what dye is best if you are starting to go grey?

[tardisjumper]

I have had the odd grey hair since I was 18, and I have jsut hit 25. I now have a couple places on my head where the grey hairs (about 1%) are visible. People can see them when I point them out and are then quite shocked at how grey I am. At the hairdressers the other day when she was hairdrying the bits behind my ears I was really shocked to see how dull and grey they are. So I am resolved to start what will no doubt be a life long need to dye my hair.

I briefly asked the hairdresser what she thought and she suggested Balyage as it would only be needed a couple of times a year. I have quite wavy mid-length hair.

However, would this cover up the greys? I relaise I will have to spend some money to have this done well but I have just gasped at the cost of highlights which would have to be done every 2 months or so. Or would a full head tint be better?

1% sounds like barely anything. Do you really need to start a dyeing regimen? I know it feels crap when you first get them, but honestly I wouldn't think anything of seeing someone with 1% grey hair (if I could actually see them, and I doubt I could with that few). With highlights, you can get the roots/hair coloured and then do the highlights on top. Then each time you go back you can get the roots done, and the highlights redone if necessary. Or, as you imply, if you don't have many greys, you can skips the roots and just have the highlights. In that case, the idea is that the greys would blend in better, and with so few greys, that would probably be fine.

Either way, don't do what I did, which is dye my hair with box dye for years and end up with really horrible dark hair. I always picked a shade that was my colour, or the one below, and just did the roots every 6 weeks, but it still went way too dark. Now, with some help from my hairdresser, I've had highlights to lighten it, and now use a professional colour to do the roots which is a much lighter shade than anything I've used before (first the hairdresser did it and now I do it myself with the same product). It basically covers up the roots lightly, without changing the shade of the rest of the hair, and makes it look like I have natural highlights. After years of hating having to dye my hair only to end up looking crap, I now actually enjoy doing it. But getting professional advice was the key. Otherwise, in your situation with so little grey, I think it looks better natural.