Originally brunette but now grey

[custardlover]

Ok. I have medium-to-dark brown hair and it suits me. I am very fair skinned with blue eyes and I like the contrast. I have however been dying my hair for years so that was a lie - my hair is now white/grey, I suspect all over.

I'm getting it dyed every three weeks right now as the roots are so vibrant and fast and it's wiping me out; the cost and the time!

What are my options?

• continue with dying it brown frequently (looks best, most taxing)
• go (much lighter) instead with highlights and a root colour? Still will need upkeep but perhaps less frequently?
• allow the grey to grow out (but how? My hair is below my shoulders. I wish I'd done it in lockdown!)
• just wear hats?

Or another option of course is to care less about roots. But they really are very very obvious and I think they look sloppy.

Similar situation, and my hairdresser suggested scattered lowlights rather than hilights as I didn't want to pay for regular root retouching. He also tinted my natural gray hair and I use a purple-silver shampoo once a week to maintain the cool tones, and stop them getting brassy.

I'm mostly ash now, natural colour was mousy brown and I had blonde highlights. I let the blonde grow out because it blended quite well with the emerging ash and my natural colour. People think I've had my hair highlighted. Get lots of compliments.

I would grow the roots to about an inch and then pay a one off amount to have a competent hair dresser stripe the dyed hair and recolour in the closest match to the roots.

Then as your hair grows down it will gradually become all natural.

i've recently come to the conclusion that i color my hair every 3 weeks to keep on top of my roots. i've found a box dye that's working well as going to the hairdressers so often was just laborious and costly. But it is a massive ball ache.

The bus is very interesting - is it possible? Has anyone done this?

Yes I have a box which is close but it's never as nice and while the cost is (much!) better, the time it takes is still a huge pain in the hole!

Mine was almost black and I went cold turkey for five months. It wasn't for the faint hearted ! I looked like a giant bird had pooped on my head but then I got it chopped to the white . So essentially I had a white pixie cut but it worked. In retrospect I would have grown the white longer and clipped it back or worn it up until the white was longer as I've since seen people doing that and it looks quite cool .

I’ve grown my hair dye out twice now because like you my greys start to really show after 2 weeks.

The first two months are awful as I looked like I had bald patches. When it went about half way down my head it looked really cool and I loved it.

I would have stayed grey but my DH practically begged me to dye it again. Even offering to pay for it. I resisted for a while and then caught sight of myself looking really washed out and went back to dye.

I now get balayage as I find it disguises the grey roots a bit more (it’s lighter too). I would still love to grow it out again though. I liked it grey!

I had mine dyed all over in a brown slightly lighter than my own brown colour. I then matched the shade to a box dye and do my own roots every few weeks. About every 8 months I dye all my hair but just do the middle and ends for about 10 minutes.
I haven’t had it coloured professionally since the beginning of the first lockdown and my dye works out just over £1 per week where as I used to spend £50 every four weeks.
This is picture of my hair colour.
It takes about 5-7 minutes to do my roots and I leave the dye on for 10 minutes.

Root spray. I can get 5/6 weeks between colours which saves me a fortune.

Plantur39 Brown shampoo and conditioner. It is colour depositing rather than dye, so it just washes out if you stop using it. It colours my light grey to light brown and my brown/dark grey to a rich dark brown.

Having done the cold turkey grow out before (only to fine I was a horrible mix of colours rather than proper grey), I'd never go back to dying because I can't face the grow out again. Plantur39 Brown is my perfect solution!

Oh yeah - I'm a big root spray fan too but I find I'm ruining all my pillowcases now!

Aha! You need a sleep on pillow and a topper pillow 😁

I have similar colouring. Went blonde

I colour-stripped mine to the grey, tried several different blonde and light brown shades then just the grey and finally concluded that I look like one of the undead unless my hair is dark. Now back to box dyes every two weeks but much happier…

I went straight from brown to platinum (bit of a shock) then grew it out - toned the blonde to silver so nearer my natural colour.

mine was short though so didn’t have to worry about damage

There's a hairdresser in IG who does exactly this, emchen is her name. Loads of grey transitions but also blending techniques. Worth checking her out.

I tried to get mine dyed to match the roots. Done at the hairdressers with a long consultation. They basically ruined my hair. If you've got box dye in it's much harder to strip out than salon dyes. My hair is now bleached a light blonde which I tone so it's more platinum. It's going to take me ages to grow out the damaged hair but after this I'm adamant I won't go back to brunette otherwise this has all been for nothing!

My hairdresser put toner on the dye. It turned a lovely silvery gold colour and I was able to grow out the grey very naturally. My hair is silver white now.

Following with interest. I've just done (I hope) my last box dye as I'm away next week.
Then I'm hoping to grow it out. I'm leaning towards highlights first to break up the brown then gradually going lighter . My roots look white but who knows what colours they will be grown out

Have grown out my black hair, it was naturally black. I dyed it many different colours but got fed up, and when I started nurse training I was told I had to have it a "natural" colour so I stopped. Was hard going, it helped that my hair at the time was short! I have now grown it out, it is mostly white with black highlights!

OP- I used to have dark brown hair/black and loved it. However, I started going grey/white in my 30s. Like you, I'd fight with my roots every three weeks and dye it but with dark hair its so noticeable- I'd have a white stripe at my roots and it was awful (it also tends to look like scalp rather than hair due to the contrast). Last April I decided I wanted a change. I had a hair stylist use colour remover to tone it to a lighter brown and put some highlights through the top. Then, I started dying my roots a nice caramel blonde. I thought going from dark brown to blonde would look hideous but it actually really suits me and makes me look younger. Now, I'm a kind of honey/caramel blonde down to my chin and the very ends of my hair graduate into light brown (down to my shoulders) so I've got a reverse ombre going on. I will carry on like this until it's all grown out and I am completely blonde. It's SO much easier doing my roots as the contrast between white and blonde is far less noticeable and I can go much longer between root touch ups.

I never used box dye though as that's really bad for your hair, I used Redken chromatics and do it myself. I've honestly never had so many compliments on my hair and people tell me all the time how much it suits me and they love it. Wish I'd done this years ago. (I also have pale skin and light eyes). It's just a matter of getting the shade and tone right. (I didnt want to go grey as I feel I'm still too young for that)

I'd love to dye my hair myself but am simply hopeless at doing the roots at the back . Any tips ?

Join Silver Sissyers on Facebook to see how others have grown it out.

I personally would go blond slowly and then grow out from their.

I was every 2 weeks having highlight took it to 6/8 weeks.