Tired of dying hair; going gray economically

Get a pixie cut and let it grow back out from there.
That's pretty much what I did. I stopped coloring when a week after a color job there would be an inch of white at the roots. It wasn't that my hair was growing, just that my hair was resisting the color. I found an awesome stylist who managed to cut my hair so that the silver and white strands looked like highlights among the brown. I am now completely white and silver in the front and on the sides with those same highlights in the back. I get young people all the time asking me where I get my hair highlighted! Some women my age have said they wish they had my "courage". My hair is so much healthier since I stopped coloring.
 
I was in my mid 40s when I stopped coloring my hair. Like you, I was so tired of it all as I was gray in my temples and at the part and it was too much for me to keep up. I went cold turkey and just waited it out. I did go, as a PP said, one time to get highlights to help it.

However, I am not familiar with the purple shampoo and a bit afraid to even try it. My hair looks naturally highlighted with various shades of gray, have embraced it now.

I use "the purple shampoo" and it does keep my white and silver hair from yellowing.
 
Post chemo ...my stick straight, fine, brown hair came back ...wavy and greying. Just way to early for me personally to be grey.
I bought a dark blonde color and have never looked back.
Now I use medium blonde, which lightens considerably in the fla sun. My grey has become more difficult to cover and while that’s frustrating, I just deal with some grey along my temple.
My hair still gets that wave when wet... and adds some body to my otherwise fine hair.

I actually embraced my bald head ...and donated my custom wigs way back .. yet these years later, just can’t do grey. People always seem to be surprised I buy and do it myself and generally get compliments on the color/s... it does get natural sun highlights..

Whatever you decide OP, embrace it!
 
I haven’t coloured my hair since I was 29-30. It was just getting annoying and pricey and I figured I would be dying it once it started going grey so might as well enjoy the natural while I could.

Reading this thread though I feel better about just letting it go grey and just embrace it. It sounds like a real process when you finally decide to stop dying it and I rather not deal with it. Lol. Thank you OP for starting this and all those who replied!
Hopefully I still have many years to go till I go grey...the few strands I have found have been removed immediately...as a warning to all the other hair to stay brown!! Lol
 


Just did it it naturally and slowly. It took about two full years for my medium length, medium brown hair to go completely gray. Yes, it was awkward at times but I was just tired of the money and time I was wasting on my hair.
 
I need to do this. I do not know how, as I think my hair might be almost all white. I had grey hair, or maybe white mixed with my brown, as a TEEN. I really do not want to have all white hair, a nice grey would be ok. I need to come up with a plan. I figured I would wait until I retire, so I do not look freaky at work. I did start highlights, and got it all to a fairly light color, but I am pale and I looked so washed out. So went back to a brown. I need to start over and get it lighter and lighter, using highlights, and then just go for it. Perhaps a blue rinse, HAHAHA.
 
I'll try to share my own going-gray process from last spring. I had been coloring my mousy hair reddish brown for nearly 30 years. I'm now naturally gray. I wanted to own the gray but didn't want blonde highlights as an interim step. I decided I'd rather cover up a disaster with a dramatic dark blue or purple than spend years getting highlights and waiting. The salons quoted me $1000-1500 for the entire journey, whether I was going for a quick change or a slow change.

I made this change myself over a terrifying long weekend, at a cost of about $100. I'm still babying my hair because of the bleaching step. Also, I learned while doing my research that reddish brown is the MOST DIFFICULT color to correct or cover. It would have taken at least another round of bleaching to get it all out, and there's no way my hair would have survived it. Instead, I focused on coloring over the orange tones.

Good luck with your process! I love my new color.


Before:

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After color corrector

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After Bleaching:

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After toning:

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After first round of coloring:

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After second round of coloring:

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A few weeks later:

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What did you do from 5th picture to get to the 6th picture?

I reapplied the semi-permanent haircolor cocktail I was using, with a couple of tweaks: I made a double batch to make sure that the coverage was super robust; and I added a few drops of black color to the gray to increase pigmentation in the mixture. The cocktail included: several tubes of Joico Titanium; a squirt of Joico Indigo; a few drops/small squirt of Ion black; white silicone-free conditioner (I can't remember the brand) and several little vials of Ion's Absolute Perfection booster. That booster is Ion's/Sally's answer to Olaplex, but I think it's actually just an intensive protein treatment.

Everything I read online cautioned that gray is NOT watered-down black and that I was playing a very dangerous game, LOL. However, that little bit of black really made a big difference with coverage, didn't it?
 
I was researching embracing gray naturally. I truly didn't want to dye my natural brindle hair that I love due to the cost, time, & upkeep. I'm pretty low maintenance in general. So with my research I found the How Bourgeois blog through pinterest that documents her journey about going gray. She gives a lot of great tips on the process & gray hair.
 

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