Hair dye that stays on greys

[MrsCravensworth]

I’m 45 and if I didn’t dye my hair, it would be almost completely white. I am not having white hair for anyone, please don’t try to convince me to try it, if I live until 100, I will still be dying it brown!

I’ve tried all the big brands, but I always have a good 2/3 inches of white showing 3-4 weeks in, so it’s not just roots, it’s not staying on the white.

I could never dream of going to a hairdresser- I could probably save up for one professional dye, but I wouldn’t ever have a hope of going regularly. I have my hair cut at the hairdresser down the road for £10, once or twice a year.

I wash my hair about 3 times a week, and I use the shampoo and conditioner that’s £1 in Aldi. I can’t justify spending any of our limited shopping budget on shampoo.

I always look shit and it’s getting me down. My hair will look okay for a few weeks (I mean, it’s never okay, it’s a bad home dye job), and then I look like I going bald, with the white temples which seem to appear over night and I can only afford to buy dye every other month, 6 weeks at a push.

Am I just doomed to have shit hair due to lack of money, or can anyone recommend a dye?

I found that I needed to keep my dye on longer on my grey hair. So the packed would say 20-25 mins and I’d keep it on for 40 and that gave me full coverage. I now dye my own roots but use professional colour that my hairdresser ordered for me (she left in maternity and isn’t returning to work)

Interesting. I need to investigate.

i mix 1:1:1 inoa 5.0, 6.0 and glow L28. The glow one has a lot of translucency so prevents the block, opaque colour.

I you want a gentle blend of the greys that practically washes off, then the glow on its own works really well and has a really nice tone with no red.

Henna. Don't bother with thee hair dye stuff but go to an Asian or Arab grocery and get the hand painting type. I'm in Australia and the price difference was $40 down to $4.50. I did mine red but brown is lovely too.
Have a read about grey coverage. As you can mix with things like Apple cider vinegar to help improve the coverage.
The best part besides the coverage is it really helps with the condition of the hair.

Also if you are using cheap shampoos it probably has silicones which make dying hard. If you can have a look around for silicone free ones it might help.

Another thing that really doesn’t help my hair is our head lice situation.

My two youngest are reception and year 6 and Christ, other parents are the bane of my life. They go to a school where a lot of parents don’t bother. I’ve had kids round after school where they have been sat at the dinner table putting live lice out of their heads. You tell thier parents and they either laugh it off or get aggressive. I don’t live in the best area to be fair.

The school are constantly sending out emails, at least twice a week telling parents to treat for nits, they hold a special parent’s assembly each term where a school nurse comes in a shows parents how to use a bit comb and conditioner, they give out nitty grittys. But still it persists.

So, my thick hair is ruined as I have to stick a shit load of cheap conditioner on 2/3 times a week and go through it with a nitty gritty and that awful conditioner (have to buy it cheap as we go through so much doing all of us).

We gave up on buying nit treatments years ago as there was no point when other parents weren’t doing it too.

My poor hair is ravaged by it, the nit comb pulls so much out and breaks it off.

No matter how I tie my girls hair up, what nit repellent stuff I use, I put drops of tea tree oil in the shampoo and conditioner (I find that tea tree oil really dries my hair out), every time I comb them, I find lice that they have picked up from the other kids.

We moved here 5 years ago and it’s just been constant lice since, apart from lockdown, I used a nit treatment and it was bliss until my daughter went back to school! My youngest started reception in September and it’s just exploded since then. I use ALL the deferents.