starting the plunge from dyed hair to gray & brown

[AMJ]

Well, everyone, I've decided I've had about enough of all of this dye business.  I'm going to start transitioning my hair from fully dyed to it's "natural" dark brown color to letting the gray show through.  I've been reading online a bit, trying to figure out how to do this without necessarily rocking the ever-widening skunk stripe, and I will likely employ a mixture of tactics:

• letting the roots grow out for a couple of months,
• talking to my hair stylist about low-lights to blur the line of demarcation,
• using semi-permanent dyes of gradually weakening strength for the low-lights,
• pony tail at times (even though on me they end up looking severe)
• eventually (when the grown-out portion is long enough) getting a short cut to get rid of the rest (and then growing out my short cut, or not)

I've been needing more and more frequent "touch-ups" to not have the obvious roots shining like a beacon on top of my dark hair.  I haven't been able to keep up with it, and when I had to put off my most recent appointment for the sake of a funeral a few weeks ago I resorted to a root touch-up kit from the pharmacy to tide me over.  I didn't leave it on for very long, and it didn't take as well as it used to.  Some of my gray roots started shining through, but not in the blatant way they were before.  I actually rather liked the effect, and so I figured perhaps this is actually achievable in a graceful manner.

 

Part of the reason I had been dying my hair so determinedly for so long was because my grays weren't coming in uniformly, as a scattering of salt in the pepper.  No, I had entire PATCHES of nearly solid white, with patches of very dark brown and other areas of dark brown with some grays scattered through.  I didn't want to be taken (again) for my own kids' grandmother (yup, had that happen when my eldest was 4), and I was self-conscious about the piebald look.  When examining my roots I have noticed that I seem to have more white than brown now, so even though the transition will be even more difficult not to have noticed I think it's high time.

 

I have also, in the past year or so, noticed that my hair has now thinned to the point where my scalp shines through if it's not combed just so (for the pony tail), or if my cowlick is being wild again.  This effect is most noticeable when my hair is freshly dyed that nice, uniform DARK brown.  I don't like light hair on me, though, and my eye brows are still all dark brown (and I didn't like it when I did try having them dyed).  If I'm going to lighten up my hair I may as well let it be my own natural white, with natural brown here and there.  I did notice that even though the gray root patches have hair that is just as thin it didn't look like it, because the white hair color was less of a contrast to my scalp.

 

And I am counting on the coarser texture of my undyed gray hair to fluff up the volume a bit.  At least I do hope that is the result.

 

All of this will take quite some time. They say that hair usually grows about 1/2" per month, so to get the color all grown out and have my hair the length it is now will take 32 months at least.  I will likely shorten this by having it cut shorter at some point, but I think I can still count on spending a couple of years on the transition (unless I get a Jamie Lee Curtis pixie cut).  DH reminds me that we can always shorten it even further by using the same #2 comb and hair clippers I use to cut his hair.  :drool5:

 

So, anyone else out there considering this, going through it, or have already gone through it?

 

[Melissa in Australia]

:hurray:

embrace the grey and let your wisdom show :coolgleamA:

 

 

says me who is quickly going grey

[Jann in TX]

I vote for low-lights...  I have dark brown hair too.  When youngest dd was a baby/toddler my grey really started coming in (I was early 40's).  I did the all-over color thing for a few years.  A few years ago I started the transition.  I did a combination of low-lights and high-lights then after about 6 weeks I have only low-lights put in.  For touch ups I make sure the stylist leaves some visible greys so it blends well.  The last time I had my hair done (early summer) I had a few high-lights put in (just for fun since I dramatically shortened my hair)...next week I'm only having a few low-lights put in to blend in the abundance of greys...

 

My sister is 2 years older than me (our youngest children are same age)... she has gone naturally grey--probably 75% grey now--and it looks good on her. She does look like her 12yr old's grandmother (but perfect as her 26 yr olds mother!).  She also looks quite a bit older than me.

[PhotoGal]

Be prepared that your hairdresser may try to talk you out of it!

 

I tried letting the gray grow in for about 6 months. I liked the way my hair looks gray. I wore hats or a headband/bandana so the line didn't really show. The problem I had was that people were always looking at me quizzically - like they were trying to figure out how old I was. This was several years ago and my face still looked pretty young (I was in my mid-30s). They were trying to figure out what was going on. Was I old with a young face or young with old hair? I got tired of the attention, I guess.

 

Also, for me, my hair looked thinner when it was gray. I think because my scalp got a little pink from the sun and it was much more visible with my gray (almost white on top). I realized why some older ladies sometimes puff their hair up from their scalp. Ponytails looked terrible on me at that time.

 

I'm back to touching up roots, but I don't do the rest, so there is some gray in my hair still. I am fine with that until I actually have grandchildren, then I'm going all gray again! 

[Penguin]

Me!! I am trying out going natural. I am 50 and had my first grey hair at age 26.

 

When I was 41, I had chemo treatment for breast cancer. My hair grew back completely salt-and-pepper, but I was not yet ready for that look.

 

Right now, my hair is very long and very thick. The roots are about 1 1/2 inches, but I am colored blonde. The line isn't terribly harsh. But if I stick this out, I guess I will get a big chop at some point.

 

I would love to have a long, thick, grey braid. Maybe dye in some purple streaks from time to time :). My style has always tended toward bohemian, so I think I should do it. But I admit that my committment to the idea is weak right now. I'm just experimenting.

 

Keep us updated!

 

ETA: Search Pinterest with "Going Grey Gracefully." There are several inspiring boards.

[swellmomma]

I have not dyed my hair since I was 30.  I started going grey in my late 20s and have continued to do so, thankfully at a decently slow pace.  I have long dark brown hair with the grey hairs smattered through out.  I do generally wear my hair in a ponytail for ease at work since I am either working with kids or preparing food, both of which are better with hair tied back.  I don't yet look lie my children's grandparent, in fact a week ago someone thought I was younger than I am (I am 37, they thought 30).  I hope to one day be rocking a long grey braid, but in the meantime I am just easing into having greys.  I think for me what has kept me looking my age even with the greys is that I am overweight and it has prevented me from having facial lines/wrinkles just yet.  I can see if I had the ones typical of someone my age coupled with the greying hair I would look much older I think.

[Lolly]

I have done it. My color was semi perm which did help with the process. My hair dresser told me that with my hair color, the low lights stuff just didn't actually help at all. Seems that really works best with lighter hair or something. She was willing to do it, but I trusted her that it didn't help much. Her advice was to just bite the bullet and let it go. It took over a year. it did look a little funky, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would. And, I am not as grey as I thought I was! (But, I am still quite grey.) I was going to chop off all the colored hair once I had let it grow a while. Turns out I didn't need to. I was able to wait until it was fairly long, and then had layers cut in to help with the distribution of color. I was sort of reverse whatever that style is where kids have their hair darker at the roots and lighter on the ends/underside. Anyway, I actually like my grey now. I have lovely stripes of pure white in places with salt and pepper the rest. I highly recommend just letting it go.

[Guest]

. I was sort of reverse whatever that style is where kids have their hair darker at the roots and lighter on the ends/underside

Ah! The "Ombre."

[kewb]

I totally get the ugly patches of gray instead of lovely salt and pepper. I am also waiting for more spread out gray so I cam embrace it and stop dyeing my hair.

One of my friends dis low lights while transitioning and her hair looked great.

Good luck.

[flyingiguana]

I totally get the ugly patches of gray instead of lovely salt and pepper.

I blame Cruella deVille for ruining this look

[Tohru]

I have the Rouge from X-men look, if she had thin hair.  I have been considering dying it, but wanted to find out what to do when it was time to let it grow out so I popped in to this thread :) 

 

I've heard the best solution was the demi-permanent dye on the roots and as it grows out, it washes out too.  My mother went with the extreme pixie cut and just cut it off as it grew.  It looks cute on her, but I'm a fan of long hair too so I think I'd wear a head scarf while to grows. 

 

Whichever way you go, I'm sure it will look lovely.

[Plateau Mama]

I would love to go grey, but my husband hates the idea. So, alas, I will continue to color just for him.

[TranquilMind]

Well, everyone, I've decided I've had about enough of all of this dye business.  I'm going to start transitioning my hair from fully dyed to it's "natural" dark brown color to letting the gray show through.  I've been reading online a bit, trying to figure out how to do this without necessarily rocking the ever-widening skunk stripe, and I will likely employ a mixture of tactics:

• letting the roots grow out for a couple of months,
• talking to my hair stylist about low-lights to blur the line of demarcation,
• using semi-permanent dyes of gradually weakening strength for the low-lights,
• pony tail at times (even though on me they end up looking severe)
• eventually (when the grown-out portion is long enough) getting a short cut to get rid of the rest (and then growing out my short cut, or not)

I've been needing more and more frequent "touch-ups" to not have the obvious roots shining like a beacon on top of my dark hair.  I haven't been able to keep up with it, and when I had to put off my most recent appointment for the sake of a funeral a few weeks ago I resorted to a root touch-up kit from the pharmacy to tide me over.  I didn't leave it on for very long, and it didn't take as well as it used to.  Some of my gray roots started shining through, but not in the blatant way they were before.  I actually rather liked the effect, and so I figured perhaps this is actually achievable in a graceful manner.

 

Part of the reason I had been dying my hair so determinedly for so long was because my grays weren't coming in uniformly, as a scattering of salt in the pepper.  No, I had entire PATCHES of nearly solid white, with patches of very dark brown and other areas of dark brown with some grays scattered through.  I didn't want to be taken (again) for my own kids' grandmother (yup, had that happen when my eldest was 4), and I was self-conscious about the piebald look.  When examining my roots I have noticed that I seem to have more white than brown now, so even though the transition will be even more difficult not to have noticed I think it's high time.

 

I have also, in the past year or so, noticed that my hair has now thinned to the point where my scalp shines through if it's not combed just so (for the pony tail), or if my cowlick is being wild again.  This effect is most noticeable when my hair is freshly dyed that nice, uniform DARK brown.  I don't like light hair on me, though, and my eye brows are still all dark brown (and I didn't like it when I did try having them dyed).  If I'm going to lighten up my hair I may as well let it be my own natural white, with natural brown here and there.  I did notice that even though the gray root patches have hair that is just as thin it didn't look like it, because the white hair color was less of a contrast to my scalp.

 

And I am counting on the coarser texture of my undyed gray hair to fluff up the volume a bit.  At least I do hope that is the result.

 

All of this will take quite some time. They say that hair usually grows about 1/2" per month, so to get the color all grown out and have my hair the length it is now will take 32 months at least.  I will likely shorten this by having it cut shorter at some point, but I think I can still count on spending a couple of years on the transition (unless I get a Jamie Lee Curtis pixie cut).  DH reminds me that we can always shorten it even further by using the same #2 comb and hair clippers I use to cut his hair.  :drool5:

 

So, anyone else out there considering this, going through it, or have already gone through it?

Go to Sally's and buy a couple of bottles of the "Color Remover".  That will take out most of what you have in there without damage, so you don't have that half brown-half gray look.  Then you can decide what to do.   I was even able to remove permanent black hair color from my blonde daughter, and about 90% came out.  Very impressed. 

[TranquilMind]

I would love to go grey, but my husband hates the idea. So, alas, I will continue to color just for him.

I could shave my head, and my husband might say, "Hey, you look different...what IS it?"

 

Works for me.  ;) 

[TranquilMind]

I totally get the ugly patches of gray instead of lovely salt and pepper. I am also waiting for more spread out gray so I cam embrace it and stop dyeing my hair.

One of my friends dis low lights while transitioning and her hair looked great.

Good luck.

Yeah, mine didn't naturally go beautifully silver, as did my spouse's.  Mine is all kinds of colors, so I just cover the gray with the lightest I ever was.  Seems to work ok. 

[SKL]

I have never colored my hair and don't intend to.  I like having natural highlights, especially since they're free.  :)

[mommymonster]

I am 95% gray, and dyed my hair for about 20 years. Three years ago I decided to go gray. For a sad bit of "practical" math, calculate how much money I've spent dying my hair, assuming I paid $100 per month, every month, for 20 years.  :crying:

 

I did go the low-lights/high-lights option for the first six months. Then I just stopped altogether and got a shorter haircut. Yes, it was somewhat awkward looking. However, since I've been gray, I've been stopped by so many people that compliment it and then ask how to do it. That's all nice and good, but I **really** love not dying my hair every 4-6 weeks. The only people who have been critical of the decision are hair dressers. They've been downright hostile. I get it, though -- a hair cut is an annoyance. A dye job with highlights or low lights is real money.

 

Honestly, if I had to do it again, I would get my head shaved for charity (St. Baldrick's Foundation is an amazing charity --  your head gets shaved for cancer research) and just be done with it. Of course, my son has a pediatric brain tumor, so the cause is near and dear to my heart. I still might do it, just to support the cause.

[AMJ]

Ah! The "Ombre."

 

Is that what it's called?  I'm tempted to get myself a 10-gallon hat and call it the "Hombre" look.

[Seasider]

I would not mind the gray, but for two reasons I still have it colored (foiled, mix of hi and lowlights, to blend). For one, the underlying color is really drab. My hair color, even when young and no gray, has always been rather bland. A mix of gray and some other pretty shade wouldn't bother me, but gray on drab was just depressing (I started getting a good bit of gray pretty young, a family heritage).

 

Second, my hair without color to rough up the hair is totally flat. I have a lot of hair, but each hair is fine. I need the texture that color treating provides, or else my hair just lays flat on my head with little lift or bounce.

[Peaceful Isle]

Henna thickens the hair and is a natural dye that works wonders on my premature grey hair. Just FYI

[flyingiguana]

I am 95% gray, and dyed my hair for about 20 years. Three years ago I decided to go gray. For a sad bit of "practical" math, calculate how much money I've spent dying my hair, assuming I paid $100 per month, every month, for 20 years.  :crying:

 

I did go the low-lights/high-lights option for the first six months. Then I just stopped altogether and got a shorter haircut. Yes, it was somewhat awkward looking. However, since I've been gray, I've been stopped by so many people that compliment it and then ask how to do it. That's all nice and good, but I **really** love not dying my hair every 4-6 weeks. The only people who have been critical of the decision are hair dressers. They've been downright hostile. I get it, though -- a hair cut is an annoyance. A dye job with highlights or low lights is real money.

 

THAT is the big reason I won't dye my hair.  The idea of having to show up at a hairdresser's every month is just too much for me.

 

I haven't been to a hair place in years.  I taught my kids how to cut my hair.  As long as they're around, I don't intend to spend money on hair cuts.  And they've now figured out how to cut their own hair as well, so I don't even have to do that anymore.

 

My oldest now has a fancy hair cutting kit where she can cut close and shave her neck, so she does do pretty short hair cuts on herself.  My second has advanced to cutting layers on her own long hair (and has a youtube video showing how to do it.  I don't know how helpful it is, but it's fun....).

 

The only person in our family who still gets his hair cut professionally is my husband.  I've suggested our oldest can do it with her hair cutting kit, but I think he's afraid he'll get his ear cut.

 

[flyingiguana]

I do occasionally dye my gray streak pink or purple.  Then, when the roots grow out, no one thinks they look any odder than the original pink.  (The only person who has not commented on this is my boss.  I don't know if he's being polite or if his red-green colorblindness means the color doesn't jump out at him)

 

I do see the occasional gal with a really nice dye job, but I know she's paid a lot for it and it's not in my budget.  More commonly, I see so-so dye jobs that I'd really rather not have -- they're probably cheaper.

[flyingiguana]

I have the Rouge from X-men look, if she had thin hair.  I have been considering dying it, but wanted to find out what to do when it was time to let it grow out so I popped in to this thread :)

 

 

I had to look that up.  Wow, the comic version of that Rogue character is fairly thick in some other areas too.  Not just her hair.