How did you transition to grey hair

[justsayso]

Over lockdown I'd grown out my hair dye and had gotten more comfortable with my grey hair. It's quite noticeable, all around the front of my head and is white with salt and pepper areas.
Went to the hairdresser 6 weeks ago for full highlights and colour, and now I'm back to square one again with a ridiculous inch of regrowth. Of course I anticipated this but am wanting really to embrace my grey hair and stop trying to live a lie!
So my question is this, did anyone go cold turkey with the dye or did you get a sort of transition colour to blend them through.
I'm only 34 so need to get used to my grey hair, if I get it right I think it could be a 'look' - fierce silver fox vibe maybe??

Cold turkey. I was quite young too- about 35. I'm not completely grey but had been slowing going grey for years and hated that orangey cast you get (also I am both lazy and not minted enough for 4 weekly salon jobs). I found it grew out in varying shades of dark silver grey/blondey grey/brown. I have shortish hair anyway though- a bob- and am not gamine enough for a pixie cut.

Grombre on instagram is good for inspiration.

Now people come up to me in the street and say how good it looks!

I looked at my mum and my aunt who have continued to dye theirs and I think it looks terrible- really harsh and aging.

Oooh I'm doing this now! I've had dyed red/ombre for years and my natural hair is a mid-light brown ashy colour.

I've had quite a bit of grey come through over the past 18 months, but in the last 6 it's become much more noticeable around my face and in my parting.

I've done 1 of 2 sessions at the hairdressers and at the first one she bleached it all, then did back to back foils on any stubborn patches of red. She then did a root smudge with a colour very similar to my natural one and toned the rest of the blonde.

The ultimate goal is to have something as close to my natural colour as possible but balayage it to break up the ashy colour. Then grow the gre out into it.

It feels like a massive thing, I've had coloured hair in one form or another since I was about 14 and I'm now 33, so it feels like a massive image shift and transition.

@Dillidilly, that is so true. I have always dyed my hair red, or brown. I was so surprised when the grey came through. A few people have said I look younger, and edgier ( I'm 54, but a confident fashionista). It suits my skin tone so well.
You're so right, too, regarding confidence. I feel great these past few months. My attitude to dieting ( bane of my life), has even become more relaxed. This is me, and if you don't like it, jog on !

I used lockdown and lack of hairdressers to go cold turkey (although I l aways did home dye jobs anyway, but I stopped) My hair is now very long and a reasonable shade of grey - quite mixed with some dark hair which is my natural colour, but mostly whites and greys. I'm (61) so not sure the very long hair suits me, so I'll probably get it layered and cut sometime soon and hopefully it will look OK. It's been quite freeing not to have to deal with grey roots,

You have to remember that hairdressers have a vested interest in keeping us dying our hair. My mum still has hers done brown in her 70’s and it really doesn’t suit her. But she tells me “my hairdresser says it’s makes me look 10 years younger”.

It’s kind of funny in that DSis and I are fully grey (I’m early 50s, she’s late 40s) and we’ve just embraced it. I think more and more people are doing so.

It was my hairdresser who suggested I grow it out! And she helped me stay strong when I was a bit wobbly about it

I've done it twice, the first time I had shoulder length hair cut into something resembling a crew cut to get rid of all the colour and looked very butch.

The second time my hair was shorter anyway and I just put up with it growing out it did seem easier somehow then went shorter than usual for the final cut to get rid of all the colour. Very glad I did as I have difficult hair that doesn't take up home hair dyes, so I just grew shaggy without 2 tone hair. Doesn't bother me at all these days, I like all the colours in it, I'm finally silver rather than pepper and salt.

Ash blonde highlights were my friend over a couple of years. Especially as I was silver at the front and dark brown at the back. Now a mix of silver and Iron grey. Love it

Mine was very short when I decided to embrace the grey. Two cuts and all the colour was gone. The three months transition was a bit uncomfortable, particularly as I had a client facing role, I brazened it out with bright lipstick and a lot of attitude!

@Meruem hahaa, my hairdresser said growing out the silver would make me look 10 years older!
So I went to another hairdresser to do the whole increasingly ash blond highlights until my natural colour had grown out.
In my mind, what actually made me look 10 years older were silver roots showing through after 2 weeks, and highlights which were never going to look good with my skin tone that had changed to go perfectly with my (hidden) silver colouring.

My silver hair also weirdly makes me look younger than my coloured hair. I think it's because as you go grey your skin tone changes too, which doesn't necessarily match salon or home colour?

Mine too. My skin definitely lightened as my hair turned grey. I love my colour now.

I went cold turkey, and it's the best thing I ever did. A man actually called my hair beautiful the other day. Trust me when I say that no man ever called anything about me beautiful. Go for it. It's liberating.

I decided to stop with the highlights supposedly disguising the grey about 6 months before lockdown, and now the last of the dye is about jaw level in my shoulder length hair. Lockdown and being able to tie it back helped a lot.

I've light brown hair with streaks of grey, it suits my skin tone much better that when it was coloured and its in the best condition its been in for years! I think having a decent cut and keeping it in the best condition you can is key to growing out the dye.

Started becoming really sensitive to hair dye. My hair was shoulder blade length so I just wore it up in a pony and sprayed the roots with the loreal colour spray . once I hade grown out about 3 to 4 inches I went for a really short hair style , 2 further cuts and its all gone and now I,m a silvery/mousey brown colour.

I'm going cold turkey - I dyed my hair for the last time just before Christmas. I've an appointment booked to get a pixie this weekend, and the plan is to keep the pixie until all the dyed hair is gone, then grow it into a bob.

My goal is mainly to have healthy hair - I had a bad dye job done a few years back which ended up pretty much destroying my hair. Then followed that up a year or two later with some blonde highlights that dried my hair out over time. I now have a mostly healthy bob but there's still some traces of blonde near the ends, which I want to get rid of.

Cold turkey and entirely encouraged by lockdown. I'd always said I'd let mine go grey provided it had started in the first place. Something I thought would happen years ago! It's turned out to be a lovely, naturally streaked silvery grey. Sure, I've got an inch or so to go of highlighted blonde hair - I had about 3 inches cut off after lockdown so is now shoulder length - but it still looks good and is in amazing condition. Saves an absolute fortune too.

@Blossomtoes, beautiful ! And so healthy looking.

I had very short bleached hair so I just shaved the top to match the back and sides.

At the beginning of Lockdown I dyed my hair purple (from grey). I recently got tired of it, and all the touching up of the roots, but I was dreaded growing it out.
My lovely hairdresser cut my hair into a short layered bob, so there is not an obvious tideline. I'm half way there, and people keep on complementing me on it!

I went from dark to no colour as I was white underneath. I had a blend on the top of my head to lessen the dark to white line - otherwise it looked like someone had crayoned on my head. My hairdresser did foils to soften the line and then I grew it out over a couple of year as I didn't want to go short.

Ended up with a kind of ombre colour which was actually really nice.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot, I know a wonderfully stylish Parisian woman who has the same pattern greying and has completely embraced it. She has gotten quite a 'design' haircut, straight bob-style without layers, and is often pairing it with black and white clothes. She looks fabulous.

Im 14 months in from dyeing it very dark brown. From around 8 months I started to feel good about it and now love the the different shades of silver (mainly sides) and dark on top.

looked at pictures from before and think the dyed hair looked quite harsh against my olive skin. It really suits my skin tone and I'm so happy I made the choice to go grey. Got inspiration from Silver Sisters and Grombre on FB. Some young people from work have their hair dyed silver - they are all for grey hair!

I decided a few months ago to stop dying my hair, I have some definite greys, but not totally. So far I have about 2 inches of roots. My dyed hair is lighter than the roots so it doesn't look too bad. I'm trying to keep going as long as I can, but I talked to my hairdresser about it and she said there was lots of things she could do to blend it in while it grows out if I want. My hair is currently shoulder length but I'm going to have it cut to chin length next time to get even more of the dyed hair off!

The reverse ombre effect that people get growing it out from a dyed colour can look great.
I think once there is about 4 or 5 inches of grey then it looks like you are doing it on purpose rather than your roots needing done.

I always said I would go grey gracefully but I have white hair in clumps and my natural colour hair very strongly in others. So I would look like a skunk. In fact, not as stylish as a skunk.

This is me. I have white hair (on top and at the front) and dark brown everywhere else. I look like a badger. So I'm still dyeing.