Join the grey transition

[Newmum738]

After many years of dying my hair, I've decided to grow out the bleach and embrace my natural grey. I'm expecting it to be a long and difficult journey. I'm already feeling rubbish about mid-life so going grey seems counterintuitive but I think I need to be comfortable with my real self and hopefully that will be empowering. Many women are making the same decision and look fabulous so I'm looking to see if anyone wants to share this journey with me. Either join me or feel free to offer moral support or encouragement!

Are herringbone highlights an option?

I've been to a literature festival today. So many women claiming their grey tresses! It's so great that it's a trend. Even one of the event Chairs was clearly growing out her colour and totally owning the transition.

I'm 49 and grew out my silver 2 years ago thanks to a thread like this on MN!
I'm so happy with the result and I haven't looked back.

@Newmum738 I am way older than you and stayed dyed brown until after lockdown. I’m a not very nice grey now. I don’t like it. What’s worse is that, having decided to be grey, and having the brown stripped out, my hair simply won’t hold a grey dye. I wanted a mix of darker subtle greys added as my grey is very bright. No chance of realising the grey I wanted it appears. So now I’m grey/odd blonde colour, and every day I feel old. It’s going to take years to grow out. I could have afforded to stay Brown and most days I wish I had.

Fucking hell you look 19!!! Especially with it wavy. Stunning! 😍

@Silverparting

You look fab-u-lous! Love your grey.

I like mine but I don't rock it quite like you! (hence no photo!)
off to buy a new shocking pink lipstick

Could you go back to brown, or have some dark blonde highlights mixed into the grey? Some women like @Silverparting look incredible with grey, but it doesn’t suit everyone.

If my grey was @Silverparting's grey, I'd grow it out in a heartbeat.

I discovered that my "grey" is white at the front and it then unevenly transitions to "brillo pad" grey and into my natural mouse at the back. It is ghastly.

Hence, I am not growing it out again. I am back to my blonde, ash and brown highlights, done every six weeks.

@MissLucyEyelesbarrow Not sure if it would go back to brown. I need to go every 3-4 weeks which was draining. I’m just amazed at how awful the grey is. I’ve ended up with a few brassy streaks too. Wanted the grey dye to get rid of those. Toner works for a week. I am much whiter on top and mousy behind too! My hairdresser is at a loss as nothing works.

That looks so lovely @Silverparting

I think the grey thing is just another fad or fashion and find the comments about "real self" and "empowerment" weird, as generally with grey hair you'll find women work harder with their accessories or wear more make-up

Hey @Silverparting you hair is fabulous. I'm 57 and only have a few greys in my natural brunette (my mum didn't grey til well into her 60s so I think it's a family thing). But your grey is the vision is what I'd like mine eventually to be. Do you use any enhancers or products? Or is that grey just that.. they grey that grows out of your head?

👋 @Newmum738 I’m 5 months in to growing out my highlights & embracing the grey. I’m 44 & have highlighted my hair since my late teens so had no idea what my natural colour was these days. Turns out it’s mid-brown with lots of grey at the front. It’s definitely not my colour of choice & I’m already missing my honey blonde locks but I just can’t justify the expense (£200 for a quarter head of highlight where I live!) anymore & I’m scared of box dyes (bad experience years ago that cost me a fortune to fix) so here I am. My roots look terrible but I’m trying to ignore them…

Why would they?

It's just a hair colour.

It suits some people.

And other's it does not. It really shouldn't he political.

It really is just a hair colour.

@Chipswithketchup where do you live?My hairdresser is in SW London and two colour foils with brown between are £180.

Well hello! I started a thread in this a few months back as I was hoping to get a support thread going but it didn’t get too far so may I join you?
I’m 46 and 5 months in. I should have been 8 months by now but I had a wobble on Christmas Eve and succumbed to dying 🙈 I regretted it about a week later and ever since so I’m back on track now. Naturally brunette, I didn’t start dying my hair until I was 37. Demarcation line looks so different in different lighting…outside in natural light it looks so white sometimes. Indoors and in electric lighting it doesn’t look grey at all. I’m coming through quite gun metal grey I think?
I was just finding that every time I had my hair coloured, it looked a bit unnatural (and then faded and grew out quite quickly anyway). I couldn’t be bothered with the maintenance. I also have quite a few female family members in their late 50s, 60s and 70s who dye religiously and it just seems to cause no end of stress with them panicking about roots showing.
Silver sisters group on Facebook is good for inspiration! Some great transitions on there to inspire!

@Silverwannabe of course, welcome! I went to Hay Festival on Friday and there were loads of women rocking some amazing shades of grey. One of the session hosts was growing out brown colour. It was really inspirational for me!

This is where I'm at currently. The roots suggest I'll be a lovely white on top. Not sure about the underneath colour. I'm thinking that when I'm back to my natural colour, I might be able to get it enhanced. Right now when I ask for cool, the hairdresser says it won't work so I think I'll grow in my natural cool!!

I also kind of think 'would nature give you something that doesn't suit you?'. I know the answer can be yes but on the whole I reckon if does what it needs to do. Then you have to make sure you work with it in terms of the colours you wear. I've wanted to grow the colour out for a while even if it's just to see why my natural hair looks like and decide I don't like it!!

at grey hair being a fad or a fashion. Greying hair is part of life, it's trying to fight it that's the fad.

@Newmum738 What a lovely colour! That looks fantastic already & will be gorgeous when it’s grown out. You’re really lucky.

@Newmum738 some cracking natural highlights you’ve got there! It will look lovely when it’s grown in. Are you planning to keep it long? I’m going to although I got a bit of a chop a couple of weeks back on the basis it won’t have quite so far to grow out 😂

I literally only have an odd white strand here and there (I'm 40 this year). My dad started to go grey at 17, but he also had bright white hair and really suited it. My mum was late to going full on grey, looks like I'm following in her footsteps. She has a lovely white colour too. I haven't dyed my hair in ages and it's still mainly growing brown, but If my hair is going to be the shade of mum and dad's I'll be over the moon to stop dying it. Think I've got a while yet though 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I stopped colouring my hair just before I turned 40 and I'm really pleased with my decision. It was actually pre-lockdown I started but most people have assumed I did it because of lockdown.

It did look awful for a good while- the grey against the coloured hair just doesn't look great, but as soon as I had the last coloured bit cut out it looked so much better. I get lots of compliments on my hair colour now and a lot of people assume I've had it dyed this colour! Hairdressers have told me in no uncertain terms to not dye it again! I do sometimes add some pink streaks or similar. My hair is in much better condition now.

I do find I need a little make up at times to stop me looking washed out, but I usually use just a bit of concealer tbh. The greys can get a little fluffy at times- the hairdresser who cut my hair last week suggested keeping it all one length as she said layers in grey hair can cause the whites to stick up as they are a different texture. I think she was right as it's sitting better after having the layers cut out.

People have been changing their hair colour via dyes and wigs for the whole of recorded history. No one should feel pressure to hide grey hair but, equally, no one should feel pressure stop dye-ing if they prefer.