My Going Grey Gracefully Journey.
- Thread starter Narnanz
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I'm tired of fighting the grey but my DH is totally against my going natural. I met a woman recently who has long silky flat-ironed hair. It's grey (natural with dark lowlights). It's beautiful but she is very young looking and my hair is curly so would not look like hers. My hair is dyed auburn and I always get compliments on it.
Seeing her hair made me think about possibly having my hairdresser put a bunch of grey or ash highlights in to maybe disguise the grey growing in. then eventually have the grey hair with lowlights. don't know if having auburn lowlights would work or if I'd need to do brown. my original hair color was dark brown.
If you have a good hairdresser, he/she may be able to advise you best. However, my advice would be to have brown lowlights and dark golden blonde highlights to blend the gray hair with your natural. Auburn will not stay on gray hair between touchups.
lot to think about......I'm thinking if I don't want to cut my hair short and don't want horrid long roots growing in, I'd have to have her bleach my hair out to white or blonde color, then let the roots grow in. but that could be damaging/drying to the hair? and a big job on long thick hair?
You may want to check out the blog KatieGoesPlatinum, she has a lot of advice on different ways to go gray. And of course, there’s tons of stuff on Instagram. I follow a lot of women who are going gray. Annika Von Holdt has amazing long gray hair – she is very open that she bleached it all at first and it really damaged her hair and made it brittle. Honestly, there are pros and cons to every approach, unfortunately.
thanks.....I'll check that out.....I had some pretty major roots at the beginning of quarantine but eventually gave in and colored it again
Bleaching all your hair will yield several unfavorable results. First, it will show a line when it grows out. Also, any hair that is brown can take on a yellow or orange appearance, while the greys become too brittle. Hence, the suggestion to highlight, which is basically bleaching only a few select hairs, blending the darker hairs with your lighter hairs by adding in a shade or two in between. This damages fewer hairs and results in less overall damage, as well as allows the new growth to need fewer touch ups, as it transitions more easily without a severe line at the roots.
my natural hair is 90 to 100 percent grey so the brown taking on yellow or orange appearance wouldn't be much of an issue. I guess I could ask her about putting in a bunch of ashy or grey highlights? If I want to keep my long hair, this is going to be quite a process I think.
Please understand I'm not bragging but my long big hair is my "thing"
I get compliments all the time on it. I was looking at pics of Bonnie Raitt recently. She still has that streak in her red hair that she's had for years. I don't know how she works around it but I doubt the rest of her hair is still naturally red. I wish I just had a streak but mine is basically all grey as far as I and my hairdresser can tell.
Hey, if long hair is your thing, it’s your thing. I don’t have “big” hair, but every time my hair has been on the shorter side, I don’t feel like myself. I didn’t think you were bragging, just being honest.
Growing out your gray means going through some awkward stages, I think almost no matter what, there’s going to be a period of time when you don’t like what it looks like. But you won’t really know what the final result will look like until you’ve spent a considerable amount of time letting it grow out. I’m almost two years out and I finally feel like I know what I look like, lol.
Re. Bonnie Raitt, I know she’s a natural redhead, but as she’s gotten older I have wondered if she colors most of her hair red at this point and leaves the white streak as a “signature.”
I'm so happy mine has finally grown all the way out. There was a time when it was three different colors because I had had the stupid idea to gradually go lighter. I did get a compliment on it once. I started growing it out a long time before lockdown. By the time lockdown was over, I had chopped off the bottom brown and it was completely gray.
I originally had black hair and I’ve been coloring for the past 20 years and I will be 53 this year. I am now almost all gray primarily due to COVID. the last time I totally colored my hair was January 2020 then COVID came. I had to wear head covering and helmet most of the time so I just let it go. It was horrible looking when i was on the process then with frequent hair cut its almost there at least about 98%. I use purple shampoo about 3 x a week. I wash my hair almost everyday. i just haven’t trained my hair to get used to every other day wash. But anyways, I just love it now that I’m totally free from it all. My DH? He’s always down to whatever I want to do with my hair. He always says as long as it doesn’t cost me a thing!
My DH doesn't complain but I know he doesn't like it. When we went to Las Vegas, he told me I should go to a salon, implying that I would get it dyed. There is no way I want to get caught in that trap of having to dye it every 3 to 4 weeks.I originally had black hair and I’ve been coloring for the past 20 years and I will be 53 this year. I am now almost all gray primarily due to COVID. the last time I totally colored my hair was January 2020 then COVID came. I had to wear head covering and helmet most of the time so I just let it go. It was horrible looking when i was on the process then with frequent hair cut its almost there at least about 98%. I use purple shampoo about 3 x a week. I wash my hair almost everyday. i just haven’t trained my hair to get used to every other day wash. But anyways, I just love it now that I’m totally free from it all. My DH? He’s always down to whatever I want to do with my hair. He always says as long as it doesn’t cost me a thing!
Just quoting myself, I posted this on 31st January 2020 and thought I'd give an update
I'd been following this thread and a few silver sisters on Instagram for a while for inspiration as it was something I wanted to do but didn't have the guts to.
I then dyed my hair (I always dyed it myself at home) at the beginning of February and instantly regretted it and thought no more, that's it, no more dying. It was a light bulb moment if you will. My next haircut appointment was scheduled for mid March. By that time Covid was getting worse here in the UK, rumours of lockdown for god knows how long. When I went in for my appointment I just thought right pixie type cut it is just incase of lockdown and not being able to get a cut, it'll be more manageable and my roots aren't going to look too bad. Best thing I did. I grew to love my grey out as I only always had about 2 - 3 inches of dye till my next cut which was in September. Since then I've only had trims so I don't think I've any dye left in my hair. Front of my hair is almost pure white and the back and sides are more platinum.
I love it. The only good thing to come out of this past year was it forced me to make my decision. The only time I didn't like it was about 12 weeks in, but as we were in lockdown, no one saw me to judge.
Thank you to all those who replied to my initial post, you were very helpful, as I knew you would be
you and I had the same journey—- who knew COVID actually played a part in this situation but no doubt it helped. our work was nonstop so everybody saw the changes but they were encouraging and of course the constant head gear wearing was just—— fantasticJust quoting myself, I posted this on 31st January 2020 and thought I'd give an update
I'd been following this thread and a few silver sisters on Instagram for a while for inspiration as it was something I wanted to do but didn't have the guts to.
I then dyed my hair (I always dyed it myself at home) at the beginning of February and instantly regretted it and thought no more, that's it, no more dying. It was a light bulb moment if you will. My next haircut appointment was scheduled for mid March. By that time Covid was getting worse here in the UK, rumours of lockdown for god knows how long. When I went in for my appointment I just thought right pixie type cut it is just incase of lockdown and not being able to get a cut, it'll be more manageable and my roots aren't going to look too bad. Best thing I did. I grew to love my grey out as I only always had about 2 - 3 inches of dye till my next cut which was in September. Since then I've only had trims so I don't think I've any dye left in my hair. Front of my hair is almost pure white and the back and sides are more platinum.
I love it. The only good thing to come out of this past year was it forced me to make my decision. The only time I didn't like it was about 12 weeks in, but as we were in lockdown, no one saw me to judge.
Thank you to all those who replied to my initial post, you were very helpful, as I knew you would be
Not having to dye every 3-4 weeks is exactly why I stopped dying now. My hair is still mostly brown, but I have a gray streak right on my part line and some random gray strands throughout. I didn’t want to wait until I either had a skunk stripe or had to dye that often.
I’m lucky in that my DH loves it. He basically said it “looks like me,” and when I was complaining about a bad hair day last week, he said, “hey, you can dye your hair again if you want, but I’m not going to tell you to.” He’s the one person who I figure has a say about my hair, so I really appreciate his support!