Hairdressers - a magazine/inspiration for someone contemplating highlights?

[WellTidy]

I’m 45 and started to go grey in my 20s. Started off colouring it (always at a hairdressers) with semi permanent to match my natural shade of dark brown. And then when semi wasn’t covering well enough, I started having all over tints (just covering the roots and then taking it through the length for the last ten minutes), and I’ve done that for about 8 years.

I haven’t had it coloured since December, so I have about an inch or so of regrowth. It’s a bit salt and pepper in patches, but white in other patches and streaky grey in other areas!

And I have the godawful demarcation line.

I am now trying to contemplate what to do going forward. I’m not ready to grow out the grey. I think I’d like to not have one block colour anymore, but I am trying to avoid a demarcation line. So I think I might have a few colours in the foils, one very close to my natural colour to try and avoid the harsh line when it starts to grow through.

I have no idea what to ask for though. I think I need a full head of foils because I have real patches of white, but I know nothing about colour to know what to ask for. I don’t want to have any blonde as my eyebrows are dark and my natural colour is dark brown. This is why I think seeing a photo I like that I can show the hairdresser will be the best thing for me. I really want to know what I’d like before my appointment, and then talk it through with her.

Any steers to a magazine please?

Thanks!

Look for tags on Instagram like “growing out grey” “embrace the grey” and such like and you will find many pictures. Or search Google images with similar search terms. Magazines a bit old hat!

This is where I am struggling though. I don’t know what to look for! I don’t want to grow out the grey, or embrace the grey, I’m just not ready for that (though I think it’s great that those who want to do).

I want to have colour that won’t leave a demarcation line, or as little of one as possible, and I think I need foils for that, and I think I need more than one colour. But I don’t know!

I have ash blonde highlights in my mid brown hair which hides to a limited extent the white regrowth. I use a L’Oréal root spray in dark blonde for the couple of weeks before my next hairdresser visit (I go every 6 weeks)