OT: Has anyone here 'transitioned to gray' after coloring hair?

Thought I'd post here to ask a question that's been a 'hot topic' among friends lately. There has been some media stuff about women deciding to stop coloring their hair (or NEVER coloring it), and 'transitioning to gray.' One woman said she had spent at least $65,000 on hair coloring trips to the beauty salon.

So, ladies of this newsgroup -- have any of you 'transitioned' to gray? How did you do it? What was it like? I've decided to stop supporting my colorist, and will 'transition' to my growing-in silver. My colorist refused to help me, so I went to someone else who said, "let's do a full foil, very light, and the gray growing in will be less noticeable."

This will probably have to be done every three months, instead of coloring and highlighting every month (with the gray showing after

2-1/2 to 3 weeks! and necessitating a headband or creative comb-overs to hide it).

If you aren't gray yet, do you know anyone who has done this?

Would love to hear comments on this OT topic. You can respond here, or to me personally. Thanks!

Gwen in SE PA

Reply to
gwen
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Gwen..i tried to do this several years ago when my gray started coming in and the color would not take. i went to a lighter shade of brown and kept lightening it as i went until it got to a light golden brown, almost blonde. my kids didnt like it, they like the dark brown. so a few months ago i went dark again, to keep the peace! even tho i liked the lighter shades. everyone at work noticed the difference and said to go back to the lighter shades. i told them i would start on my 50th to go completely gray....that's next march. my children will not be pleased! too bad! i liked being almost blonde!! amy

Reply to
amy

What I have done (but I don't call it gray I call it platinum blonde) is every so often I color my hair then I just let it grow out. When I do let it grow out I chop the hair short. On the other hand I am only in my late 30's been getting the pure white stuff since my early 20's. My natural hair color is not one pure color anyways, I have brown strands,black, red, blonde and now a lot more of the white stuff. For the most part anyways since I work nights not allot of people actually get to see me in daylight any more.

Reply to
Dawn In Alberta

AMY ! (shrieks an outraged Polly) Poop to what your children like. Dark hair is hateful to an 'approaching 50' complexion. Methinks you are grownup enough to know what flatters your skin the best. There. I said it and I feel much better. Polly

"amy" in and the color would not take. i went to a lighter shade of brown

Reply to
Polly Esther

Oh, what a miserable subject!

For 35+ years I wore my hair with a very, very heavy frost job- which I did myself. (I think the frosts/foils that professionals do is much too 'regular'- all the streaks march along at perfect intervals.) The streaks were golden blonde and made my hair look totally blonde, but the roots grew out very gracefully, so touch-ups were about very 3-4 months. The frost meant I did not have a straight line of 'this is blonde and this is dark roots'. Now, at age 57, I am about 75% gray and the blonde streaks don't work any more. I went to a colorist and she suggested a foil color job with low lights to match my mousy ash brown natural color and almost silver highlights to match the gray. That was supposed to let me grow it out naturally and gracefully. BUT.... the brown does not match my natural brown and the silver is damaging my hair waaayyyy too much and the damage gets worse with every foiling. My hair grows so quickly that I have very noticable roots after NINE DAYS. And, with the tip, it costs me $100 per coloring, MUCH too costly for my income.

I'd happily go back to the blonde streaks, but my hair is too damaged from the foiling and it wouldn't work any better than it did last year when I went to the colorist. If anybody has a solution, I'd be thrilled to discover what it is, too.....

Leslie & The Furbabies > Thought I'd post here to ask a question that's been a 'hot topic'

Reply to
tjkitten33

I've been blonde since I was 15. I colored it myself for 30 years. Every month or so. But something started happening to the texture of my hair. I mentioned it to my stylist and she said the color I was using wasn't covering the gray anymore. The difference in the texture was the gray, which didn't show up because of how light my hair was.

I spent 6 months letting it grow out. I figured I'd just go back to my natural color (whatever THAT was). I couldn't stand it - people were asking if I had been sick.

So I started getting it highlighted instead. I have coarse, straight hair and I gotta tell you that without the bleach, it's like cat hair. It won't do anything. I don't have much body in my hair to begin with, but this stuff is just nasty.

So about every 4 months I go in and she does her thing. She pulls it through the cap which hurts like heck, but she does her magic and it feels so much better. It costs me about $50 and I'd pay double that.

Cindy > it's about time for a color too. I've been busy and right now I hate my hair. If I'm thinking about it at all, that means it's time.

Reply to
teleflora

Yep, it's really Leslie. I'm posting via Google from the office. Sorry for any confusion!

Leslie & The Furbabies > Oh, what a miserable subject!

Reply to
tjkitten33

Here is a view from the other side of the aisle. My wife has never colored her hair but when she turned 40 or so she started to transition to grey. It is now grey all over and I love it. In her case she has very thick hair and so she can cut it quite short and still have a full head of hair. She just gets it cut about every 5-6 weeks and that is it. No muss, No fuss, No Bother. I started to loose my hair at age 50 with a receding hairline. So and I decided on a rather drastic solution. I shaved it all off and have been a chrome dome since then and I love it. I think you have to be a self confident type to do that, unless of course, you are Brittany Spears. Then, as in her case, it is just another development in your slide into irrelevance.

John

Reply to
John

Reply to
elspeth

Well, my greys were getting more and more visible, my stylist and dear friend decided to take it upon herself to try and pull out the ones right in front. She got 3 browns before she grabbed the grey one she was trying for!! We decided that we valued our friendship more than we wanted to get into a fight over my grey hairs, so I asked her what she would do if I gave her free rein. What we ended up agreeing on was 2 colors of streaks. I have naturally dark brown hair that sometimes gets red and blonde highlights in it when I'm out in the summer sun for a long time. SO.....we went with ruby (deep red) and toffee (medium to light blonde) streaking. She alternated them blonde then red then blonde, etc. It actually looks really natural and has kept the greys fairly well hidden. However, the greys are starting to become more visible and stating to tick me off.

I'm not sure if I'm going to do the streaking again or not, but it was nice when they were first done....they are allowing my greys to creep in quietly and letting me ignore them for a while

Larisa, not yet 35, but with strong, visible grey areas smack in the middle of my forehead, and at both temples

Reply to
larisavann

Gwen, when I first started to go gray, it was in a stripe down the back of my head. Needless to say, one or two of my students found a very interesting name to call me. ;) My hairdresser at the time told me he could blend in some color to make things less "stripe-y" and that he would tell me when it was time to stop coloring it, since I didn't want the hassle of doing this all the time. He did, and he did. I've gone more and more gray over the years, and it really doesn't bother me. I'm not completely gray yet, but it's coming, and it's so much easier than what my DT has to go through, since she does get her hair colored.

Reply to
Sandy

yup, i agree with Ms Polly. poop to the kids!!

jeanne

"Polly Esther" wrote...

Reply to
nzlstar*

Howdy!

Some natural brunettes have the complexion for our brown hair, even tho' we may choose the brown we want these days as we approach and move past the 1/2 century mark. Lighter shades, however, do not flatter us so well.

If you want gray hair, do it for god's sake. If you want to be blonde, go for it. It's your hair and your checkbook.

good god--I am amazed at the time & energy spent on such a dead tissue in this country! --hair is dead, after all. ;-D

All that money spent at the hairdressers could just as well be spent at the quilt shop. I know what I'd choose. Lady Clairol, meet Sandy the Quilter. LOL

R/Sandy -- "It's just hair!"

Reply to
Sandy Ellison

It has been some years since I've seen my true colour so in the 3 months leading up to my 60th in August I stopped colouring it only to find that I was more that 75% grey! Bit of a shock, been telling myself that it was about 50%. Anyways, for years I've had it streaked blonde [use to be a medium brown]....got sick of that and late last year I went back to medium brown and quite like that for the present but tiring of colouring it all the darn time. I so envy those mature ladies who have steel grey hair and keep it cut really very short, they look fabulous. So, like you, I'm going to have to work out a plan to go grey a la natural in the not too distant future. I think the only way is streaking, not foils [if you can stand the pain of hair being pulled through those caps] and get less pulled through each time. Having short hair helps I think. With a streaking you can get away with about 3 months between hairdresser visits depending on how quickly your hair grows. I can't be bother with a transition of going to a lighter brown, it will be straight into the deep end with blonde streaks for me. A change of makeup and the colours you wear is a must! P.S. Of course, if you don't like it grey you can always colour it again.....wonderful thing hair, it grows! Love to know how you get on.

Wendy in Nsw

Reply to
wendy.lavender

I am mid-50s, and transitioning to gray. My true color is strawberry blonde [more strawberry, with copper highlights]. Like others have said, there are several colors on my head. I don't color. My red has dulled somewhat, and more gray is coming in. Oh, well, I've earned everyone of those puppies! I drink lots of water and they say that is why my hair is healthy. My mother passed at age 82 and had just some salt-and-pepper gray around her face, she never colored it. My sisters color their hair.

Simply I won't take the time/spend the $$ to color. For me, there's more to do in life!

G> Thought I'd post here to ask a question that's been a 'hot topic'

Reply to
Ginger in CA

I guess it just never occurred to me to color my hair. Never happened. Time and money and just no need for me. I wouldn't mind a fresh style but I haven't gotten to the point that I get up and do it!

Good luck with your new look Leslie. Taria

G>

Reply to
Taria

Hoooo Boy! My "colorist" is a $6 box of Loreal Excellence (5RB for inquiring minds) and my "hair dye sweatshirt", stains and all. Although, for the last year or so, I've seriously considered making "the transition". Tried to go cold turkey and that grey halo was just ugly. Now, a "real" hairdresser offered that I should pay her to do a partial job, about three times in a row, doing progressively less strands each time, which would let the grey come in "gradually". Ok, now that I have the idea, I may still do it myself, but the idea was a good one. I'm still on the fence on this one. Apparently I have a "white" grey, which should look fairly ok, it's my own natural color that I never did really care for. Maybe I'll post pics if I transition, a before and after. In the meantime, don't hold your breath as the kids are NOT in favor of Mom looking like a "gramma", as they put it. Lorraine

Reply to
TwinMom

Gwen, I did it. Went from deep auburn to silver white in a real short time.

Here's how I did it: I'd been dying my silver hair since it had started turning in earnest when I was 33 or so. I knew it was totally silver under the red and my r oots had to be covered every two weeks. It was just too much. So, I went to a good hairdresser and told her what I wanted.

First step: Put off coloring my hair for a month, which gave me a ghastly "fire break" of almost a half iinch. This was the most painful part.

Second step: strip off the dark color. It took five hours and I don't know how many applications of peroxide and stripper. The color we finally got to was a "bleached blond" or platinum color.

Third: Add some gentle streaks of just darker color to blend the silver roots into the blond. The streaks were not peroxided dye, just the wash and wear kind. I kept that up for several months until the silver part grew pretty long and then I stopped weaving in the little streaks.

Fourth: Short, short hair cut and only the ends were anything but silver.

My hair is now totally silver. I'm 50-years-old. I am told that it's attractive. If anybody offers me the senior discount, I take it with a smile.

Sunny

Reply to
Sunny

I saw your pictue on your blog and had a burning desire to pop down to where you are and pet your head.

NightMist Firmly belives that men should either have hair down to their knees or n>>> Thought I'd post here to ask a question that's been a 'hot topic'

Reply to
NightMist

Well now that depends on your complexion eh? (G)

My mom tried to convince me to go blonde for ages. I tried a blonde stripe near the front of my hair, and found out I had bleach resistant hair. Tried some auburns just for the heck of it. Found one I liked, then found out I could not get it reliably outside of Canada. This also led me to discover that the color consultants at the company didn't know squat about their products and didn't know how to use a computer. So I went back to black which is my natural color. Grey has started to come in, but in a rather tatty looking way. Like I was careless walking under cobwebs. So I am dying my hair black every now and again. I have been thinking that after the grey is thicker I will do another stripe (with color remover rather than a bleach), either near the front or a skunk stripe. Then just gradually widen the stripe. Seems an easier way to go than messing around with high lights and low lights and all that stuff.

DH is keen on the idea of doing the skunk stripe and then leaving a black stripe like Abby in Swamp Thing has when widening it.

NightMist

Reply to
NightMist

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