How do you go blonde from salt and pepper hair?

[Sonolanona]

My hair has been 'all natural' for about 6 years.. white streaks at the front, scattered grey throughout but still dark underneath and at the back. I was hoping for lovely silver grey but actually it just looks like my brown hair has faded :(

I think I want to colour it again, but to sort of blend it lighter..not bright blonde, but maybe highlights? I'm also growing out the pixie cut of regret .. I made the most stupid decision last August to cut my hair short despite the fact that every time I've had a short cut I've gone home and cried, and this time it was short enough to join the army as a bloke...

Currently at short bob with a touch of mullet as I'm holding off for 4 monthly trims til it looks like a decent amount of hair again.

The problem is I don't know what to ask for... is it highlights? low lights? foils? I used to colour my own hair so don't know what I'm looking for!
This is my hair currently, although it's a lot greyer in daylight

You can definitely blend in the grey to a blonde, I actually think your hair looks lovely as it is but I understand you don't. My hair is about 70% grey, of that around 15% is white and the rest dark grey. I have a full head of foil highlights about every 9 months, then roots, then roots and halo where they just put highlights around the face. Then repeat the roots/roots halo until I need a whole head again. You can add life to the grey if you want to embrace the grey too.

I think this video gives a good idea of what you could achieve, this shows them blending her grey roots into her naturally grey hair which is bleached blonde. My hairdresser who I have used for years did a test strand on my hair to make sure I could go as light as I wanted and to see how the grey would colour up. Consider the maintenance, you could have "shadow roots" where your regrowth is softened rather than having a sharp demarcation of obvious root growth. Lots of videos on Youtube of grey to blonde, put "salon" in the search bar otherwise you get lots of DIY home jobs.

Try to find a couple of photos of something you like the look of, try to choose one that shows the hair straight, you can hide a lot in curled hair photos and you need the straight hair to see the blend of colours.

I actually like the colour you have now too! 😀

I get a mix of foil highlights - some blonde, some close to my natural mid brown. This blends really nicely so that regrowth isn't noticeable enough that I need my roots done, I can go 3-4 months between visits. I might do a DIY toner if it's going a bit yellow in between.

It tends to be 2 blonde foils to 1 brown most visits, with more blonde around the face as that's where the grey is concentrated. After a few visits it gets a bit light for my liking and we do 50/50 just to bring it back closer to natural.

Are you me?!😂 Your hair looks very similar to mine a year ago.
I went completely grey, then had a disastrous pixie cut, then decided to go back to dying my hair and a year on I deeply regret it and wish I’d just stayed with the grey and let it grow longer. It’ve seen so many women with beautiful long grey hair recently and I’m really jealous.

Anyway you may still go and dye your hair again but just wanted to give you my experience.

“Currently at short bob with a touch of mullet” 😆

Thank you for the replies :D (and the video is really helpful!)

In bright sunlight my hair isn't too bad.. much lighter than my pic, but I just feel faded out...combined with the mullet ..I feel I look Grannified! (I am in fact a Granny and bloody love it, but as I spend half my week at soft play and toddler groups I'd rather not look so tired!)
I'm a bit scared of 'going blonde' as I have rather yellowy skin (really selling myself here!) and am currently somewhat tanned after a couple of glorious weeks in Australia so want to blend my hair to an ashy blondeness while I regrow it . It was down to my waist 18m ago and I have regretted my hair decisions ever since...

I've just done this and I love it, leave it to the colourist to work their magic, I'm so happy with the result,I feel like me again.

Your hair looks quite warm toned, with coppery highlights so if you also have olive skin you might not want to go too ashy with your colour, it will wash you out. I have similar colouring and it's a bit of a conundrum - the more ashy hair is the better it blends with greys, but my complexion needs some warmth. I get some really pale highlights around my face (I think the colourist calls the colour 'pearl') which brightens everything up IMO.

A hairdresser can advise you in real life what tone of blonde for your hair colour based on your skin tone. I was a dark honey blonde then went all the way up to ash blonde then more light blonde but my hair has really changed over the last 6 years in terms of how much grey comes through. I know when she puts my colour on she has 2 pots mixed. I completely trust her.

You hair looks nice and thick. Best to go to a hairdresser to get something that will match your skin colour. They can mix colours and do some highlights as well.

I am really pale so I have ash blond hair :) and it works well with covering white roots.

I manage to colour it myself as it is pure white rather than a mix of colours. I have white hair since I was about 30!