Abby_Emma_Sasha, why do you feel like you need to cut your hair to dye it? I had hair down past my butt and I colored it - it’s really not a whole lot harder than short hair. The first application is a little challenging, but after that, you only put the stuff of the roots anyway. (Well, okay, I pulled it through to the ends, but it’s not like you have to be careful to cover the full length of every hair for touch ups.)
Yeah,I had hair down to my butt too, and I got tired of dyeing it. Seriously,it’s noit just touching up roots, like Magaret Houlihan in MASH. You can’t just apply a q- tip with peroxide and go gaga. There is color to be mixed and matched. The color can not be matched iiiiif the hair is too long. I don’t want to cut my hair, but I don’t want to be grey. I’m sorry, I just do not like it
Seriously, try the John Frieda glaze. It’s no more complicated than shampooing your hair.
Hmm. I guess we have different dyeing methods. I use the stuff in the box, which is always the same color if I buy the same number. I pour one bottle into the other and shake it, and then use the nozzle tip to make a part in my hair, squirt a little goo along the part, and wipe it to cover the dark root with a gloved fingertip. I make another part with the nozzle about 1/2 and inch away and repeat. Takes about 10 parts on each side of my head and another 6 along the back and I’m pretty much done. If I feel like my ends have faded, I wad my hair up in my left hand and squirt all the rest of the dye onto it and work it through like shampoo. I don’t sit there with a brush and paint each section all the way to the ends like they do in the salon. 20 minutes later I hop in the shower and rinse and condition. The time and effort isn’t any more for long hair then short. (Although the cost can be considerably more with long hair if you’re saturating the length- at one point I was up to 4 boxes of Nice and Easy to cover all my hair!)
Well, I guess all that should be shifted to past tense, since I switched to highlights. I switched just because I didn’t want to mess with my hair so often, and because I want something that will grow out better when I decide to quit coloring it.
For anybody who thought grey hair couldn’t be attractive…
http://www.born-today.com/Today/pix/harris_emmylou2.jpg
Just don’t let it yellow.
My wife has had two gray streaks ever since I met her 26 years ago when she was in her mid 20s. She has long hair that she parts in the middle, and the two streaks frame her face perfectly. She used to be embarrassed by them, and would occasionally dye her hair to hide them until I was finally able to convince her how great it looked. It was amusing when the first X-Men movie came out and the character Rogue had the same streak…except, Anna Paquin’s hair didn’t look anywhere near as cool because no hair stylist, no matter how talented, can ever make a highlight look as natural as a real one.
In recent years, she’s started getting gray sprinkling through the rest of her hair, and it still looks great. It’s shimmering silver highlights all through her dark brown hair. Again, an effect that no amount of money or time could ever hope to duplicate. It’s beautiful, and I love her and her gray hairs.
I’m a blonde from a family of blondes (we defy genetics- regardless of who we marry with [I’ve cousins who’ve married Asians and African-Americans] the kids are all blonde). The women in my family usually begin graying around 50 (by which time the men are long dead) and we rarely notice until one day we’ll think “Hmmm… when did her hair turn white?” IME (or in my family’s experience) the ones who dye their hair never get the color exactly right and the dye is more noticeable than the gray.
I’ve been in several plays where I’ve played older characters, and especially in summer when I’ve been outside I’ve actually had to darken my hair before I can gray it because the white/gray powders and sprays for aging aren’t noticeable under stage lights. I’ve started getting a few gray hairs myself, but luckily they’re not so noticeable if you’re not looking in my ears at exactly the right angle.
Of course there are many shades of gray and of blonde, so ymmv.
My partner went gray when her mother died, around the age of 45. And she looks great, just fabulous, with it. Shimmering gray with natural white streaks that sweep back from both temples, you couldn’t buy the effect.
What a sweetheart you are!
When I saw this thread, especially reading the horrifying words “But my husband insists I dye it, so dye it I do” I had to call my husband to tell him how much I love him. Every day, here at the Dope, I’m reminded in one way or another what a lucky, lucky woman I am. I’m with a man (for 26 years!) who loves me the way I am, no matter how I am.
I started going gray when I was about 17. At first I plucked them out (ouch!) but then there were too many so I started dyeing my hair. I permed it too, did both for years, and was doing it when I first met my husband-to-be. Then I figured that if I didn’t want to be bald by the time I was 40, I ought to let my hair rest for a while, so I started growing out the color and then the perm. I found, much to my surprise, that I had the two natural silver streaks (like Rogue). I’m sure people used to think I had it colored that way on purpose. It looked much much cooler when the rest of my hair was dark brown, but now it’s almost all gray.
I may not be a model, but oh, it’s thrilling to have someone who loves and accepts you for who you are, gray, not gray, any way.
(Having said that, if I were a blond I’m sure I would have kept on dyeing it just for my own peace of mind. If I was going to gray early and then completely, I totally lucked out being a brunette)
Can I ask how you managed the transition? I have dark hair, too, and would probably be about 70% gray if I stopped coloring. Sometimes I am tempted to do so, but in order to make the transition, I would either have to cut all my hair off or go live amongst blind people for 3 years or so. It is VERY noticeable when my roots grow in—like skunk stripe along my part noticeable.
I don’t know if I could/would do it anyhow. I have a friend who is 2 years younger than I and has a gorgeous head of silver hair…but she also has much different skin tone and eye color. I don’t know how it would look on me.
I’ve heard of women moving from permanent hair color to semi-perm hair color - you need to color a lot more often, but the perment stuff eventually grows out (how long that takes depends on how long your hair is - and if you are willing to go shorter to hurry it up) and then you are just wearing semi perm color - which will fade. Then you buy the shampoo in color during the fade period - the stuff that will shampoo out if you shampoo four or five times. You may not get the perfect color, but people won’t mistake you for a rabid skunk.
My stylist offered to do low lights while it grew in but I decided to just do it. It’s not that I was so brave–I traveled 100% for work for about six months (did I mention my hair grows really fast?) so I didn’t really see the same people very often. I did warn my co-workers in the home office that I was growing it out though.
Here’s a picture of me almost five years ago, still coloring my hair. Here I am in April of this year, and that’s all my natural silver/dark hair. My silver shows more in sunlight which you can see in this this picture (taken two weeks ago, adore my granddaughter). And finally, this picture (from a year ago) shows my hair from an angle that shows more of it. I’d say I’m close to 40-50% silver now. It’s hard to tell though, it really reads more like highlights because it’s so shiny.
You do look great, Contrary.
This is NOT ME in this picture—rather I did a Google images search for 70% gray hair and found this picture. That’s just what my roots look like when they grow in, but my hair is darker brown. I don’t really think I could pull it off.
I don’t think I really want to right now, anyhow, but it does get expensive and tiring to stay on top of the coloring.
Totally understand about not being ready. I’d thought about it for years–I started finding silver hair when I was 20 years old and I was so ashamed I had them. So I colored.
Then a couple of years ago I had some health issues that required a pain management system involving among other things prescription pain meds. That and the three major surgeries I had really affected how my hair took and kept the color. It got to the point that my color didn’t stay true to how it went on for more than about five days; it would get that sort of brassy sheen you see on bad color jobs. And I just didn’t like that at all.
So I decided that if it wasn’t going to last and look the way I wanted it to, then why spend the time and money?
I’ve had some friend with the stripe you mentioned, lorene, and it can be very startling! I am not sure what I would have done if the change had be that stark.
Either way, you’ve got options–color, stop coloring, use something temporary or try low lighting. In the end it’s just hair, or as I call it, dead protein.
Equipoise, why do you blow out those gorgeous waves and curls? Who cares about the color, your natural hair is fabulous!
My mother started going grey in her late teens. When I was about 8, my grandmother nagged her into dyeing it. My mum had jet black, long hair with silver streaks before the dye.
Her hair ended up being long, jet black with bright purple highlights.
Cool and all, but not the look she had planned and it took ages to grow out and fade. Lots of photos from that period with my mum wearing a plait and a scarf.
Now mum has a lovely silver pixie bob- really chic.
Looks like I’m going to take more after my dad (who went grey in his early 50s), because at 26 there’s no sign of grey…I’m planning to skip the purple highlight stage and just go to the silver bob when It’s my turn.
The way I see it if you have grey hair and don’t want grey hair you only have a few options:
1: Shave your head. Drastic, I know, but effective.
2: Pluck them all out. Tim consuming, and over time you end up same as option 1.
3: Wear a hat or scarf.
4. Dye them.
I am probably over 50% grey now and I’m only 36. I’m coloring now because I just look sooooo much older with my hair natural. At some point, I’ll give it up, but probably not anytime soon.
My husband does love and accept me, and I did not in any way mean to imply that he doesn’t. But it is important to him, and it’s not that big a deal to me, so I don’t too much mind dying my hair. It always looks great, which is more important to me than whether I get my way or he gets his, if that makes any sense.
Ms. Attack has tons of curly, getting-grey hair. It’s unbearably gorgeous. Plus she did a great Professor Trelawney on Harry Potter 7 book launch night.
Personally, I’d run with the grey.
- Wear a wig.