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!)

Im not sure there is an option if you have conpletely grey hair that has been dyed with permanent colour.

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've recently decided to take the plunge and go grey. I can't keep up with colouring it. It grows so fast and there is now so much grey (around my parting especially) that my colour only lasts about 2 weeks before starting to look crap.

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.

My hairdresser uses a demi-permanent colour on my hair. She says it lasts longer than semi.

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.

I had the same dilemma. I did have my hair cut quite short to get rid of all the dyed hair and then grew it into a jaw-length bob. My hair is grey at the front but still quite dark at the back. The feeling of never having to mess around with hair dye again is akin to giving up smoking.

Grey hair can look good and chic - but it can look ageing too. However, there IS that sense of liberation if that's the way you have decided to go. I'm still having far too much fun with my purples and reds to want to let nature take over, and grey roots are easily covered with a bit of eye pencil, or a root touch-up until the next time. I'd be grey too if I allowed it!

There are products that remove dye - such as this? I've no idea how good it is and am certianly not making any recommendations, just saying it could be worth investigation.

http://www.boots.com/en/Colour-B4-Ha...egory+-+Beauty

I started growing mine out, got to about ear length then decided to colour again, just for something different. I do wish I'd persevered with it, it was so nice not to have to colour it (and I hennaed, leaving it on for 9 hours a pop every 4/5 weeks). I'm only about 30% grey, so it's not such a shock growing it out. I will definitely grow it out again as I think it looks much nicer and natural, rather than block colour hair with ageing skin. We all grow older, there is nothing shameful in looking your age and I think healthy hair is much nicer than dyed hair.

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!

Couldn't you have your hair dyed the color you think it actually is. Then, as it grows out, it wouldn't show.

Unfortunately they don't sell a hair dye that is grey at the front and dark at the back.

Highlights are the best answer to mask the grow-through. More on the top to high the obvious roots and a few through the back to even things up. Everyone's hair is naturally darker underneath as it gets less natural sun lightening. Highlights won't need to be done as often as a block dye, so you'll get 6-8 weeks between colours instead of the 3-4 you get with a block colour.

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!)

Won't semi permanent just mean you need to do it more often as it will wash out faster than perm will grow out?

I'm interested in the answer to how to transition to grey/white gracefully as I'm in the same position but my natural hair colour was originally very dark so if I don't dye it it's a horrible salt a pepper mix that I have never liked (on anyone not just on me). I was getting highlights which means the grey doesn't show up so much when it comes through but it costs about £150 a go so I went back to £5 home dye.

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.

I have white /blonde highlights in my hair. I started to go grey around 5 years ago. So, I started having highlights put in. Its blends the grey / white / blonde together so you can't tell whats natural and what isn't.

Having seen Strictly Dancing: It Takes Two tonight, I guess Anita Dobson is an example of a successful transition to grey hair. Personally, I hated the grey hair but it was done well.

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

would blonde highlights look ok brown hair though? well, the remaining brown bits?

Do a Google image search for brown hair blonde highlights and you'll see hundreds of examples of how it can look. It's a perfectly normal combination.

That's what I have, brown hair with blonde / white highlights.

I have stopped dying my hair and now have grey hair. I think the trick is to keep it short, cut well and with plenty of conditioner and shine products. Nothing worse than long, dull, grey hair, really ageing. If it is well looked after it looks great.

It used to be that you'd end up with brown hair with big yellow blonde streaks, like the spice girls 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!