Have you had to let your hair grow grey? Support please

[tobee]

I'm looking at having to let my grey roots grow out and feeling fed up.

I've had irritation to patch tests having dyed my hair for years with no problems. I carried on dyeing my during lockdown and patched test every time because I didn't fancy having to go to a&e (and dh vulnerable)

The two bad things will be the interim period and the fact that my hair is thin and colouring my roots look better after.

I'm also annoyed with myself for feeling down about it 🙄 If I'd known I'd have to go cold turkey rather than when I chose, carefully changing my colour, I'd have stopped dyeing yonks ago.

Please tell me your tales of support, and maybe gently kick me up the arse!! 😁

I get that.

My DM kept dyeing her hair until it looked ridiculous and then she let it go, and was a beautiful snowy white (she left it too long)

Personally, I think we should embrace the grey, especially when we've got natural highlights with an in between look. I have never ever been complimented on my hair until I went for it.
Good luck with it.

Oh yeah and pics would be great if people can!

I'm watching with interest. I'm 35 and have significant grey around my face. I'd be happy to go fully grey, but it looks scruffy as it is, so have been experimenting with dye over the past year. I have dark brown hair so the grey is very noticable.

However, I seem sensitive to box dyes, they irritate my skin and tend to make my (already thin) hair fall out more. Also dying my hair is basically a waste of time because my hair is really greasy, I play a lot of sport, and work in a client facing job, so need to wash my hair every day really. Which means dye washes out within a week. My hair also grows so fast so the roots reappear quickly anyway! I can't afford to get it professionally dyed every few weeks. Considering just letting it go and trying to come to terms with it.

I have short hair, but I bleached it platinum blonde and toned it silver. V easy to grow that out.

totally silver now and I love it (mid40’s)

Blue face is a few months after the baby lights (and also with an acne flare up, hence the cover), the middle one is when the blonde was nearly out and the one with the sunglasses on is the lastest.

Looks great!

Google silver sisters for pics of dyed hair being grown out

Your hair condition will improve after you've stoooed dying it - the chemicals are not doing it any good

I save some of the hair dye but not mixing them and use it to do the roots once the grey starts showing as there's no root sprays for purple!

My purple is very much part of my identity so I will only go grey when I have no choice in the matter which is the exact situation the OP is in of course

Good advice here

It took nearly 2 years to completely grow it out for me (bob, length between chin and shoulder) but in between it didn't look too bad becauser I'd talked it through with my hairdresser and we had a plan.

I got quite a lot of highlights done along my parting after about 3 months to break up that very obvious 'growing out' line, then just a few about 6 months later to again make it look more a natural change.

It's so much healthier and it looks great. I was fooling myself that my coloured hair looked better, my grey is glossier and more chic.

I just went for it. Couldn't be bothered with the faff of dying and decided natural is best. It's so liberating. Once you are over the initial shock it fees great not to be tied to a dying routine. I also agree that you start noticing how ridiculous most dye looks on grey hair and breathe a sigh of relief that you're no longer trying to cover up your natural beauty. There's no shame in aging, aging is a privilege and we should be proud of the changes that we are experiencing that signal our advancing years.

I first tried going grey late 40;s, stuck with it but it was really raging so went back to being a brunette

aged 59 I went sod it and have embraced the grey and this time around its really suiting me. Ive a really good cut, I can wear it spiky, punky, smooth, every time I wash it Ive a new hair style

actually its as hard to keep looking beautiful as dyed hair tbh, I just spent 2 hours in the hairdressers getting a toner in because grey absorbs pollutants and mine keeps getting a yellow tinge as I work in a restaurant and cooking oil in in the air

I do love my grey now, seriously, but its still not the grey I imagined, I still have a wee area thats throwing out brunette which really does change the whole colour , but Im refusing to colour it again

Best about it is for the first time in forever I can go 3 days between washes

This.

I've got about 50% grey (but in big, obvious chunks iyswim) and I started reacting to patch tests in 2019, last dyed for our works Xmas do! Then COVID happened and nobody saw me anyway, then I had a bad injury which meant I couldn't use my arm so I had my hair cut to chin length.

My hair is back to below collar bone length now, has been fully grown out for at least a year. The condition is fabulous!

You can definitely style it to cover the worst of the loooong roots, but you might be really surprised what a good, drastic chop can do - you hair is also likely to be in much better condition without any chemical changes.

I agree with pp about seeing other women's dyed hair nowadays - I was in a big meeting a month ago and of all the women present (about 100) I reckon probably two thirds had dyed hair (others young enough to still sport their natural colour) - full colours as well as highlights and lowlights etc. Some of those certainly old enough to have a lot of grey do look a little 'try hard' - perhaps they need to revisit the harsh colours and go for something softer?

Op the same thing happened to me after 35 years of using box dyes. What I did was cut it shorter ( in my case shoulder length) then had most of the box dye colour stripped out professionally. Then from this point I now have a whole head of foils every 10-12 weeks which blends my darker regrowth areas into a natural looking platinum blond. I accepted that if I wanted to look reasonable with grey hair I would need professional input and whilst I loved my darker hair this is actually quite liberating and I no longer have a chronically irritated scalp.

It sounds like you have similar hair to me (also in my 30s). I have started using Plantur 39 brown shampoo. It makes my greys look less white, not necessarily brown but more blondish so there is less of a contrast with the brown. Just in case something like that may be of interest.

My DD sent me this when she knew I was struggling with it at the beginning.

Ah! The wise words of mumsnetters!

The patch test issue happened to me when I had to swap my longstanding hairdresser for a one off pre holiday appointment because I left it too late with regular guy. Anyway, the one off hair appointment was at Toni and Guy and kind hairdresser sold me a coloured dry shampoo spray after the failed patch test. It was pretty good for dialling down the roots' glaring white (!) and not itchy. A good buy at the end of an appointment for once! Might use it now and again when I have a wobble!

This is true.

Thanks for this, I'll check that out

@YabaJaba
Go Icy.
Both shampoo and conditioner.
Sometimes l put on the shampoo then a plastic bag on top and leave in for an hour .

I had to give up dye before the grey started so no issues with growing out the dye. I can’t cover my grey though. I’m growing quite fond of it. Kind of wish it would fully turn. It’s quite sparse at the moment.

You don't know that! I've had blonde highlights since I was 19. My natural hair is a very unattractive shade of dark mouse.

I'm still having blonde highlights aged 61, and I fully intend to continue. I don't have any grey yet so why on earth wouldn't I?

I have never used box dyes though, and always had my hair highlighted by a professional.

Thanks I'll give it a go !

Won't work for you if you react to dyes but I used a semi-permanent dye in a much lighter colour, and it washed out after a month having bleached my hair a bit. The colour didn't have the obvious root stripe.
I'd wear my hair tied back or use a headscarf to detract.

I'd do it over winter when you can wear a hat if hecessary. Unfortunately I didn't and it was half and half at Christmas. I grew my grey out eight years ago and have never regretted it. Hair is in much better condition now and I love it.