Who wants to go grey with me?

[Flangeofmingetown]

I have had enough with the faff of dyeing my hair. Bleach.dye.bleach.dye every two weeks.

Dye is not enough on it's own. It just washes straight off. I have tried every brand there is and I just am so bored with the whole malarky.

I have short hair so could be done by May. I have inherited the silver gene from both my parents who both went gray prematurely (in their twenties) and have had grey hairs since my teens. Now I have a pure white halo around 3/4's of my hairline and is is noticeable even days after double processing.

I really like salt and pepper hair -have no problem with it and think it looks better than a dye job any day but it's the growing out phase that is excruciating.

Anyone care to join/have a good old moan/support/offer some tips etc?

I started out with raven black hair but am very grey (or white) underneath.
1 I think the grey/white is a nice colour but the white will make me look older; I have a fairly unlined face. I will be 50 is April!
2 my husband doesn't mind me going grey but would much prefer my hair long, I know (it is shoulder length) so I don't want to cut it
3 it is curly and there is a slight problem with wanting an needing to look groomed for work - I think a sleek straight white bob would be stylish, but I am not sure about unruly curls. I really don't have tome to blow dry it all straight and I don't think that would be good for the condition
4 I do quite fancy trying out "platinum blonde but
5 I still have thick dark eyebrows
6 I am currently very badger as I just don't have time to dye it every 10 days which is what I'd need to keep the roots at bay.

I am wondering about going for a consult at Galvin's - there is a Galvin version of Colour B4, has any one used it?

Could I go to a salon like that and get the colour taken out do you know?

It's funny CMOTdibbler, I followed your advice on the dehumidifier (which I love) and I am now wondering re the colour stripping. I even have a box of colour B4 in the bathroom, but am scared that it will ruin my hair.(coward).

Colour B4 did nothing for my hair so I'm just leaving it now. I need to keep it chin length rather than crop as the due is uneven now; highlights, remains of dye, grey, and it looks better pinned up.

Watching with interest as I have stopped using salon dyes or chemical home box root touch ups. Nothing too bad has happened and I actually think that I have less grey than I thought I did.

Last salon dye was in August and last root touch up was in mid November. Have a separate thread going about using colour depositing conditioner from Aveda, which I have just discovered and really like.

Colour B4 faded my dye a bit but didn't get rid of it. I used home highlighter kits to lighten it even more. Eventually you just have to stop with the highlights/stripping etc and put up with the stripe.

You can see the contrast between my grey regrowth and the old stripped/highlighted hair on this photo. This is after 11 months of regrowth. The blonde bit on the end is driving me mad but the contrast doesn't look that bad (better than the badger stripe look).

There are more photos of The Transition on my profile.

TheFarSide I think your grey hair looks fab.

Glad you like the dehum Herecomesthesun Colourb4 really didn't wreck my hair at all, and I did it 3 times.

Thefarside - you look great!

I think there is a huge difference between home dye and a salon professional colour- especially if it is with a colourist who specialises in older hair.

" I look like a scruffy badger "

I think that sums up cheap hair dye !

Thanks for the compliments Hilary & CMOT.

My real hair is now so white I really had no choice but to give up dyeing it. The pure white regrowth needed topping up every two weeks. I think it would have been obvious even if I'd had a professional salon job.

Professionals can probably help you grow out more gracefully, though.

I gave up dyeing my hair to cover the ever increasing grey hairs and had it cropped super short instead.

I love this! I've been dyeing my hair at home for about 2 years and getting it done in the salon for the past 4 months. I'm sick of being disappointed in paying crap loads of cash for boring hair.

I'm only 30 but have been slowly going grey for 6 years. I don't think I have enough grey but I don't care. I'm giving myself until July and then chopping off my hair into a pixie cut and stopping the dye.

Although, I probably will keep tinting my eyebrows for a while though.

okaaaay - I've been to supercuts today, and now I have an asymmetrical cut, with loads of that weird scissoring so the grey shows. No going back!

I'm joining you.
I tried before but gave in. However I currently have a chin length bob with a ridiculous mish mash of highlights over brown hair and an emerging white streak at the parting with a scatter of greys.

In the light the white ones shine and look prettier than all the covering stripes. So I am going for it!!!! I'm going to take a pic tonight and then document it . I'm about an inch of roots at the mo so a good time to start!

I'm pondering joining you.

I have what two months ago was a short curly pixie cut, though, and my hair is dark brown

I have about a cm of grey/ white in different parts of my hair (left temple mostly), threads elsewhere, have noticed a few wild white hairs around my face, but the rest is still quite dark...

Oh, and the last time I went to the hairdresser (have been having cut and colour every 6-8 weeks) she put a chunky copper streak in the front.

I can't decide whether to ignore it for another two weeks (probably a month) and then chop all the dye off to a really short crop and see what happens, or whether to try and grow it AND go grey at the same time.

Ultimately I want to grow it again, and stop the dye.

I need to cut it all off, don't I?

At the mo I look like one of Harry Enfield's Scousers. With re growth.

It is Not Good.

Arabella - you clearly suit the short pixie look and you're not afraid to go shorter so I'd say grow out as much as you can and go as short as you dare. I did that and the pain was over in just a few months, then I could grow it out a little more. But mine is still very short.

If I looked good with a pixie cut, then I'd have def cut it all off. And much easier to go from that point

Still cracking on with it! I have bought a silver semi perm to bung just on the oxidised tips which have turned really brassy. I know it won't turn silver but hope it will blend it a bit better. My hair seems to grow twice as fast on the temples compared to the top.

Thefarside - wow you have stunning platinum hair. Look at the shine on that. Beautiful.

Thank you Flange :)

Thanks, papa. I think you're right - I'll try and get another inch out of it and then go for the chop as short as I can. Then grow it.

I have been looking at the avatars on the gray cafe. Omg. These women look amazing! The contrasts are awesome, and I am in envy of their acceptance of the two-tone growth over such extended periods of time. They look great!

arabella i'm now toying with a very short cut once I've got another inch or so. But I'm worried that I'll hate the cut and the colour. And it'll be two rotten things to look at in the mirror.

Exactly! How long is yours at the mo, bonzo? Mine has grown out and the longer sections on top are about 2 1/2 inches (this is at least an inch longer than it normal is, and the back is usually razor cut...) at the mo the top is a fetching 3/4 inch of uncoloured/ grey dark brown, then an inch of washed out copper, then dark tips where it was coloured to my natural dark brown before (but of course a shade darker ;-) )

To be honest, I'm more worried about growing out the pixie than the grey... (Mm, maybe). Mine is curly, so it's great short (and the shorter the better, and a bit longer and I can straighten it) but there's going to be a gap of about 6 months where the curl is going to look really very odd. And once it gets past a couple of inches, it laughs in the face of a 5 minute straightener attack. And then everyone else laughs at me. The last time I let it grow a little, I was likened to Kevin Keegan... This is not a good look.

I've become obsessed with some poor woman on the gray cafe who (if I'm very lucky) will be my hair twin in 12-18 months. I don't think she did it via the pixie though, so I can't even ask her how she managed the curl in the interim. I'm mildly concerned about the grandma/ Kevin Keegan perm look until it grows out...

I suspect I might have to keep it short for a few months to get used to the colour, and then maybe start growing it in, say, August, and wear a hat until may... I still don't think that will be long enough....

Papa, are you keeping yours short, now?

OMG! I have had my hair cut today and have an inch of grey stripe! looks horrendous!

arabella mine is in a sort of graduated bob, chin length at the front then graduated up at the back kind of like this but a bit sharper and longer at the front. I guess I have about 3cm of natural roots, then the same of slightly brassy brown where I used too light a shade on my roots, then the ends are a nice warm medium brown. The very short bits nearest my hairline at the back are all natural now. Actually, having not seen my natural hair colour for a looooong time, I was interested to see how dark and "cool" it is (the bits that are not white obviously. While I was googling images of my current cut, I found this. I want!

Yours is definitely straighter than mine, bonzo... I'm looking for something the same sort of length, but curly. Our colour sounds tragically similar.

I've booked a cut for next weds, but having read solo's post am starting to fret! Solo, how short did you go?