Growing out grey hair
DaisyBumbleroot
Posts: 24,763 Forum Member
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Im 40 and I dye my hair. I know I have grey hair as my hairline is practically white when it grows out, and ive been going grey for about 15 years.
Ive been pondering letting my hair grown out naturally now. Without cutting it off, as Im not ready fro short hair, what is the best way?
Im still vain enough to not want a horrid grey line for a few years, so was thinking about using semi permanent hair dye and dying it less frequently, would this be a more natural transition? (I use permanent dye at the moment!)
Ive been pondering letting my hair grown out naturally now. Without cutting it off, as Im not ready fro short hair, what is the best way?
Im still vain enough to not want a horrid grey line for a few years, so was thinking about using semi permanent hair dye and dying it less frequently, would this be a more natural transition? (I use permanent dye at the moment!)
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My hair is naturally grey too, with the roots at my parting being the worst. I had my hair coloured at the hairdressers so its all a darkish shade. Now i use semi permanent for the roots, but the block colour is always going to be dark. So when the semi permanent washes off i still have a colour on the rest of my head.
I suppose if you know how fast your hair grows then you could use semi permanent until you know it would all be grey but then i think even semi permanent leaves a bit of a colour behind so the roots would be a slightly different shade to the rest.
yeah im thinking to use semi permanent on a much less regular basis, so as they grey grows out the fresh hair is subjected to less and less colour, if that makes sense? then when the line has gone right past my ears, slack off even more. Like try and make it a gradual change over a year or two?
I had quite long hair but my hairdresser has cut it into a bob and put loads of low-lights all over my head using foils in a colour that's very close to my own natural. It was a big step, but I'm so glad I did it. I feel liberated already. The grey is getting more and more visable (it was 4 weeks ago) but is looking quite natural. I reckon about a year or so, and I'll be mostly grey.
This seems like the best solution. I was going to suggest that you see a hairdresser about getting high and low lights for the transition period.
http://www.boots.com/en/Colour-B4-Hair-Colour-Remover-Includes-Conditioner-for-Frequent-Use_1422863/?cm_mmc=pla-_-google-_-PLAs-_-Boots+Shopping+-+Category+-+Beauty
The hair colour removers only remove dye from your hair. Most hair dyes have a bleach in them, so you will be left with strange coloured hair, not your original colour.
I've been doing henna for years too, and I've just had enough now. I do love how the henna looks, but it's such a lot of faff and I just don't think I can be bothered. My hair is waist length and I just haven't rehennaed since I last did it in June. I've got a LOT of grey round my temples especially, and it's a good four or five inches long now. I was going to look at temporary dyes and so on, but I haven't bothered yet, and nobody's said anything or pointed and laughed yet. I have wondered about cutting out the dyed hairs, but that would be a massive change, as my hair's been waist length ish for about the last 15 years. I haven't had natural coloured hair in 25 years either, so I'm starting to not recognise myself!
Unfortunately they don't sell a hair dye that is grey at the front and dark at the back.:)
Thanks. It has been bleached and dyed all manner of shades in the past few years, so yeah it will probably look odd.
My old hair colour is a reddish brown, but if i permananet dye it like I do now, you end up with a horrible line where the grey meets the dyed. Thats why Im thinking semi permanent as the fade wont be so dramatic!
Sounds like the way forward. I imagine they would put less and less highlights / lowlights in each time as well? I will have to go to the proper hairdresser (I box colur my own at the moment and go to those walk in no appontment needed for a trim at the moment!)
Yes, if you're having highlights done, you absolutely need to have those done by a professional. It's a much more complicated process that just putting colour all over. Also, make sure you book an appointment with a colourist, because if you're growing out an existing colour, you can't necessarily just bleach over it. They'll be able to tell what colours you'll get with the bleach or colour stripping, and they can help you grow it out gradually and elegantly.
Highlights and lowlights are great if you have deep pockets....I used to have my hair coloured in a hairdressers but I simply couldn't justify spending that kind of money on myself
That's what I have, brown hair with blonde / white highlights.
It used to be that you'd end up with brown hair with big yellow blonde streaks, like the spice girls :eek: But the techniques they use now are more sophisticated, and some fine highlights through the hair mainly has the effect of lightening the overall colour.
Oh.
Im not ready to go short
Anyway, still not dyed it yet and still not been to the hairdressers. There's a visible line now probably a centimetre wide. When I pull my hair to one side, it looks proper white in places, i think i am greyer than I expect!
As I used to have it coloured every 3 weeks, I can't say I haven't been tempted to run to my hairdresser crying, but I'm glad I've persevered.