Mid brown hair: help me slide elegantly into grey

[gattocattivo]

My natural colour is mid brown but I'm at the point where I've got a fair amount of greys and some whites. I've had foils a few times over the last couple of years to break up the greys but i end up too blonde which really isn't me. My hairdresser made it sound like going blonder overall with highlights in coppery tones is the only way to blend the greys, and the alternative would be to keep dying my hair brown to disguise the greys- which I don't want to do. I had someone colour it like that previously and it felt like just one big block of colour without the textures and tones I want. Neither do I just want to let my hair do it's own thing and go grey/white quickly!

I suppose what I'm looking for is a way to gradually embrace the grey, not anything drastic that will look like a completely different look and not too blonde. Any ideas?

I have reasonable success using the John Frieda defy grey shampoo stuff. Every so often use the Just For Men one which is a bit darker. On balance I find this better than highlights etc but it takes time to build up. It’s not perfect but is good enough.

I get Indian sun hair contouring done in honeys and caramels on my mid brown hair. I was dying it and getting it roots done etc but it left my hair looking so flat and lost all dimension. This has brought the colour down, blended in the greys and I'm not too light or blonde. Also means I can avoid the stripe as the roots grow out as my hairdresser breaks up where it's applied so some are higher up and other further down.

If you want to move slowly into grey without going blonde then do nothing!

I have warm toned mid brown hair and light olive skin and don't like the fact that my smattering of grey "clashes" with my colouring. I use Superdrug Colour Effects wash in wash out colour ( it's a bit like the Shaders and Toners of the '80s) in honey blonde; occasionally I mix in a very small proportion of warm chocolate brown.

There are lots of mentions of this on other threads. You can use it "off label" by leaving it on dry hair for up to an hour before washing, rather than shampooing with it. My greys now blend in very well, but my hair is generally lighter and once I have a significant proportion of grey, I will probably stop using it.

Forgot to say, the colour from one application lasts a couple of weeks on me, but my hair is quite curly and porous and I don't wash it every day.

I would switch to using a semi permanent instead of permanent in the same colour as previously as it won't cover the greys, so will allow them to start coming through. Weaving some super fine highlights using a platinum blonde mixed with silver could give you natural looking greys without being brassy, copper or too blonde. It is possible to follow the natural pattern of the greys, but not many people have the skills/training for that so you would be paying a lot more money.

Another option would be to go for a more ashy coloured brown and that would give a different contrast, you may find you don't need the highlights anymore. And as I said, with a semi permanent it will colour the rest of the hair but won't cover the greys.

I'm planning to embrace the grey but force the change (if that makes sense) when I get to that stage. Some inspiration pics I've saved - lost my last pics so hopefully won't lose these. There's lots of YouTube videos with dying to a grey look that look really lovely.

Some great suggestions here.

@AngelaRayner4PM the idea of an ashy brown is much more appealing than going too coppery.

@spottygymbag you describe exactly how I felt when I had my hair dyed- it just felt flat, like one block of colour and then as soon as it started growing, I was left with the dreaded stripe.

Ideally I want something that won't require too much maintenance. @k1233 those pics are great.

I’ve had ash blonde highlights added to the parting (centre parting, t section I think it’s called). It looks fab. It just looks more deliberate. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with going grey or covering the grey btw. This just works really well on my mid brown hair.

By the way, my comment about doing nothing to it, isn’t because I’m against colouring grey hair.
I colour mine.
But I’m confused, you’re saying you want to go grey gracefully. So do you want to cover the grey or not?
going grey naturally won’t happen overnight so it will be gradual. If you want to go grey gradually then your hair is already doing the hard work for you. I really don’t see the point in paying money for platinum highlights as per pp, when this is what you already have.

Another option is if you put up with a bit of regrow to lighten the mid lengths and ends of the hair and go for a balayage

@AngelaRayner4PM balayage can look so good on longer hair but I have a bob.

@Towelseverywhere I just want to ease into the grey rather than letting the colour grow out completely ... And to be fair, the foils do break up the grey quite successfully, it's just I really dislike it being too blonde. I'm just wondering if there's any other way - something inbetween going much lighter with foils or dyeing it all mid brown which just looks so flat. I'm not afraid of going completely grey eventually- just not ready yet! I like the salt and pepper look that some people achieve when they've got really dark/black hair turning grey. But my hair's not dark enough for that. And natural blondes seem to have it easier as the greys and whites don't stand out so much. Mid-brown seems so tricky!

That's exactly what I did using lighter colours as I went. OP only use semipermanent I learned that the hard way and had to treat it with silver shampoo for ages.
Then I got a fairly short bob. I was lucky as the sun naturally lightened it too. I grew it so I could put it up. I was brunette originally and am at the stage where I look like I've had professional colouring done and get loads of compliments. It takes a lot of perseverance. Lockdown 2020 helped.
Go for it.

@Monty27 any particular semi permanent brands you recommend? Sounds like that's the way to go

Clairol, nice n easy

I’d be really careful with semi perm hair dye. I used one which I think was clairol (def one of the most common ones in boots anyway), and even though the packet said it would wash out in 28 washes, it lightened my hair and I had a line to grow out just like permanent dye. I was really annoyed about it!

I've had success using both clairol and loteal casting colours. But the issue I had with the semis is that the ends of my hair would pick it up so quickly that even if I I did the roots first and just did a quick pull through to the ends briefly before wading out, the ends ended up darker than the roots over time... not a good look! Also the slow build up still left it flat even though they all promised multi tonal.
John Frieda brunette gloss was a good in between option but the Indian sun has really been the best. I was thinking balayage but this would have been too much for me in one go so this was a really good compromise. And it's blended the grey roots so you can see them but they do t stand out as much.

Foils don't have to be lighter. You can do a mix of blonde and dark brown to add dimension and have an overall darker colour. A lot of the YouTube videos lighten then do darker roots.

I second what @Fozzleyplum aside about Superdrug Colour Effects. I’ve just started using it after reading so many recommendations on here and (unless I’m kidding myself!) have to say it does a splendid job of making my incipient grey patches look like highlights. Easy, cheap, effective, what more could you want (and, yes, they last through several washes)?

I had ashy brown lowlights put in once I had a inch or two of roots on hair that was naurally midbrown with grey temples/sprinkles but that had been (stupidly) dyed one blocky colour, with a view to breaking up the blockiness and making the roots look less obvious.
I had this done twice while letting the roots grow to see what was underneath, I don't have much of the original brown dye left and you can't see a demarcation line.

I use L'Oréal Casting in a cool brown and only ever apply to the roots. Applying through the lengths gives that over dyed flat effect in my experience.

I have light brown hair and use Wella Perfecton in shade /6. It is a leave in temporary colour and is the only type I found so far that worked without having my hair lightened first. The /6 is a violety plum colour….it goes on looking like Ribena. It coats my greys as well and lasts a week or two, gradually fading out. My hair is in better condition now it isn’t regularly coloured with perm /semi perm and I don’t get the build up of lots of highlights that gradually make me blonder and blonder. It comes in other shades but I have only tried the /6.