I just popped on S&B to see how the people who had stopped dyeing their hair over lockdown were getting on....can’t come on here too often as it always costs me money!
I am similar to you. I am 40 and have quite pale skin and did have very dark brown almost black hair (think Irish colouring). My hair and akin are very very cool in tone, so when I was dyeing my hair dark brown it was never great as they often have orangey/red tones to them. I got my first grey hairs when I was about 14 and have been dyeing it since.
Probably around 5 years ago now I started to go lighter as I had so much white/grey that it was visible around 2-3 weeks after a dye and also the dye was fading on the naturally lighter areas and starting to look really orangey. I decided to get highlights to break up the growth line a bit. That wasn’t really very successful and so in the end I got more and more highlights/lowlights (still not really sure about all this blonde terminology) and went blonde.
I had my colours done years ago and they warned me never to go blonde or have any warmth in my hair due to having such a cool skintone. So I had to go quite a pale, ashy blonde.
I now haven’t dyed my hair since January. I had an appointment in March for highlights just after lockdown began so missed that and didn’t have much choice other than to see how things went.
I have a pure white streak off centre at the top on the other side to my parting, the rest is more grey and then underneath at the back of my head it is still fairly dark. My hair on top now seems quite naturally streaky so it blends in really well with the highlighted bits even though I probably have about 3-4 inches of undyed roots. I like it when it is down but when it is tied back the different in colour around my head and from roots to tips is more obvious.
I had decided I would go with it and grow it out completely, however I have caved and booked an appointment for after lockdown 😬
My hairdresser does a half head of highlights but spilt over my whole head so they are more spaced out. I was having it dyed too often (I think that was habit from dyeing it dark so often) and the bottom half is a fairly block blonde now. I think if I only get a few highlights once or twice a year going forward it will be enough to break up the colour but with lots of the natural showing through.
When I see pictures of younger people who look great having gone grey/white they are usually very groomed, wear lipstick, style their hair etc. I’m not really like that so I think it could age me quite a lot if I went totally natural.
I miss my natural hair so much but apart from in photos I’ve pretty much accepted my new hair.
My hair is also loads softer and stronger now and finally seems to be growing longer.