Beauty

[Shanus]

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@ladygirl wrote:

My mom has been trying to let her gray roots grow out, so she does not have to go get her hair colored every month.  She has short hair.  It's not looking too good.  My neice who does hair (mostly pretty young woman though) did do some blonde hightlights with the gray and it looked ok but she does not have experience with older women and doing gray/white colors. It helped for a few weeks but is not really helping her grow the white/gray out as she has medium brown hair.  A friend of mine said her sister let hers grow in and her stylist added brown low lights.  Does anyone have any recommendations or tips on how to do that while still looking somewhat presentable?  I've never found or heard of anyone with experience with gray hair.  Any tips would be appreciated, thank you!

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@ladygirl  When I transitioning to white from dark brown last year, I didn’t have the patience or willing to look like cwap for a year or more with skunk stripes between the dark and bright white. Stylist did very heavy highlights (basically bleached my whole head) to remove 40 yrs. of dark dye. Then when bleached to very pale yellow stage, added the toner to match my silver/white/grey roots. Then I cut my hair short and just let it grow back out...now a chin length bob. Of course, my hair was all white under the dye, so after dark hair removed, no salt/pepper to contend with.

[Shanus]

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@Awomanofherown wrote:

I am probably 90% gray but my stylist colors blonde for years. I am thinking on going gray but I asked could we just color platinum and the highlight and my stylist said the if he added all platinum would burn my scalp and he would just foil platinum heavy for several years and in about 3-4 years maybe I would look ok as I am not going to look good with the gray growing off and I know many women are doing this and I think it’s great for them but my hair grows so slow. I have one length now and it took my bangs 5 years to grow out.  I know my stylist knows what he is doing but has anyone had their hair done like what my stylist wants to do? 

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@Awomanofherown  See my post: stylist did heavy highlights and therefore left out the 1”-2” growth of white near my scalp. There was no hair left out of foils, but since did it that way except of just plopping bleach on my head/scalp, there was no irritation. The toner was matched to grown out root color.

[Shanus]

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@software wrote:

I don't know your mom's age but once I went gray, I had to wait about 10 years for it to be pretty and manageable.    She may need to wait a while & try again.

I understand her situation, I'm a low maintenance gal but I colored my own hair until the gray grew out enough to be soft and silvery, instead of unruly and wire-y.

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@software  Not all grey hair is unruly or wiry.....mine never has been, but I deep control at least twice a week. It’s also curly, so do take extra care to add argan oil while still wet to add moisture.

[Shanus]

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@Kachina624 wrote:

It must not have been too traumatic because I don't even remember that phase.  I quit coloring when I retired and immediately had surgery which kept me in for about 3 months.  My short hair grows so fast, by the time I was out and about, that difficult "in between" stage had passed.

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@Kachina624  Not lucky you had surgery, but it did avoid the yucky awkward stage.

[151949]

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@phoenixbrd wrote:

@KentuckyWoman  You mentioned that your hair is white and I'm wondering....does grey hair eventually turn white or does your hair grow in as we age either grey or white?  This might be my misconception but white hair I would think would be more of a challenge to grow out than grey.  

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I think different people get different colors of grey. My Mom was Italian heritage and her hair was a steel grey, I took after my Dad & had red hair and , like most redheads, my hair is white, not grey.Anyway, as you age your hair does lighten, but the grey vs white doesn't seem to change.

[Shanus]

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@KentuckyWoman wrote:

Call around to a few hair salons and tell them your mom wants to stop coloring her gray hair.  Take her in for a consult and see what they think and if you agree.  Don't try to do anything on your own, or at least I wouldn't. 

I have baby fine hair and my hair is not silver it is white so I have it professionally colored every four weeks.  I would let it grow out and  but I am afraid my scalp would show.  I wear mine short as well.  I have a light to light medium complexion and dark brown eyes.

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@KentuckyWoman  There’s more contrast between darker hair and scalp that very light (grey/white) hair and the color of the scalp. It seems to me, your scalp would show less...the reason many older women w/ dark hair that has thinned go lighter.

[Shanus]

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@phoenixbrd wrote:

@KentuckyWoman  You mentioned that your hair is white and I'm wondering....does grey hair eventually turn white or does your hair grow in as we age either grey or white?  This might be my misconception but white hair I would think would be more of a challenge to grow out than grey.  

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@phoenixbrd Hair can grow out grey, white or silver...combo of them. It depends on your complexion, heredity, etc.

[vermint]

When I decided to let my hair go gray (had been coloring it a medium/dark brown close to my natural color) my stylist & I decided to do heavy ash-blond highlights to lessen the contrast. We did this 3 or 4 times over the next year, and my hair looked great the whole time! It's now a mix of silver/gray/brown that I get compliments on often.

[ladygirl]

No she would not wear a wig.

[Shanus]

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@ladygirl wrote:

No she would not wear a wig.

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@ladygirl  Re: wigs. When I was deciding whether or not to take the plunge, I went to a wig store and the SA matched several style wigs to the color white/silver of my roots. I liked the look & that influenced the decision. 

I’d suggest that for anyone on the fence.