How to go gracefully grey from mid/dark brown?

[pearlkent]

I am clueless about professional hair-dying and colouring, having only ever done it myself at home (apart from one expensive and useless experience at a hairdressers).
I am mid-fifties, and my natural hair colour is/was mid/dark brown. Experimented with home hair dyes in my youth as a fashion thing, but as grey hairs appeared in late twenties/early thirties, I home-dyed my hair regularly (usually permanent dyes).
A few years ago I decided to switch to semi-permanent home dye, as the permanent colour seemed too harsh and damaging.

Anyway, my hair looks awful these days and I know I should accept the grey, as I hate the orangey-brown with grey roots look.

What should I do? It's shoulder length, straight and very fine/thin.

I need to find a very good hairdresser who specialises in this sort of thing - all I see on hairdressers' instagram accounts are young people's flowing locks with all sorts of balayage (sp?) things going on. I just need someone who can help middle-aged grey-haired people look nice.

Please help oh knowledgeable ones!

I'm doing this atm. My natural colour is very dark brown, but now I'm about 70% grey, and 90% grey on top. I'm having blonde highlights and a warm blonde on the roots, which is working really well. My hair is very thick and wavy, currently cut into a collar length bob. You do need a good hairdresser to work with you on this so that it happens subtly over time.

Have a look for a reputable salon who has a hair colour specialist. L’Oréal salons are great for this and you can search a salon in your area on their website. They’ll be able to offer you great advice and get you looking fabulous. Don’t be tempted by cheap salons. You need someone with extra training and will have to expect to pay for this

Hmmm, how to find a good hairdresser though? I'm in the London area if anyone has any recommendations, but would rather avoid flashy central London places with too many transient young and trendy staff.

How long will the transition take Flaming and how does it look in the interim period?

You do need a good hairdresser. I am going for this, hairdresser put some fine blonde amongst the grey/brown which has given me a kind of balayage, she has toned down the blonde a lot. I have to go back every three months until it finally grows out. Patience needed for this.

I will try and attach a before and after picture for you.

I have done this just last year. I had very dark brown hair, but started to go grey at 18, I had to have it coloured every four weeks at the salon, and I would touch up the roots every fortnight at home using the salon dye, my hair grows ridiculously fast! My hairdresser recorded I was 85% white, not even grey.😱

April 2016, I decided enough was enough, and went for it, by just having T section highlights, and leaving the underneath to its own accord. I am now described by everyone as a platinum / silver fox, I have some blonde highlights put in every couple of months, just to the T section, to cover the dark bits left.

Try it, it's really liberating, that said, I do sometimes get a bit of a shock looking at my blonde self...

It takes ages - sorry! It looks pretty good atm, no white stripe as the white regrowth blends with the highlights. It's quite different however being blonde when you've been a brunette all your life, and you do need to use very good shampoos and conditioner. The stuff you buy in the supermarket or Boots won't do. You need salon standard products.

Mine is a LOT greyer than madmum's. Like Philip I'm white, not grey and my hair grows very quickly, even in winter. I've managed to go from a maximum of four weeks between treatments to six now.

I'm naturally mid-brown with a slight ginger tinge, and now going pretty grey. It just looks drab and bleaurgh, unfortunately, so I can't see me achieving the dramatic white and silver look that some women can rock. I henna mine - Lush henna, just under 2 parts Marron to just over 1 part Brun. Makes it glossy chestnutty auburn and the greys/whites are a brighter gold. If I use all Marron it's too ginger, but that mixture works well. Makes my hair glossy and more full, too.

It's a faff to do, but if you're mainly touching up the roots then it's easier.

The other huge positive with henna is that it fades a bit over a couple of months in quite a natural way - the more you do it, the deeper the colour, so the ends will always retain colour (as have been repeatedly hennaed) but it fades quicker towards the roots so the regrowth looks pretty natural. You don't get that obvious cut-off line that you get with dye.

I have mid-dark brown hair and this: "It just looks drab and bleaurgh, unfortunately," was exactly how mine was getting.

I was 50 this year and, to be fair, most people said 'but you don't have any grey', but it was just getting dull and the grey was draining even though it didn't look grey as such.

I looked for ages for the best way to manage it - I have no issue really about being grey but my hair just looked dull and dirty.

So, after much reading, I decided a T section low-lights thing would be the answer. I've never had my hair dyed before, I dyed it once when I was 15 and it was rubbish.

I saw a new hairdresser about 2 months ago and she really understood my hair growth/shape issues and I felt comfortable with her, so I asked what she would do if I wanted to try dying it and she suggested a T section very fine low lights.......as her answer was the same as my research had thrown up, i decided to go for it.

I had it done today in fact. It's incredibly subtle, I really don't want to look like I have dyed hair, but just wanted to take the steely grey edge off it, and I think it looks great. Despite having blue eyes and pale skin I went for a reddish dark brown, I do have some natural golden and reddish tints so I think it matches fine (she had suggested a cooler ash brown, but I felt the reddish would work). I've rebooked for Feb when she will redo the roots and maybe weave in another colour of lowlights.

I was very worried about looking stripey, but I don't. I didn't want a full dye as I would never cope with root growth and I am not bothered about covering all grey, just breaking it up a bit.

I would say it took me just under a year, but my hair grows ridiculously fast, and it's in a short bob.

The first photo shows the root regrowth under neath that had been left for seven weeks. The brown coloured bits are quite transparent-as my hair is really resistant to colour now. The back for some reason is grey, whereas the sides are pure white.