I’m looking for advice from ladies (or gents if applicable)who’ve stopped coloring their hair to hide the gray. I’ve been coloring mine for about ten years now so I don’t really even now how much gray I have under there. For those who have stopped tinting, how did you do it? Did you just stop and walk around with a skunk stripe? Do you like the way you look with your gray hair or is it simply not worth the hassle of dying it anymore? I think if I had nice stripes of gray or, better yet, a Mallen streak I’d stop coloring in a heartbeat but like most people, I probably have wiry silver strands under all the Garnier. Is their a relatively inexpensive and / or low maintenance way to transition form being a bottle brunette to au natural?
Shave your head and then let it grow out?
I’ve gone gray recently, and decided not to dye my hair in part because several friends commented on my gray, and then launched into stories about the nuisance of keeping it dyed, or the difficulties of growing it out.
But I wonder if switching to a temporary dye for a few months before you stop might be helpful. I don’t know about temporary dyes in “normal” hair colors, but the kids put “temporary” dye in bright colors in their hair, and the stuff seems to slowly fade out over several hair washes, which I’d think would look less weird than the skunk stripe look.
Oh, and one friend decided to stop dying her hair shortly after we talked about it. She does look a lot older with pretty solid gray hair, but it’s a lot easier to maintain.
The temporary dye thing crossed my mind. Maybe one of dopers in the hair industry will have a recommendation. How much gray do you have puzzlegal?
Those in normal colors are what my mother uses, and part of the reason is that if she can’t get to the hairdresser regularly the divide between roots and still-somewhat-dyed hair isn’t anywhere near as marked as with permanent dye. To keep the dye job, she needs to go to the hairdresser as frequently as with a permanent dye, but she can let it go without feeling like she’s turning into the local bag lady.
Consider dying it the grey it wants to be. Then it won’t be noticeable when it grows in.
Besides, it’s all the rage right now, with the ‘many different hair colour’ crowd, who change up their colour regularly.
You could even spring for the dye job, full highlights plus cut, makeover! Maybe get the hair colour/style you were hoping to see it to grow into naturally!
Good Luck!
Something like this might work. I don’t think I have the nerve to go solid gray (plus that involves bleaching right? I think my hair would fall out:eek: ) but maybe gray highlights (if that’s the right word) could look nice.
I just read an article about a blogger of colour who went blonde, who mentioned that modern bleach is a very different beast, a lot more forgiving and less frightening than bleach once was.
I have long dark hair, so the greys are quite noticeable. I pull them out. Except for those that show up within ~1in of my part at my forehead. They can stay. I will make my own Mallen streak! My mum has one, so maybe I have the genes. It does seem to be the main place they show up. The most irritating are the little short ones around my ears. I tweeze them.
I just got done reading a book on this subject you might enjoy: Going Gray by Anne Kreamer.
I like **elbow’**s dye it gray idea; I’ve seen some nice gray do’s on Pinterest.
From a man’s point of view I hope you don’t mind me swimming against the current but I’ll suggest keep dying your hair. Leaving a gray streak would be nice, I thought Lily Munster always looked exotically attractive that way. I assume there’s some way to dye the rest of your hair and leave a streak like that. Maybe even do it in reverse with a dark streak in the gray.
It’s really hard to know if going grey is such a great idea. I have a friend who looks amazing with silver hair (in her 50s), but she was pretty blond when she was younger, so the colour of her grey is bright and lovely.
However, I have other friends who look pretty washed out / unwell / older as a result. It’s going to depend on your skin tone.
I agree that either a grey dye or a semi-permanent dye would be the way to go, rather than skunk stripe.
Tripolar, I don’t mind your man’s point of view at all(and I would love to have Lily Munster hair!) In fact any men reading this are welcome to chime in on how they feel about women going gray (but let’s keep it civil).
As **SanVito **mentioned, it depends on coloring and I have olive skin with dark hair and warm(natural) highlights. Gray is naturally cool so I shudder to think what my face will look like surrounded by it. These are the times I wish I’d been born blonde.
Thanks for this. I just read the blurb and this is exactly the kind of feedback / advice I’m looking for. Sadly, I don’ think my hair on it’s best day will ever look like the photo on the front of the book 
Sadly, quite a lot. It’s not evenly spread through my hair. The stuff in the front is much grayer than the parts in the back – especially around the neckline, I still have a lot of my original color. I’m sure I would look better, or at least, younger, if I dyed it, but for a variety of reasons that I don’t want to unpack right now, I won’t be doing that.
I’ve never dyed my hair (which is now almost all grey.)
I like to think it makes me look distinguished. 
The last time a person in my life looked into it, there were no “gray dyes.” Do they exist now?
Me neither. I am what I am, which happens to be (among other things) Old.
I don’t socialize at home, but when I’m traveling abroad and staying in hostels, I find younger people quite accepting of me, hair color notwithstanding.
Long ago I had dark brown hair and started coloring with permanent dye when it started turning grey. At some point, the abundance of grey root had me doing touch ups bi-weekly. I felt it was time to wear a more natural shade. I began dying my hair a very light brown… nearly blonde. Then switched from a permanent product to one that rinses out (in the same light shade). This allowed my natural grey hair to grow in. After much time and many haircuts, there was no more permanent dye left on my hair. One day I simply stopped using the rinses.
I’ve done a lot of research on this topic. I’ve been getting white hairs since my twenties, but they’ve dramatically accelerated their rate of appearance AND have become color resistant in the last year. I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do, but your options are thus:
-
Whack it all off and let it grow in natural. If you can pull off a pixie cut - do it!
-
Go blonde so it hides longer. This is really only an option if you’re already in the blonde family, because dramatically lightening hair damages it, and the gray/white hair is already a coarser texture than your original color. This option has the potential to leave you looking frizzy and dull.
-
Put in strategic highlights of an ashy cool blonde. Less damaging, but again, works best if you’re already in the blonde family.
-
Demi-permanent color or semi-permanent hair color. Both coat the hair, rather than lifting color, but the demi uses a small amount of peroxide and a developer to help the color sink into the hair shaft rather than just sitting on top. Neither work for lightening hair and you should always use at least a shade lighter than you think you’re going to want, because they’ll always be darker on your hair than in the box.