I've had my hair every color except black. I was a natural blonde as a child,which got darker as I grew up, to a light mousy brown. I started dying my hair around age 16 using "Nice and Easy" from a box. Also did the lemon-juice-and- sit-in- the- sun bit. I have even had Platinum blond to please my husband. That was a nightmare-had to get a professional to lighten my hair, she used very strong peroxide. The roots needed constant touching up every 4 to 6 weeks, and it burned every time I got a touch-up. So I let my "natural" color hair grow in, took about 6 months. I'm now light brown with some gray. Anyhow, if you are making a drastic change, you really can't do it yourself. You need to go to a pro who will remove the old color and apply the new. Or go with highlights, which if applied properly don't need a lot of maintenance, only needs to be done every 6 months or so.Good luck and let us know what you do!

You're right if she is moody, she is not likely to be gracious but you might be surprised. There are many good stylists and maybe the last advice was best: just find another salon. But if you don't have many options, then be up front with your old stylist and telephone her and say you would like to try someone new and how would she feel if it was MRS. X. You have nothing to lose. I had a situation where I decided to go to another stylist but keep my existing hairdresser to do my color. I ran it by her and to her credit she was professional and very accepting. I was the one surprised because she was a very young woman and I almost expected her to have gotten an attitude and miffed. As a result, she has had my continuing business now for three years (every four weeks!) and I get to have fun picking hair stylists. Business is business.

I've had two bad haircuts in my lifetime - 3rd and 12th grades. Both times, stylist took my long hair and I was left looking like a boy. I asked for it the first time, but not the last. Then, I skipped school and got suspended for three days. I still got to go to DisneyWorld with my BF's and his family for Spring Break, so all was not lost. I will never have short hair again. As you can see, it's comical (or frightening?!) how similar my kindergarten and senior hairstyles look. Rest assured there were long, straight looks in between (remember the 70s). I tried to grow it out recently but it ends up too flat. No matter how hard I try to make it a bit poofy with my round brush (I despise hair gels and sprays). I started getting gray hair when I was a senior in HS, and like the above poster I go every three weeks for a slight trim and color. Recently I asked her to start making it lighter since my roots were showing up so bad (at 3 weeks!!!!). I'm not even 55 yet, so I am not ready to go gray... she tells me (I won't look) that I am easily 80% gray - I think she's being generous!). So while I still feel like a brunette, I am slowing becoming more blonde. :( The photo on the right was taken before we went a tad lighter. My hair does not want to hold color. It is very frustrating! I come out one color and easily have 5 shades between visits. I'd love to do something different, but nothing drastic. I still want to be able to pull it back and leave long enough to keep my neck warm. *edited to remove photo This post was edited by allison0704 on Sun, Nov 16, 14 at 14:16

Amysrq you are right my inspiration photo is a lot darker. Mouse's Back in my kitchen looks like baby poo. I love the color though but, not in that room with that light. Hardwick White was pretty close too in my kitchen but, it went really khaki green and I was thinking it wouldn't blend with the Blue so I went down the lighter color path. I have seen that kitchen picture everywhere on almost every blog I read. Everyone loves that kitchen I think because it represents a "real" kitchen makeover that we all can relate too. Because no matter how much I want my kitchen to look like the hundreds of inspiration pics I have, unless I start over and have tons of money, it won't ever be. But that pic gives you encouragement that you can make over existing not so special cabinets and make them look fabulous. Thanks for the encouragement. You are right all the F&B colors are beautiful. I'm in love with that paint. I just painted my dining room walls, crown and base boards with Light Blue and it is gourgeous. The kitchen connects to it and that is why I pulled the light blue into the island. If you have any other suggestions throw them my way since it sounds like you are a fellow F&B fan. I have most every color in a sample pot. And I don't feel one bit guilty about it because I have been using them to paint furniture with.