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What can I do about my grey hair please?

53 replies

kbx201 · 04/03/2022 14:15

I'm only 27 and started going grey at 15 and it's now really affecting my confidence. Not sure what to do. I currently box dye every so often but greys are showing again within 2-3 weeks. Whats the best option for concealing greys with dark brown hair? I use a root spray sometimes but hate the way it leaves my hair feeling and always transfers. My hair is quite broken especially at the top and I feel like it just hangs because it's quite long. I don't mind the length but not sure what haircut would best suit my face type? Help please Sad

What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
Thoosa · 05/03/2022 10:35

@TarcasticSwat

Are people deliberately being dim here?? The OP has dark hair not blonde! She even attached photos and said what's the best thing to do when you have dark hair! The suggestions of blending her hair in with blonde is obviously not applicable here.

OP I have dark hair and got greys around the same age and I am sick to death with it. I have had no other option but to have my roots professionally dyed every 3-4 weeks. In between that treatment I have a dark root spray-on for any greys that pop up!

No, they’re right, you can highlight dark hair to blend greys. If you do multi tone and caramel shades, it looks very nice and you won’t get such a hard root line. You don’t have to actually go “blonde” to pull it off, though you could do.
Silverparting · 05/03/2022 10:44

OP here are some pics of the highlights with dark base colour. The 1st pic is a bit blurred but wanted to show the layered style that might work.

I have also had a much lughter base and caramel shades as pp above suggests.
Final puc is now, just an inch ir so of dye on ends

What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
Silverparting · 05/03/2022 10:45

I also need glasses now I'm 48, hence all the typos sorry!

MrsPelligrinoPetrichor · 05/03/2022 10:55

Wow, your silver hair is gorgeous!

Thoosa · 05/03/2022 11:04

That is a really lovely colour @Silverparting

How long did it take to transition?

Branleuse · 05/03/2022 11:10

I have mostly grey. I just dye it with a box dye whenever i feel it needs it, which is usually every 4 or 5 weeks or more. I sometimes use a spray thing for the roots inbetween.
I definitely dont want to go grey. Im only mid 40s and I feel like grey hair ages me and makes me look washed out with my pale skin.

Daenerys77 · 05/03/2022 11:12

Accept it. You will have more time, money and energy to focus on other things.

Crumbleburntbits · 05/03/2022 11:25

@kbx201 your hair is lovely!

As an immediate fix, I found colour wow powder quite good at covering roots. It’s expensive but the flecks of different colours in the powder will look more natural around your parting than root spray. I used it for a long time until I stopped dying mine.

I agree with the pp who have mentioned going lighter in colour or having some highlights. It will help to break up and ‘lift’ the dyed colour. It will also help disguise grey roots when they grow back.

Silverparting · 05/03/2022 12:05

@Thoosa

That is a really lovely colour *@Silverparting*

How long did it take to transition?

Thank you (and mrs).

I'm 11 months in and actually started growing it out after starting a thread on here last year.
I've had a fair bit chopped off, but going silver has taken years off me and kickstarted my style and beauty again.

It is a very personal choice though and if you did choose this route OP there are some great Facebook groups with thousands of women in their 20s-90s making the transition. I wish I'd dobe it sooner!

GucciBear · 05/03/2022 12:06

Check with your hairdresser about fine highlights.

CinnamonJellyBeans · 05/03/2022 12:58

Like PP say, you appear to have colour build up on the ends. This needs to go before you think about anything else.

It's way too early for you to "embrace the grey". You only 20% (ish) white and this is probably more crown and temples and less at the back. Most women do not turn "grey" (no such colour) becuase the white streaks are uniformly distributed, giving an overall impression of your own colour but lighter. White streaks and patches on dark brown hair is not a good look, especially if you have to wait at least a decade, probably closer to two decades before you go completely white.

Your problem is the contrast between natural colour and white, which is like 7-8 shades. This means any white root regrowth will be obvious and you need constant maintenance. Your other problem is that your white hairs appear to be resistant if your box dyes wear off.

Given that you have a long time to wait for fully white hair, which you can then deal with as one entity, you have to find a long term solution which deals with the dark brown AND the white.

  1. You can simply dye the whole lot your own base colour, which looks to be a 4 (1 = white, 9 = black). You can buy professional colour and peroxide developer. You will probably need to use 20 vol (6%) peroxide. This strength of peroxide will open up the cuticles enough to ensure your resistant whites grab the colour, so it fades slowly or grows out. You need to learn to do the roots only by doing it in sections or getting a friend to do it. If you do not apply only to roots, your ends will go black due to colour build up.

You will probably find that the colour takes slightly differently on the whites, giving you a nice lowlighted look, which will add contrast and avoid that block colour look.

  1. As above, but gradually, you can start mixing colours, so every 6 months to a year you might want to make your mixture lighter. This will accommodate the increase in white hairs. So I'm thinking change the ratio like 4:1 base 4: base 5. This slow and gradual introduction of a lighter colour will mean that as you get whiter and whiter, the contrast between existing dyed colour and ever-whitening roots becomes less stark. So you will end up looking more like a base 5-6. Mid to light brown. This avoid the badger look between root touch ups.

Eventually the whole lot will be white and you can do what you like with it then. Dye it blonde, red, add highlights lowlights.

  1. Do as PP have suggested, start blending in the whites with a highlights. A nice caramel colour would look great on your hair. The re-growth will look less obvious and you can ask the hairdresser to increase the number of highlights as your hair gets whiter as the years progress. You've also got a few more options for variety here, as a professional will be able to change the colours, so you can have different shades and tones. This would be my preferred option if you have enough money and time. I'm thinking £100 per month depending on where you live. Also lengthy appointments. If you ever run out of cash and time and stick on a box dye from superdrug, you'll ruin the effect and have to start again, so this needs a long-term commitment of time and money.

There are lots of professional colours you can buy online of from your nearest branch of salon services. The assistants are often professionally trained and will advice you. There also have shade charts. My last piece of advice is to do a strand test of your chosen colour; they often turn out much darker than the shade chart and you may need to get a higher number like a 6 in order to achieve a 5

CinnamonJellyBeans · 05/03/2022 13:02

Sorry, I feel compelled to point out: The assistants will "advise" you

Billandben444 · 05/03/2022 13:44

Going silver all over is stunning but the OP may be like a lot of us and end up pepper-and-salt. The back of my head from halfway down is still v dark brown, then it lightens going up until the front and sides are 100% grey. I'm 70 so think this is it! If I left it au naturel it would look like a skunk's tail so I've grown it a bit longer and all one length (so grey grows down over brown bits at back) and then blonde over all the grey - I like L'Oréal Age Perfect or Excellence and every now and then I use Josh Wood. I usually use half a tube and daub it on the grey roots and then streak it down freehand and I've been complimented on my hair so it must be OK!

Oblomov22 · 05/03/2022 13:59

My friend had a similar issue. It's hard to know what to do for the best, how and when abc which bits to dye.

Oblomov22 · 08/03/2022 10:36

Watching. Re grey hair.

sergeantmajor · 08/03/2022 11:21

I am a huge fan of Daniel Field Watercolours which I use every 2-3 weeks to touch up the white regrowth along the parting of my dark brown hair. It has "saved" my hair, because the gentle ingredients don't damage it, meaning it can stand up to such frequent home dyeing. It will only turn hair darker (no peroxide) so won't work if you want to go lighter than your natural shade.

www.danielfieldmailorder.co.uk/

Faciadipasta · 08/03/2022 11:55

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CinnamonJellyBeans · 08/03/2022 19:01

The OP has explicitly stated she doesn't want grey. She's only 27.

turnaroundtime · 08/03/2022 19:09

@CinnamonJellyBeans White streaks and patches on dark brown hair is not a good look

I disagree...

What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
What can I do about my grey hair please?
CinnamonJellyBeans · 08/03/2022 19:21

Those photos are people who are lucky enough to get their white hair

photo 1: Uniform distribution
photo 2: Attractive pattern
photo 1, 2, 3: A good haircut and a good head of hair and good condition and have ended up with a shade that enhances their skin tone.

I've been reading the white hair thread. There are posters with stunning hair on it. I even looked up that hairdresser fellow and looked at all the photos. Amazing. I did notice though that a lot of the hair was STILL DYED silver, so even he needs chemical dyes to get that look

White hair can look really good, especially in the latter stages of the transition. The OP is not there yet. She doesn't want to transition aged 27. She's still in the early stages.

30sec · 08/03/2022 19:28

@CinnamonJellyBeans

Those photos are people who are lucky enough to get their white hair

photo 1: Uniform distribution
photo 2: Attractive pattern
photo 1, 2, 3: A good haircut and a good head of hair and good condition and have ended up with a shade that enhances their skin tone.

I've been reading the white hair thread. There are posters with stunning hair on it. I even looked up that hairdresser fellow and looked at all the photos. Amazing. I did notice though that a lot of the hair was STILL DYED silver, so even he needs chemical dyes to get that look

White hair can look really good, especially in the latter stages of the transition. The OP is not there yet. She doesn't want to transition aged 27. She's still in the early stages.

I disagree also. The white hairs on the first woman is not uniform. Nor is it on the second although some could argue it is a cool pattern. The last one it's just all over salt and pepper. The OP and we have no idea what her pattern is as it impossible to know until you get a good amount of length. As for the idea that these women got a good colour that suited them...it's just their natural hair colour with added greys. Perhaps the OP doesn't want to go natural but I don't think there is anything wrong with people saying they think it looks good natural!
30sec · 08/03/2022 19:29

....and for the record...

What can I do about my grey hair please?
SecondhandTable · 08/03/2022 19:39

Thanks for this thread OP, I'm wondering what to do too. I'm the same age as you, my hair is very similar to that first photo another PP posted. Only less grey and my hair is very dark brown, not black, and I have fair skin. I've not done anything with it yet. I'm clueless as to what to do. Regularly dying it just doesn't seem an option atm, the cost, the practicalities etc I have two young children and not loads of disposable income. Also my hair is otherwise super thick and in good condition so regularly dying it for...forever? Just doesn't seem like a path I want to start going down in my twenties! I feel self-conscious of the grey sometimes, other times I actually feel that it looks ok, it's kind of stripey and as I day my hair is otherwise in good condition. Then I almost feel that I should hate it when maybe I don't?! I'm worried it ages/will age me but then I've been mistaken for a uni student twice in the last couple of months, so I must still look fairly young anyway! My DM is forever telling me I should get it dyed which is lovely...!

Faciadipasta · 08/03/2022 19:41

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Faciadipasta · 08/03/2022 19:42

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