How to turn grey without harsh regrowth. Colour advice needed!

[Lipstickgal]

Hello, I am tired of dying my hair. At the moment it is an unnatural red/brown. My regrowth is very grey with an ash brown cast- very cool toned. I would think I am 70% grey. I want to transition now but I am unsure how to proceed. I want to go lighter but will need to strip out the colour first. What is the lightest/ coolest shade of brown that I can buy that will go over bleached hair and will allow me just to grow the grey in?

Watching with interest as I was pondering exactly the same myself this morning.

I did try to dye a light ash brown a couple of months ago but it took on an orangey tinge so I resorted back to my usual colour which seems a bit too dark for me now.

Use colourb4 extra strength three times to get rid of as much colour as possible (you'll be suprised what it does), then an ash blonde layer to cool it, then think about some cap highlights to blend it through

I agree you could try the colourB4 on it - you should have good results. I'm going to do a "pros and cons of using ColourB4" post shortly - there's a lot to consider as to whether it is a good option. But if you do use it, I would use a Dark Ash Blonde, and I would then find the money to go to the hairdresser and get a full head of bleach highlights (though I would wait about 4-6 weeks for your hair to recover and for some grey to grow in)

This will break up the grey.

You might look less than ideal for a while, it won't be your dream colour, no, but if you want to grow the grey in it has to be done.

Don't know what length your hair is but if you were considering a short bob or something different and your hair is long, somewhere along this process would be an ideal time to do it, and speed up the transitional process. It will always grow again but you just might like it.

But I think the transitional process should involve some hairdresser done highlights to make the transition more attractive for you, or you are going to have a scary line. Hairdresser done highlights and lowlights will help a lot.

Very extreme- but my mum wore a wig for a while until her colour grew out and snowy white hair emerged.

She then had a fab short cut and looked years younger!

That's not a bad idea BinEnd - a wig! I've always wanted an excuse to wear a wig (though one should be careful what they wish for) so if I ever go "cold turkey" on hair colour that is what I will do!

can you not go to the hairdresser?
stripping out colour and playing around with new colours is very tricky- you need an expert colourist to guide you.

If you don't want to go down the highlights / stripping out route you can always use a temporary root cover up like this one till the worst of the rootage has passed:

Roux Fanci-Full

You use it like a styling mousse (though I think you can get one in just a lotion form as well) and it washes out each time you wash your hair.

Probably works best for growing out shorter styles though I guess.