Will going black to brown damage my hair a lot?

I assume that you were directing this question towards me? Well, here I am anyway, so I’ll answer your question.

Yes, bleach and stripping can severely damage your hair. On the other hand, your hair may hold up quite well to it, as my hair does. Make the appointment with the stylist and she’ll keep an eye on your hair throughout the process to make sure it’s holding up well.

What occurs with me is that I bleach it once or twice (usually twice if I’ve colored it for a few months), and it lifts to sort of a burnt brown color, with blonde patches here and there. THen I put a light to medium brown toner on it to cancel out the red and blonde patches. Then I am left with an even, medium brown wth gold (maybe some red) tones. Then I put in blonde hightlights on top of that. If you are happy with the brown, I’d skip the highlights–that’s asking a lot of your hair and you up your chances of getting breakage when you do that.

Since you have never stripped or bleached or highlighted your hair before, I imagine your hair will hold up pretty well. Ther is no gurantee, though–so you are doing this at your own risk. You will suffer some dryness and maybe some breakage and your hair will feel slimy when you shampoo it for up to two weeks. That is the protein in your hair sloughing off. So make sure that you get a nice, fortifying, salon quality (meaning, you bought it in a salon) shampoo and a nice conditioner. I recommend Redken’s Butter Treat for your conditioner. THe first couple of days after you do it, you shuld sleep in a moisturizing product. I do baby oil. Braid your hair and sleep on a towl over your pillow.

Be prepared for the worst (cutting your hair into a bob) but hope for the best. My motto is that if I do suffer way too much breakage, I have no qualms about cutting my hair into a cute shorter do anyway. So I’m a good candidate to experiment with blacks and whatnot. If you don’t like to change your hairstyle, just your color, I’d stay away from blacks. The longer thehair, the more damage it will sustain just because it’s old hair you are processing.