White hair in dark hair - dying advice!

[Gruello]

38 and starting to get a lot of white hair, especially in my temples. Wouldn’t be an issue, except that they are all quite short and on my hair line, so when I wear my hair down they stick out. When I wear hair up they stick up too! And are very visible. I’m not yet ready to grow old gracefully

My hair is very dark brown/black. My hair grows quite quickly, in the past when I have had an all over tint the white hair comes through after 2/3 weeks.
Am better off lighting my base colour and getting highlights? I’d prefer not to have to visit the salon before 8 weeks due to time (and cost).

Open to suggestions.

TIA!!

I have similar hair and when I was your age I went the highlights route for a couple of years. It did look good and the person I went to did a really good job. It was quite expensive and a long time in the chair, but really I stopped doing it because I with lighter hair I felt I stopped looking like myself.

Being high contrast has always been one of the most distinctive parts of my appearance and I found that various things like the colours in my wardrobe and the way I did my make-up needed to be altered. In the end I wasn’t
prepared to make those changes.

So I transitioned to a balayage and some face framing highlights before going back to dark.

I did that for about a year. I went darker once at the salon after growing out the bayalage for a bit.

Then I maintained it myself at home using a variety of things, usually a semi permanent, with a permanent every now and again when I felt the bayalage was “showing through”. I also used various glosses, toners and shampoos with colour to blend in white hairs as this was less of a job than a dye.

Even that got too much work for me and once the covered up bayalage was grown out enough to be trimmed off, I just stopped dying it and let the white hairs come through. I used a rose pink gloss for a while whilst the whites grew back in a bit, but once they were long enough that a long fringe would work and there wouldn’t be an obvious demarcation line mid length, I just had a fringe cut and grew back in the whites that way.

I still sometimes use a coloured shampoo or gloss in a rose pink or pale lilac if I fancy a change.

Same! I dye mine ginger from the natural a browny shade.

Covers the whites lovely. For about a week. Then the dye seems to fall off the white hairs completely! Absolutely bizarre.

EcstaticMarmalade, thank you!

I suppose my issue is the up keep. I did recently do a perm dye on my hair but I found that I hadn’t really covered all my hair (it’s fairly thick) and I didn’t like the condition it was left in, in comparison to when I have had it done in the salon in the past.

I completely agree about changing your wardrobe and have considered going to a style/colour consultant to overhaul everything.

I also didn’t expect to have have white hair so quickly as my parents didn’t get them until their 50s!

I think it’s because white hairs are less porous so don’t take on the colour?

But they do initially! It totally blends in, but as time goes on and I wash my hair they go back to sparkly white.

I'm looking forward to having sufficient coverage of the white to grow it all out - it'll be bloody beautiful if it all stays this colour!

Hi OP, I'm in a similar position, and wondered about trying a lighter brown/ash blond to try and blend in the whites a bit more and make them less noticeable. No idea if it would work!

I have been dying my hair since I was 17, but with age and now white hair it has changed. When I was younger I didn’t mind having roots but I now just cannot be dealing with having potentially 4 different colours 😆.
I like the sound of ballyage but I want the coverage of the whites at the root which makes me think it just needs to be full on highlights.

Someone please invent a pill for white hair. I would take it.

I have the same issue. I've ended up going dark blonde as at least the contrast isn't as obvious. The grey grows back after 3-4 weeks so I use a root spray in between colours. It's a pain!

Dyeing - very different from dying.

I'm 37 and have dark brown, very smooth straight hair - so grey or white hairs stand out like a sore thumb. I've never dyed my hair in any way until fairly recently because I'm far too lazy for regular salon upkeep.

I've been dying my hair for a couple of years now because I had greys and whites starting to come through.

The method I've used is working very well so far...I read it in a blog somewhere. I box dye my whole head once a month or so with a permanent no-bleach v. dark blonde shade.

The result is that every grey/white hair gets turned v dark blonde but the rest of my natural hair is untouched. It blends the grey in beautifully and naturally but I get no 'hard line' of root regrowth.

How long this will continue to look decent for I'm not sure because I'm probably only 5% grey so far and it's reasonably evenly distrubuted. But for the minute it's a great easy solution with minimal upkeep.

Would you mind sharing which dye you use please?

I did think it looked odd but wrote in a hurry this morning.

I have a box of dark blonde dye in my bathroom as we speak. I have bought a colour remover too, to get rid of the dark brown I dyed my whole head. Just need to find the time to do it. Maybe tonight.

Anyone remember wash in shampoo? That used to work well.

Balayage helped me transition for a few years. High and low lights just washed out my dark hair too much eventually.

God I'm the same and hating it -

We have a lovely recently re-done bathroom and I'm absolutely terrified of the splashes of box dye ruining the sink/ tiles/ floor!

I put off dyeing the regrowth for too long because of this and then have Zoom meetings where I lose my train of thought mid-sentence because of my distracting white roots "popping" on camera...

Can't afford the salon every 6 weeks, don't want to be gracefully grey before my late 50s - I am happy for my brave friends who've done it but when you're fat (as I am) it's just terribly ageing...

If anyone has the answer please let me know!

@KeepingItUnderTheRadar sounds ideal, what one do you use?

The white look a bit shit until they have grown past your chin then the stripes look really good imo

My mother was born with the stripe as was I, then my son. We called it the mallen streak.

I have mid brown hair and annoying short white ones, especially around the temples.
I use a dark blonde box dye (all over the first time, took 2 boxes) and then for maintenance mixture of roots/ mid lengths or t- section root kit in between. I think I'm going to have to go lighter/ ashy soon though. On reflection I wish I'd gone down the highlights route !

It’s the reason I went blonde I’m afraid. Yes, it costs a lot and it’s a lot of time in the salon but I was mid-30s and didn’t want grey stripes. Used to have my hair dyed red but the white hairs were so obvious. I wouldn’t mind if all of it had gone a cool, silvery grey but it was random bits of white that just looked shit 😢.