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View Full Version : Going grey!



cobden 28
June 24th, 2013, 03:06 PM
I'd not seen my student daughter since last October, so when we met up yesterday on my birthday to go out to lunch together, she commented how much more grey my hair had become since she last saw me.....this afternoon when I went for my regular trim & blow-dry I decided to consider a temporary colour rinse for my hair as I do honestly think I look 'middle-aged' with my grey hair (I was 58 yesterday, BTW).

Pure white hair does look striking and distinguished on a woman, but until such time as I do go totally white I'm stuck with horrible mid-grey sort of brown hair that is very aging. I've therefore decided to go for a temporary colour rinse, in as near as possible to my natural hair colour, so as soon as I've saved up enough money for this to be done at the hairdresser I'm going to have my hair coloured. Then in a few years' time when my natural hair colour is revealed to be white I can stop the colouring process.

My student daughter happily does her own hair colouring at home, but it's easier for her as she has much shorter hair than me. I've never had my hair totally coloured before so as this is a 'first' for me I'm going to pay out for the procedure to be done properly by experts at the salon. Besides, with having waist-length hair I'll probably need twice as much colourant as a shorter-haired lady which means lots more opportunity to make a MESS in our recently-decorated bathroom.

Firefox7275
June 24th, 2013, 03:23 PM
If you are intending on a semi permanent that honestly is super easy and safe to do at home for cheap, your daughter could help. There is little time pressure with semi permanents since there is no peroxide or damaging chemicals, you can leave the product on much longer than the instructions - some do overnights to get a really strong or bright shade, it's not that different to henna in that respect. You will need way more than twice as much unless you have very thin hair, and you may need a lengthy process time to get a colour that actually takes and lasts on virgin hair unless it is naturally porous (virgin hair is water resistant, semi permanents are water based).

Avoiding mess is about being neat with your sections, cover the floor, dye comes off tiles/ grout/ bath/ shower/ sink with a simple bleach spray and soak afterwards (depending on flooring type). I just cover the floor with towels or dust sheets, wear a cape from a pound shop (= dollar store).

kpzra
June 24th, 2013, 06:48 PM
Keep in mind your grey/white/silver hair may not take the dye, mine doesn't. No matter what brand, type (semi or regular), liquid, foam, nothing sticks to my white hairs. Even having it done in a salon it lasted for all of a day.

fairview
June 24th, 2013, 07:37 PM
Before you toodle on down to the salon for a color job, take a look at the people around you with average to poor color on their hair. Granted a lot of it is box color but a lot of it is salon color also. 80% of people are walking around with bad haircuts because they never experienced a good cut and style. I can't help think but the same is true for color. Politely find out where the bad color is coming from and stay out of those salons and find out where the good color is coming from and go there but be prepared for sticker shock.

Before I would color your hair, as your stylist I would try to convince you to purchase a purple based shampoo for silver/white hair. This will take out any brassiness out of the white and really make the white bright and pure. You might be surprised and be quite please with your new natural highlights

You have 2 options for color here. The first is to go with a salon quality demi color that will fade on tone. You won't generally find them in boxes on a store shelf. The color will last 6-8 weeks based on no more than 3 shampoos a week with color safe products. Your goal is not to color the grey but to blend it. Stay at least 2 levels above your natural level. This will look more natural.

Option 2. Instead of fighting the white you could transition to platinum but it will take between 6-8 months, perhaps a year. The first step is lighten the hair around the face and very few around your remaining headshape. 6-8 weeks later more highlights are placed around the fringe face area but much more are placed around your head. There is some minimal effort during the 3 and fourth visits to avoid previously lightened areas but by the time 5th visit rolls around, previously lightened areas are included which brings them to near platinum color. And so the process continues until your platinum. I'm 55 and I can attest that the number of white hairs will not decrease over time so you can chose to not fight natures journey and by being a slow transition, you are in control of how light you get. If you start feeling uncomfortable, you can stop take a break and restart. It is a slow process and probably more cost effective since eventually only touch up is needed then nothing at all.

I use a clear demi mixed with a level 10 very light ash demi mixed at a ratio of 1 to 3 parts just to impart a hint of color to my blinding snow white hair color. (I hate it but I have surrendered)Also there are usually modified instructions for grey blending with demis. Typical mix is a 1 part color to 2 parts special developer whereas for grey blending it is usually a 1-1 ration of color and the special developer.

Good luck with whatever you option you chose.

Mesmerise
June 24th, 2013, 09:14 PM
Personally I see nothing wrong with looking "middle aged" at 58 ;).

Really hair colour is up to you and if you decide to colour and you're happy with it that's great! Do bear in mind that the regrowth can be a real PITA and you'll need to regularly get your hair touched up to keep it looking good. Also, as others have said, some gray hairs really don't "take" colour well... I found that when I was box dyeing my hair, not even all the permanents would work. I ended up using henna which, to me, was great.

And then I decided that I didn't want to have to keep colouring my hair monthly at all, and decided to just go gray.

I realise it's not for everyone, but upon some study and reflection I'm also not sure gray hair is as ageing as everyone says it is! I've seen some youthful women with gray hair, and I was surprised to learn how old they actually were, because they didn't look it (in other words many were 40+ but I'd have thought they were younger than 40, gray or not).