Any advice on how to make salt and pepper hair look like blonde highlights?

[Corr77]

Hi everybody, just wondering if anybody could give me some advice? I am naturally a brunette (level 6, I think!). Basically long story short, for years I had blonde highlights in my hair, then a few years ago after becoming around 50% grey, I was advised by the hairdresser to go for a full head bleach, as the highlights were not really covering the grey, which I have been doing ever since.
Needless to say my hair is now in really poor condition with hair loss. I also don't really like the block colour look and preferred the highlighted look. Going natural and rocking the grey just isn't for me. So I had the idea of trying to find a product that would make my grey look like blonde (creating natural highlights!) but not change the colour of my natural brunette, which would be kinder to my hair and a lot less expensive than bleaching regularly! The products I have seen that may be suitable are Wella color fresh in light blonde or (with a bit more damaging) Wella colour touch (in a blonde colour) with emulsion 1.9% - so should deposit only? I have spent a long time trying to find a product that would be suitable but there seems a real gap in the market, which is a shame as I am sure lots of people would like to utilise their grey to be lighter naturally. If anyone has had the same issue and found a suitable product I would love to know, any advice appreciated! BTW sorry for the long post!

Or you could do your own colour combo to suit. 🙂

@meanderingbrook that's remarkable! I don't have much grey but I wish I did now!

Hair colour before tint.

Thanks @WinterDeWinter I don't know how well it works for others. One other poster on here managed to take out her few greys using the same method with espresso coffee, though. 🙂 Only other example I have.

Oh, apart from my mum telling me she used ordinary tea years before I ever did this.

@meanderingbrook that looks amazing! How often do you do it?

I tried the copper superdrug wash in wash out yesterday, on wet hair for 10 mins, it's tinted the rest of my hair a bit ginger/red - not unpleasant - but not done much to my greys.

I've been using grey defy conditioner for a couple of weeks, putting it into dry hair for 20 mins. It's not done anything yet.

My hair generally takes a long time to dye, I have to double the time on box dyes, and my greys are even worse. So it might be a 'me problem' and would work fine on people with normal hair!

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut once a week. I wash my hair every 3 days. If I miss doing it it doesn't all fade. I'm going to top it up this afternoon but the picture of it was taken just now of freshly washed hair.

Oh and my tea has worked better on my hair than the semi permanent tint marketed specifically to cover greys (designed to use once a week) that I bought a few years ago.

@meanderingbrook Do you have any tips for what may work for brunette hair with some grey, very strong teabags (PG Tips) for example or strong coffee?

Thanks

@meanderingbrook thank you, I'll give it a go!

Hope it works for you @GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut

@superstar63, yes I think so. If you wanted a red hue you could add some red bush tea.

@meanderingbrook Thank you, I suppose its worth a try and I definately don't want any red in it as that seems to be my problem with pretty much all the colour depositing shampoos and conditioners, they have a red/plum hue, especially in sunlight.

Well, just stick with the PG Tips or/and coffee for the brown tones. 🙂 @superstar63

OP - naturally a darkish blonde which used to get much blonder in the sun and which I helped along with a few highlights. I stopped highlighting in the pandemic and never went back to it. The John Frieda stuff doesn't discolour the blonde but I suspect might if I used it more often than now and again.

I’ve just remembered that people used to dye their hair dark brown with walnuts…! I think by crushing the shells and steeping them to make a tea.

I might be brave and see if I can get help to use the cassia this weekend. I would love to try the camomile recipe but it would have to be a paste or I’ll never manage it.

The Shrine drop it toners are amazing. They market themselves at Gen Z but they are exactly what you need - you add a few drops of your chosen colour to your conditioner and it will only tint your greys. Genius. I am somehow not too grey yet, but use it regularly to maintain/change up my heavily balayaged blonde hair.

https://www.weareshrine.com/

This looks promising, so it looks basically like a toner but without the developer (less damage - yay!). I always thought why do hairdressers do highlights on salt and pepper hair when they could just use a blonde toner (unless there is some reason why that would not work?). If my hair can naturally look highlighted with this, it will save me so much money and time! Thank you 😊

Hi there, just jumping on here as I am in the same position with my greys! Please could you tell me how many drops you use at a time? I just had a look at the reviews on the Shrine site and the top one says it didn't touch their greys.

"I would love to try the camomile recipe but it would have to be a paste or I’ll never manage it."

@20cheeseomelette, I just pour it over my hair. Like rinsing it over the sink except I pour it on dry hair to ensure it is all covered. I also dip an old clean blusher brush in the tea and paint over my parting and sides to make sure they get plenty of it. I put an old towel over my shoulders and wear a dark top to prevent tea stains on my clothes.

Nothing in the shops will lift your hair from Brunette to Blonde without it going orange.

You need a talented colourist and lots and lots of highlights. Maybe a combination of balayage and foils. There are lots of ideas on Pinterest.

@Lookingoutside but when you age the white hairs growing are essentially what makes hair look grey when contrasted with darker hair. If you add some warmth to them - taking my own example with the golden brown stain offer by various teas, Coffee and turmeric- when they contrast with the darker hair it no longer looks grey you just have lighter streaks. The wash can also stain the existing hair a bit so those greyish tones present in the contrast are not as pronounced. Like turning the contrast down on your to screen IYSWIM. Any way it works for me. No colourist required. 🙂

However, saying that, not saying if you are mainly brunette you can go blonde but you should be able to achieve brunette with lighter brown streaks in it. 😉

Op isn’t trying to lift her hair, she’s trying to add tone to the white hairs, in fact I think she’s purposely trying to not lift her darker hair colour

If the shrine drops only colour the greys, how come the girls on web site end up with all the hair coloured. I have the purple one, but I worry i will have purple hair all over not just the greys. So I'm afraid to use it.

The John Frieda Defy Grey shampoo and conditioner did nothing at all for my greys - even when I left it on for 30-40 mins.