Transitioning to grey from brunette

[Girlintheframe]

Has anyone done this and if so how did you manage?

I've shoulder length brunette hair and have given up on the dye as was having to colour it so often.

It's come in white around my face and salt/pepper every where else.

I was coping really well but now with 5 inches of grey showing it's really starting to get me down. The contrast between the grey and brunette is really hard to live with.
Do I cut it all off (not convinced very short hair will suit me) or resign myself to wearing it up for the next year?

I've tried going lighter in the past but my hair is fine but very coarse and just doesn't respond to bleach well.

Any ideas?

@wowfudge

Well I think that too dark colour, which is what a lot of women tend to have to cover grey, is far more ageing as it draws attention to it. It's your face that shows your age far more though.

Agree. Or "blorange". Which is what a lot of us end up with when we are still dying but know it's not quite right. We are too dark for our older skin tone. Know that and they add a bit of light and "warmth" to try and get everything to work properly. It doesn't and we look worse.

On the FB I was on whilst transitioning absolutely most women look better grey. I am not saying they looked younger grey. But block-dyed trying to cover grey hair rarely, really makes someone look younger. And can often as you say, often the mismatch between dye and face makes you look older. Or just not quite right.

Grey hair often needs a few tweaks in your wardrobe/make up colours

• so this, with the matched skin/hair can make people glow. They may look "their age" - but there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We are never going to look like a 20 year old again, whatever we do with our hair.

I think you've made great progress. I would be reluctant to include any highlighting because inevitably the bleach will give your hair a yellow warm tone while your silver is cool toned . For now you could wear it tied back which will show it off more or chop it off . I chopped mine off six years ago when I went silver but it's each to their own . If you're on Facebook then join some grey groups , fabulous for helping you stay the course. The silver circle is great as is Silver revolution. Both mainly Americans but with enough European members too . On Instagram there are loads of silver ladies too . I was 49 when I did it from almost black to a silver pewter mix . I love it , don't feel remotely old and would never ever colour my hair again . Good luck whatever you decide .

Now, I've not done this but at Uni I had a friend who was a very vibrant redhead and died her hair black for years...this is how she grew the black dye out...pin.it/2uvifMZ

Silly question - is it possible to get grey 'highlights' put in?

I too am struggling with the brassy orange tones

I am going through this too. I have about 2-3 inches of natural grey, then the next 2-3 inches are the grown out previously brown dyed hair. My hairdresser lightened these ends and covered it with a really lovely grey toner, but over the weeks the orange really began to show through.

I can’t go back to see her for ages now - I travel a long way to where I used to live to have my hair done - because I’m in Tier 3, so I resorted to buying some Fade to Grey semi permanent toner. It’s been pretty good - it will need touching up every couple of weeks, but it took well and blended perfectly with my salt & pepper roots.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Silly question - is it possible to get grey 'highlights' put in?

Yes. A good hairdresser will advise you.

I'd already gone lighter and the first lockdown was the ideal opportunity to ditch the dye.

Next time I went to a hairdresser, she left the grey at the top and blended in half a head of highlights lower down. I'll have another half- head next time and that'll do it.

I love it, it's shoulder length now, the condition is so much better and I'm not enslaved to root touch-ups every 2 or 3 weeks.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

Silly question - is it possible to get grey 'highlights' put in?

Yes, I did. Did the pixie and then grey highlights to cover the roots/dyes demarcation line. Very old thread here of my transition www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/2316020-To-chop-or-not-Honest-opinions-please#prettyPhoto but the pic that shows it most is here. So you can see the highlights kind of blurred the line. But as per the thread - I did do the chop thing.

I cut it short with an undercut. Prior to this I had it bleached, went through a few mad colours then settled on dyed grey. When I had it cut it took most of the bleached damaged hair away. Now growing it back totally grey and people seem to think I’m still dying it grey (including DP) which is madness to me as I think it’s fairly obvious that it’s real.

@DesdaMoaner

Going against the grain here OP- sorry. I think you look too young to be grey.

I know it's not always a popular thing to say on here but in general, grey is ageing. I see it amongst the school gate mums I knew who are now in their 60s and those who have gone grey or salt and pepper do look much older than those who've had a bit of colour woven in.

I don't know your age but I'd put you somewhere between 45- 55 and think your hair would look great with some lowlights and warmth.

I'm 47 and tbh wouldn't go grey if I didn't have to.

My hair just won't take colour even with the hairdresser doing it. I've seen lots of women look beautiful with grey. Not younger but it seems to suit them better than the colour. I'm hoping that's going to be me

On display - you look fabulous!

This thread has given me so much confidence that I can do this! So many great ideas too about how to make the transition a bit easier.

Thank you to everyone who posted, I really appreciate it. You've all helped me get over my wobble

OnDisplay - it looks fabulous. Mine is much darker than yours. I think I will go for a bit of a chop at some point.

Thanks, Kipos, too!

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I'm going through the gritting my teeth stage, in the hope that eventually it'll be nice.

I am the same. Tended to put it up most of the time. My brown hair was dyed for many years so was very 'orange'. I finally caved and went to the hairdresser and she chopped it into a choppy bob, layering it at the back. I love it. I also use a purple shampoo which gives the grey a bluish tint and tones down the brassy orangey brown part of my hair. The layers look great because its made the grey look like blue streaks going through the brown/orange as she has chopped into it. Its the best thing ive done. Its stopped the demarkation line which was really getting me down.

Oh and I did go to the hairdresser originally but she said not to do anything to it and just go cold turkey. I did and now my hair is in pretty good condition.

A quick snap of my hair now

That is a side/back shot.

I hate my grey bits. I’ll be dying until I die but maybe get the salon to colour your hair grey while it grows out.

Looks gr8 op. Will grow out in a couple of hair cuts x

@girlintheframe your inspiration cut fab. So chic and modern, and it really shouldn't take long for your natural colour to reach that length.

I wish I could rock a short cut like that, but sadly I look dreadful with anything shorter than collarbone length. I'm really in it for the long haul

[quote Coronilla]@girlintheframe your inspiration cut fab. So chic and modern, and it really shouldn't take long for your natural colour to reach that length.

I wish I could rock a short cut like that, but sadly I look dreadful with anything shorter than collarbone length. I'm really in it for the long haul [/quote]
Thank you.

It's the shortest I can comfortably go I think.
Have ruined my hair with dying/bleaching it plus getting older seems to have changed the texture.
Hoping the grey grows in all glossy and healthy

@Girlintheframe I completely messed up my hair with dyeing/ 'caramel' highlights too, ended up breaking off so I had to have it all cut off. Even now it's never recovered and what's growing back is fluffy and thin and grey which I suspect is probably perimenopause related. I'll probably get mine chopped again at some point even though it doesn't really suit me.

Is there a nice darkish grey colour that I could use as I have a couple of inches of grey/white at my middle parting and the rest is a box dye light brown. Strangely apart from the middle parting a lot of my underneath colour is still dark and/or dark grey but not white.

I would love to find a temporary or semi permanent colour to maybe just get rid of the brown box dye and to get used to the grey growing in to transition. I would then decide if it suits me or to keep dying it lol.

[quote Liquorishlucy]@Girlintheframe I completely messed up my hair with dyeing/ 'caramel' highlights too, ended up breaking off so I had to have it all cut off. Even now it's never recovered and what's growing back is fluffy and thin and grey which I suspect is probably perimenopause related. I'll probably get mine chopped again at some point even though it doesn't really suit me.[/quote]
Sounds like your hair is like mine and hates bleach.
Quite annoying actually as I keep seeing all these fabulous dyed grey transformations but that's never going to be me!

I've been taking biotin from Solgar plus stopped dyeing and using heat. 🤞it helps!

Your grey is gorgeous next to your skin tone. It's going to look so good!

Following with interest; I don't have grey as such but a halo of white round my hairline and a sprinkle through the rest of my hair. I really dislike the white round my face as it drains my skin. I usually just colour this bit with Castings but it doesn't last five mins and leaves orangey tones behind
Has anyone used a grey toner? I love the look of steely hair but mine isn't growing through like that- the swine!