When to start dying hair to cover greys?

[Terramirabilis]

I have never dyed my hair, not even a temporary dye so I am completely clueless. I have strawberry blonde hair with increasing amounts of grey coming through on top. It's not ultra-obvious since my hair has plenty of blonde mixed into the red and the grey somewhat blends with that. But there is starting to be more grey and I'm facing the fact that, since I don't want to have grey hair yet, I will have to start dying it sometime in the next couple of years.

As a newbie - how do I do that? How do I decide when there's enough grey to justify dying? What do I ask a hairdresser for? How hard is it to get dye done for very unusual hair colours (I almost never meet anyone who has the same mix of different coloured hairs which in combination make a dark strawberry blonde.)

Tbh I'm worried about ending up with a bad dye job having spent a lifetime with (no stealth boast here) beautiful hair. (the rest of me is not so beautiful but my hair really is great.)

Bump

I started dying my hair at 16, and haven't stopped since!

I used to do it all myself with box dyes, but now I'm older, and have a little more cash (and a good friend who's a hairdresser!), I go to my friend's salon. She's very good at doing clever subtle highlights to cover the grey, much better than I could do myself. I'd start there, and then if you feel it's something you can continue with, you can get advice on what colours and techniques to attempt yourself.

Go talk to a hair dresser, a good hair dresser. They will advise you what will work best for your hair and will keep it healthy. Go in for a consult, and if you are not happy with what they are recommending try somewhere else.

I have natural blonde hair that is a mixture of dark blonde and light red. It has also started to grey. Not significantly but it is there. I asked my hairdresser if highlights were the answer. He said no, use a glossing. Never heard of glossing but apparently it's a semi permanent cover job. I don't want cover though which the glossing would do. If you get highlights and it works, let me know!

I am the opposite to you and have just started growing out my dye after many many years of it. I'll embrace the grey
If your hair is a lovely colour can you consider just going with the grey?

She has beautiful hair because of the colour is what I am picking up. Letting it go grey is obviously not the same colour! I am in the same boat, grey hair can look fab but I like my natural colour as does the OP.

When you start to go grey, grey is your natural colour.

Don’t dye it, OP. You said yourself: you’re not the dyeing type. It won’t suit you.

I’d start by thinking of it as colouring rather than dying! And honestly, everyone does it. So it’s not such a huge, formal decision and can be done for fun or variety - not just to disguise a perceived fault. (I was the same OP - it felt shameful the first few times.)

Any good hairdresser will know what they’re doing - it’ll be fine.

(I’d honestly advise against DIY box dyes. But henna is rather fun to play with at home.)

She doesn't want grey hair, yet. Hence her post. Nor do I.

I prefer my gold hair colour than the stainless steel look that is to come.

Nothing wrong with grey hair, but I like my hair the way it is.

I was just coming on to ask this very same question OP, so I hope you don't mind me jumping on your thread!!

I don't have much grey but it's increasing, not visible unless you're looking closely but if you DO look closely it's definitely there, mostly hidden in the lower layers. Probably well under 5% of my hair is grey now (but I have a LOT of hair.)

Last year I got a semi-permanent tiny at the hairdresser which I loved at first, it was a little darker than my natural mousy-golden-brown but I LOVED it... then about 2-3 months in, it started going horribly brassy and gingery (no issue with natural ginger hair but brassy ginger on a person with the wrong colouring is hideous). Took months and months and months (a year, in fact) for my hair to go back to anything like its normal colour.

Now I'm REALLY put off colouring it but I'm starting to think the greys are increasing and I worry I'll look witchy in the next couple of years (long hair and always wear it up).

I'm short on cash, I HATE spending time at the hairdressers and so I'm just wondering if I should just not worry about the witchy look (!) and go grey slowly.

Or could I have subtle highlights? (Still don't want to spend too much on it though and the upkeep strikes fear into my heart. I worry that once you've started covering the grey it's an endless treadmill as if you stopped it would be a big shock to everyone rather than if you let it happen over the course of years.)

I'm 43. I don't want to go grey. My skin is good and I would rather not add years to myself with grey hair.

DILEMMA!!!

Any advice?

A semi-permanent TINT, not a tiny!!! Autocorrect...

Gosh this is actually me too! I have bright red hair which has lots of different shades in it as you say. I have quite a lot if grey (to be honest it’s more white-silver) coming through and am the same not sure what to do. When I’ve dyed my hair in the past it’s always looked too flat iyswim. I was going to try leaving it but the texture of the white hairs is different, not sure what to do about that. Following with interest!

You're right @Gannetseatfish, the texture of those pesky grey/white hairs is completely different!

I have dyed mine for years so I am just continuing that at the moment, however, I am finding I need to do it every 2-3 weeks now to hide the grey (plus my hair grows really fast). In between this I use a root touch-up from Superdrug and also have been known to pluck the odd stubborn one out!

The texture is the killer. I hate the thought of a whole headful of those wiry, dry hairs that don't behave themselves.

Have you thought about making up your own rinse from household ingredients? It can definitely be enough to cover grey however I have found it better lets the different tones in your hair show through.

Generally redbush tea gives red tones, coffee brown tones, camomile golden tones and turmeric golden tones (turmeric is quite powerful, so don't use too much)

I have naturally dark blonde hair but turned a pretty steely grey after chemotherapy. It was woolly too so I did not like the look, felt it aged me. Anyway I brew up 6 camomile teabags, 2 redbush teabags, a very small pinch of turmeric (use flat end of a teaspoon for about one eighth of a teaspoon) in a teapot and leave it till cool enough to pour on clean dry hair. This gives me mid ash blonde hair. I use this homemade tea rinse every time I was my hair. I fades after a wash but not completely.

For your hair maybe use mainly redbush tea with a smaller amount of camomile and coffee (forgot to say I add half a tsp to my pot of tea). Test it on a strand of hair first and then dry. Don't need to rinse, I leave it in. See if you like the colour.

A permanent dye is quite a commitment in terms of money and time and if you do decide to go natural you'll have a demarcation line.
These dyes , particularly the darker one have potentially risky chemicals.
PPD is one that people often become allergic to and it's banned in France.
If the grey isn't for you I'd recommend a shampoo out type toner that'll last a few weeks and fade uniformly .
Before I started to embrace the grey I used Wella Color Fresh. It won't completely cover the grey but it will make it tone in.