I've been dying my naturally ginger/blonde hair to a darkish brown for the past 8 months. I've now decided that I want to go back closer to my original color, but blonder.

I'm not entirely sure how to do this, I think I'll go to a salon and I'm assuming that they'll need to strip it, I don't really know what to expect as I've been hearing a lot of horror stories of girl's hair falling out going green etc.

I'm kind of worried about the condition that it'll get into, my natural hair was actually really good; it was soft, thick and undamaged. It's definitely not as good now as it was then, but it's still in quite good condition. If anyone can help me out that would be great!

Going to a salon will really simplify the operation for you.

Hair doesn't "fall out" if it's horribly damaged. It can "break off". There's a significant difference that's not always appreciated (if it falls out, one might think that it might not grow back). Going green occurs when someone bleaches their hair very light and then tries to go dark again. Brown dyes have a lot of green in them -- to counteract the red that's presumed to be in the hair. If the hair has been bleached, the red is gone and has to be replaced or the hair will show a greenish tinge.

Stripping is really removing artificial color. Unfortunately a few salons use bleach to try to strip (L'Oreal Effasol is one type of bleach) and that can really damage your hair. Many artificial pigments can't be bleached to white -- they end up yellow or orange. That can totally ruin your day.

If they use one of these, ColorFix, Color Oops, Color Zap, Color Charm Color Corrector, Igora Phantom, Modulat, or a similar color corrector the damage is much, much less -- in many cases not noticeable. These are "sulfur-based" color removers. They dissolve the artificial pigment and allow it to be washed out rather than trying to bleach it out. If they don't use one of these color removers, and they don't know the "type" of color remover (sulfur-based or "reducing"), then go somewhere else. I guarantee you won't be happy if they use Effasol or bleach.

Repeated chemical processes performed on hair will leave the hair somewhat damaged. ALL chemical processes done on hair do damage the hair and the hair doesn't heal. Conditioners will temporarily make it feel better and will keep it shinier and more pliable, but you have to use one each time you shampoo. That's important. However, don't fall for the claims of "protein" or other types of "reconstructors". They don't do anything. The hair can't incorporate the protein into the hair shaft. It simply coats the hair.

If your hair is in reasonable condition, it probably won't be damaged much -- if the colorists do it right.

Good luck

I had a similar situation with my hair - where I wanted to go back to my natural color after dying it for about 10 years. The advise that I got and it worked was to just grab a bottle of color from your local drug store that is closest to your normal color. Then just let your hair natually grow out, and the color helped my hair resume its natural color even after it faded out a little. This worked for me but I know hair types are different. It did the least damage to my hair and was cheeper than a salon. Seems like drug store color isn't as harsh on your hair. Just my experience...