Grey hair maintenance

[Sexentric]

I have grey hair. It's sort of salt and pepper but it's pretty grey. Maybe 50% white i guess. I hmgave up dying it dark brown (my natur colour when I was young) about 4 or 5 years ago because the maintenance was insane. I'd have to dye my roots every 3 or 4 weeks or I'd have terrible white roots which looked WAY more aging than fully grey. I DO actually quite like the colour as it is right now. But I'm bored of it I guess. When I was younger I used to love changing up the colour of my hair but from about 30 onwards there was enough grey that colouring wasn't fun anymore. It was just a chore to cover the grey so I stopped. But I've been thinking about getting it dyed blond with silver highlights. AI reckons I'd only need to get the roots done every 8-12 weeks if that was my colour rather than dark brown. I think that would be ok. But has anyone gone from dark / grey / blonde with silver highlights? Was it low maintenance really? Growing out the dark hairdye was so awful and took so long I'm a but wary of any change. But I'm only 45. It feels too young to say I'll never change my hair colour again till I die. So id be very grateful for opinions or experience please. Thank you!!
To be clear I'm not particularly trying to look YOUNGER. I actually quite like the grey. I just wa t a change without a load of work.

Just buy fanola shampoo and conditioner.

That won't change my colour though will it? I fancy a different colour but can't go back to dark because the maintenance is way more than I can be bothered with.

Just suggesting what I'm contemplating, but haven't tried yet...
What about a wash in/ wash out dye that will fade evenly, rather than a permanent dye that grows out?

Do they REALLY wash out though?

I tried going grey but like you the texture was wiry and I got fed up.
I tried purple shampoo/conditioner (Aveda Blue Malva) but it didn't make it brighter
I did think about those Superdrug Wash In/Wash Out bottles but decided to go for semi/permeant again.
Bleach London "Instant Coffee " or mixed "Instant Coffee with some Proper Copper" which was lovely , made my hair soft and shiny and smells amazing .

Then went onto Superdrug semi permanent so I'm back where i started !

This is what I used to have but found the upkeep really annoying. I still needed a toner every 5/6 weeks as the bleached parts would go brassy.

I'm moving away from the highlights now and just letting my white come through. I now have a salon toner every 3 months and at home use Wella colour depositing conditioner once it starts wearing off, I also use Phillip Kingsley Elastisizer on my wiry roots and they soften lovely. I'm also 44.

Ah that's annoying. I don't want to have to be at the hairdressers every 6 weeks. I'd be happy with every 2 to 3 months I think.
Do you think the brassiness was because you were grey? Or does bleached hair always go brassy?

The ones I used when I was about 12 did, I don't know if the new ones do.

I had lilac highlights in mine till I went really short and left it gray

John Frieda Salon Blonde Toners and shampoo.

Three different shades.

Great stuff.

My hair sounds really similar. I went to the hairdresser and asked for an ash blonde, and it turned out really good. I got it done about 9 weeks ago and it still looks fresh, so I’m thinking it’ll easily last the 3 months, maybe even longer. It was a nice change without all the heavy root maintenance, so I’m glad I did it.

I started to grey in my teens as a result of an auto-immune disorder. I used box dyes while I was a student but as soon as I was working I used to go to the hairdressers once every 4 weeks to have my roots re-touched to maintain my dark brown hair colour. Even then I would be self conscious of the root regrowth for the last week or so.

Around 15 years ago I got divorced and then only having one income coming in it became unaffordable to get my roots done every 4 weeks. My hairdresser suggested to drop the brown and change to an ashy/grey/blonde colour which actually looked a lot better than I expected and now means that I can go 8-12 weeks between appointments as my roots really aren't noticeable at all.

I do have to use purple shampoo every other wash though to tone/cool the colour otherwise it starts to go a lot warmer which doesn't suit my skin tone. That's a lot cheaper than the root re-touch appointment every 4 weeks though so well worth it.

That's really interesting. Thank you. Maybe I'll get a colour consultation and see what they think. I also started to go grey in my teens. Not really sure why. Just genetic I think. My son has a few white hairs already aged 10. He blames me.

I stopped dying my hair about 10 years ago for the same reasons as you and have since been doing highlights of mainly reds and sometimes orange from tigi. It's very easy to do yourself and there's no problem with roots as it's very intermittent. I get ideas from Pinterest.

I used Plantur shampoo and conditioner in brown for a while , I’ve stopped now and it is going back to normal after 4/5 washes

What if you had a salon mix in some low and hi lights? I had that done and there was no discernable grow out period as I had the hi lights close to my gray shade.