So not weight-loss related, but still alternative. You can see my avatar: I've been doing dark hair since I was 12, and I'm sick of it. I wanted to do blonde but everyone said, "Oh no, not blonde!" so I didn't. Right now it's black at the advice of a friend and frankly, I hate it. It doesn't look like it's my hair, it's so dark and frizzy it looks like a wig.

So to anyone who dyes their hair unusual colors, what do you think about turquoise on me, like Special Effects Fish Bowl? I think SE is too light, so probably mix it with a medium blue to make a medium turquoise, but I'm dying for something different from black, red, brown, or dark purple.

Well, props for you on not going blonde. I'm a hairdresser and will even speak from personal experience - going blonde from dark (ESPECIALLY black), pretty much fries your hair. If you thought it's frizzy its not even imaginable how frizzy it would be after going blonde.

Turquoise would be nice though. Have you thought of maybe keeping a bunch of dark and doing most of your fringe and a few chunky pieces through the sides? It'll brighten it up and add some life to your color.

from a hairstylists brain here.
in my opinion i think blond would have suited you. were you planning to do it yourself? or get it done professionally? as far as the black hair...boy have i learned my lesson with that. it took me a year to get it out of my hair a few years back. i did it gradually. i didnt want to fry my hair and cause alot of breakage etc...are you wanting to go all over with the blue? or just some chunky highlights? blue colors would be kool. adding peekaboos would change it a bit.

Honestly I wanted to go all over with it, when I did purple it was with a lot of black too, and I'm just sick of it. I do understand about hair frying, I had to chop mine off four years ago after I left bleach on too long so that is a concern. After a long time of darker colors, while they look nice, I just really want something lighter and fun instead of crazy dark. I guess I'll need to look into gentle lighteners.

are you wanting a deep purple? or bright blind you neon purple?
if a deep purple you shouldnt have to lighten it up all that much. the brighter purple on the other hand..you might want to go slow on that. take it in baby steps. especially since you are darker. just my 2 cents

Tinz- when I was doing purple months ago I bleached a few chunks just until they were yellow, not super light or white just a general yellow, and then slathered on the purple. I never did the whole head with that, it would have taken a while with my thick hair lol.

I just went from black to blonde not too long ago (altho I'm now a medium auburn). What I did to go lighter was buy a color remover (I think there is one called "Oops", I'm not sure which one I bought) and take the black out of my naturally dark brown hair, then I bleached it (twice). It was then light enough that I could have dyed it just about any color, even a different blonde color. Granted my hair was a bit fried, but a twice weekly deep conditioner and some leave in conditioner on the other days I wash my hair seems to have done the trick. Plus the more dry and fried your hair is the better it soaks up the funky colors (in my experience). I think turquoise would look really nice on you. Manic panic makes one called Atomic Turquoise, tho I think that might be a bit lighter than what you're looking for.

Hey Gypsy, what did you end up deciding to do with your hair? Hope it turned out well!

I have three colors going right now. Here's what I did -

I paid the big bucks to go in and have panels done on the top and I dyed them kick-you-in-the-teeth-red. I've tried different brands and mostly hate manic panic, am fine with fX, and like color Jams (all these are at Sally Beauty Supply). So that grew out for about... 3 months. Then I bleached the roots (it was like coloring in the lines because it had been done before by a pro that could you know.. see the top of my head and important stuff like that). I dyed the new blonde roots purple, and the red washed out ends Fuscia. I kept that look for about... 4 months? I just recently did it again (the bleach the dye yada etc) and went with Teal to purple to fuscia fade. But the fuscia is having a hard time holding on with all that blue based dye, so i'm getting kind of a teal to purple to violet. It's VERY peacock.

I recolor every 3 weeks or so - or when I just can't take it anymore because I'll get LAZY and let it look like NASTY! My hair is shoulder length. There's a pic of it down on my actual profile.

Oh, and I'm Kiki! Nice to meetcha!

Okay, I have naturally very blonde hair (you can see in my profile pic, that's no dye) and I haven't dyed it very much at all, but when I get a little thinner I plan to chop it way off into a pixie cut, and I'd like to go as dark as I possibly can without looking like Edward Scissorhands.

I see you talking about how going from dark to blonde fries your hair. Is it the same going opposite? I really don't want to fry it.

I was thinking a burgundy/purplish color would look really good on you.