How to let my white flash show after years of dying?

[ilovecherries]

I'm nearly 57 and my hair has absolutely minimal grey, except for a hereditary white flash at the front, which I've had for maybe 20 years. I've religiously dyed it to match my own hair colour, but I'm bored of constant touch ups. I've had a nasty virus for the last few weeks and had to cancel my last appointment, so I've got a good inch of regrowth, which means I'm seeing more of it than I've seen for a long time. It's a snow white now, rather than the steely grey it used to be, and is about an inch wide on each side of my face. The rest of my hair is a light brown, and as I say, the flash is dyed to match. My hair is to my collar bone, so it would be a mammoth job to grow out. Is there a way of helping it return to its natural white?

When I grew my grey hair in, I used platinum bleach to take my white section round my face to the lightest colour I could, which worked really well (I'd used colourb4 all over as well as I had a lot of other grey).

Go for it! I have exactly the same and it is so complimented and feels like my 'thing'. No idea about how as when I stopped dyeing mine, it was whole head colour and my hair was very short. Talk to your hairdresser and maybe have some high or low lights (I don't know what I am talking about) but it's really worthwhile and less of a pain than dyeing it! Good luck

Yeah, if I'm going to get this done, I need to go to a decent hairdresser. Well, it's not that mine isn't decent, but it's small town hairdressing, and she does what I like very well, but I wouldn't ask her to do a big change.

I am sure a good hairdresser would be able to dye it to match the roots without problem now it is visible.
I love the look of a Mallen streak and have quietly coveted my work colleague's one for years.

I have a white streak down the side of my longish hair. Everyone thinks it's been put there on purpose!

I'd have some white highlights put through that part and then let the rest grow out naturally.

I have a white streak at the front of what was dark hair but now with quite a lot of grey coming through. Got a bit sick of the badger look two weeks after colouring it so went the other way and got highlights. It's now nearly blonde all over, the grey blends in and the white streak looks fab!

Mallen streak :). Haven't heard it called that for years. That's what my grandma called it (she had it, still very visible when she died at 90, and my mum who is now 85 has only just lost hers to a more general grey in the last 5 years or so). My grandma loved Catherine Cookson!

Think my mum used to read them probably! She is almost your mum's age!
Can never remember what the correct scientific name is though.
Whatever you call it, they look fabulous, I can't believe you've been hiding it!

Just noticed I have a typo in my OP. It's been noticeable for about 40 years, not twenty, so I have been dying it every month for a LONG time. I probably had it even longer than that, but my hair was very blonde as a kid, and only darkened in my late teens. Would be quite nice not to have these boring monthly visits to the hairdresser. Can't imagine what I've spent on covering it up!