I'm a hairdresser avoider - I should go to them for this though yeah?

[AreolaGrande]

Haven't been to a salon for years. Do all my own cuts and colours with the help of 🍷 and Brad Mondo.

I've now decided that I need to go ashy blonde to let my grey blend in. Am sick of trying to cover it with endless root touch ups and box dyes. Hair is currently a delightful post colour-remover shade of blorange with white roots 🤐.

It's £155 for full head highlights, toner, cut and style. With energy prices going up etc I'm struggling to justify this to myself but I could put it on my credit card (low balance, 0% apr).

I really don't want to try it myself and eff it up and damage my hair (and possibly end up having to pay £££ anyway for a correction).

I am very tempted to do something like this for your reasons. I last went to a hairdresser over a year ago and have been cutting and colouring it myself. While I'm no expert, it looks OK (people who would tell me if it didn't say it looks nice when I cut it). I'm not 100% on going grey - I joined a FB group and while some people look great, others, well, look less great grey and a lot of those who look good wear a ton more make up than I do.

My concern is that when I've had highlights done or whatever, it's never one visit - I don't want to start something that will need care and money.

It won’t just be one visit though, you’ll have to keep blending.

I don't want to embrace the grey Cyn. I did it before. Went fully grey mid thirties and liked it for a year or so before getting really bored. Also I 100% looked older (and remarkably like a potato unless I had brows, liner and lipstick on) and the grey did not compliment my skin tone. I went pink/purple/blue then natural red then ended up bleached and eventually boring brown.

I just want something lighter so that the regrowth won't be so obvious. My recent brown colour just looked blocky and dull and I ended up relying on the loreal root spray which ended up all over my bedding and on my fingers every time I touched my hair.

I want something multidimensional and expensive looking. I just don't want it to be expensive to attain 🤣

Yeh, tbh, I'd rather pay for a good colour and do the wolf or shag mullet cut myself!!

My hairs thick and curly and I reckon i could cut it myself, having watched about 15 youtube tutorials on the double / tripple unicorn!

But no way am I going to try and colour it..

It sounds expensive to keep
up.

So is your hair white but you've been dying it a darker colour? And now you want to get it to a blonde so you can grow the whole lot out to go white all over?

I've seen some really lovely greys at my hairdressers but it needs colour slightly because, and I know people will shoot me down, but imo, grey looks great on young women because, well, because they're young. But for older people grey is ageing. Take that woman who went/goes out with Keanu Reeves. People were full of praise about her being age appropriate but in reality, she looked like his mother. Sorry. But if you could grow it all out and find a nice toner, it should be easy to stay on top of it at home then.

@MarshaMelrose yeah essentially I want it lifted to the same level as my roots so that it's easier to upkeep.

I've tried all over colour and root smudges darker colours but I'm just over the constant effort of keeping the whites at bay. Less than one week after dyeing there is noticeable white at the roots.

More than happy to play about with toners/temp colours once it's (pretty much) all the one level. I don't want to be white. I need some level of contrast between my hair and my skin.

A friend of mine did exactly the same but she had to do it with a hairdresser to grow it out so it all blended together and looked natural. The colourist at my hairdresser said that once all your hair is white, you can really find some great colour tones because all your hair is on a level playing field. It's when they have to take the colour out of your roots before putting colour on that you get problems. I've seen her do some fabulous colours on white haired people that keeps them still looking young. It's definitely the way forward.
I envy you. I've gone from blonde to dark grey! It's a nightmare keeping on top of the roots.

I'm going for a baleyage on Saturday. It means I can box dye the roots myself.

@limitededitionbarbie I love a balayage but don't think it will work for me as would still have the issue of the fast regrowth of the white.

Maybe it could work if they did a root colour that was light enough for the whites to blend better and then lighter ends. I dunno.

I am pretty open-minded. Just want a professional to tell me the best option for dealing with the problem. I also don't know what suits me colour wise when it comes to blonde shades as have always been medium-dark haired and brunette (apart from the fashion colours).

Pay for the colour, do the cut yourself?

When you were box dying your hair, we're you just applying to the roots? I'm thinking that maybe if you have the technique then you could get your hairdresser to use an all over medium blonde on your hair and then add in highlights over the top, you could then maintain this by colouring your roots every 6 weeks with the same professional base colour and maybe having the highlights refreshed every 3 to 4 months. You wouldn't need a full head of highlights either that way, just hairline, parting and some through the sides?

@Rina66 Yeah I'm well used to just dyeing my roots and happy to continue.

Lighter base + highlights seems to make the most sense to me from my research. 3-4 months could be doable for going to the salon.

Thanks for your input - really useful 🙂

I have a similar problem to yours with greys. I do my roots with wella light ash blonde +developer around every 2-3 weeks. I then chuck in some bleach highlights every three months or so. I do go to hairdresser for cuts. I think my hair looks as good as when I got the colour done professionally (others might disagree but they don’t tell me). Box dye is NOT as good though.

Just to update. Popped into the salon this morning and have a consult on Tue and the full appt Friday 😬 They've taken hair for strand test.

Will get a before and after pic!