One year of hair growth

This month it's been a year since I let my hair grow and below you can see the result. Not bah, eh? I guess I do really need a trim now, after staying away from the salon for a year. The ends of my hair are pretty dry and although it's hardly noticeable, I don't think it's a good idea to just leave it like this. I'm also thinking of getting side-swept bangs. I used to have straight bangs for quite some time, but they tend to make my face look very narrow. Side-swept bangs will make my face look less 'boring', but at the same time avoid the disadvantage of the straight bangs.

  

2010, with straight bangs:

                                                                             2011:

Then, I'm curious to hear your opinions on the color of my hair! I now have the lower layer of my hair dyed black, but it's not always very well visible because I have so much hair in my natural color covering it. Do you tink I should add some black streaks, perhaps? I've actually found an example of what I mean, after a long search. Avril Lavigne's old hair-style comes closest to what it would look like:

 

I would leave some blonde streaks at the bottom though, because when I'm wearing black (which is 90% of the time) my hair doesn't stand out anymore against the background. 

Some other examples, which show what it would look like with bangs:

[I couldn't find the second picture in better quality]

 

What I would also like a lot is to have some bleached streaks near the face, like this:

(I would leave the rest of my hair in my natural hair color, more like the second pic)

 

 What do you think would look best? I need some advice here! :)