my organic face products!!
I have recently decided to stop all over colouring my hair, mainly because I have discovered that I have psoriasis on my scalp, and even though there’s no concrete evidence hair dy is bad for it, I’m sure it’s not helping. However, I don’t like my natural hair color by itself. In high school, I did highlight my hair and loved the look of it, but again, not sure if I wanted to do that because with it being so close to the scalp, can’t be good for the psoriasis. So, I decided to try the “ombre” look, with putting the highlights on the bottom half of my hair…and I love it!!! It’s super low maintence, so you don’t have to do it often, not close to the scalp, and even though, as you said, it’s not even close to being “clean”, with not having to touch up every month or so, you are not putting the chemicals on your head nearly as often. Just something to think about! :)
Over the past 2 years I have weened myself off of the highlights and my once blond hair is now a darker shade/light brown-ish. There are days when I miss the brightness but for the most part I just feel really good about not going back to the dye. This summer I plan to experiment with lemon juice and see what happens.
Or maybe some new tones with some beets? Has anyone tried it?
Or henna?
I’ve had clay highlights done in Paris several times and loved it. Haven’t seen anything like that where I live now but it’s a small town. Anyone else ever heard of this?
Henna, henna, henna! I have hair very much like yours in color and curls. I just ordered henna from the Mehandi/Henna for Hair folks. It’s been over a year since I had the funds for it, but it is entirely worth the cost and my hair always feels nicer afterward. Do it!
I believe in happiness and if it makes you happy to highlight your hair you should walk towards the path of highlighting. But please know this is a battle I have not won myself. I have restrained myself from highlighting my hair for close to 5 years now but every summer I have thought about adding some cute highlights to frame my face and every winter my mind has trailed off to dying my hair to add some depth to by brown/black hair.
I have been using henna since I was a teenager and while it is good for your hair (heals dandruff) and gives black hair a nice shiny glow and a nice reddish brown tint to brown black hair it does not highlight the way highlights would be done at a salon.
So I have done some research for the past few months and finally found an organic salon that uses minimally invasive products to highlight the hair. I am thinking of giving it a try.
Hey look, we all (in this blog) have great intentions to be clean and take steps that add to our intentions but until we have an organic, natural supplement to highlighting, a little dying once a year won’t kill ya.
I say – do whatever makes you feel good.
I personally have had highlights twice… and have never dyed my hair. There is just something about sending out fake signals to the world that I just never got into. I prefer natural. Though this reminds me, time to book a haircut.
Full response right over here! http://getcleangirls.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/diy-highlights-are-there-any-get-clean-options/