? for those who grew out gray hair

[pietri]

I love my henna colour and it's quite possible (likely, even) that I'll do another henna in the next days to cover my roots.

My natural colour is "dishwater blonde", as in an ashy medium blonde with quite a lot of gray.

Whenever I play with the idea of growing my grays out along with growing my hair longer I get put off when my roots show lighter than the coloured hair - especially at the top corners of my hairline (above my temples) because my hair looks so thin where the roots are showing.

Has this changed for those of you who have grown out grays? I've seen such beautiful silverhaired ladies on LHC, but I do love my hair to look thick!

[Caldonia Sun]

When I decided to stop coloring my hair my solution was to cut it very short; basically, to start over with the silver. I know that would not work for everyone, but I'm glad I did because when I let it grow, it was one color and easier for me to live with. It's about down to my shoulders now, and I actually like it!

Caldonia

[LilyMunster]

My hair is not thinning as it grows out. The scalp appears differently under white hair. In contrast to the darker hair. My ponytail circumference is increasing steadily. Growing out gray hair just takes getting used to. I used to think a feather was brushing by my eyes and I would bat it away and look up.

LM

[SchnauzerMom]

My hair is not any thinner even though it is gray. At first I thought it might be getting thin but I looked at some photos of myself about 40 years ago and the thickness is the same. Color's different of course.:sweatdrop:

[pietri]

Cutting is not an option for me - I'll be on vacation as of Friday, and I think I'll just put of any decisions on hennaing again until the end of June, I'll have to be back in the office on July 3rd and by then there should be about 2 cm of roots showing - might give me a better idea how I like my natural colour.

Thanks Caldonia Sun, LilyMunster and SchnauzerMom - I'll report back on my progress!

[AshenLady]

I got tired of coloring my hair nearly black for so long since I started graying at a young age; under 30. When I decided to go natural, I had my hairdresser strip as much as she could away and it was blondish for about 9 months. As it grew out, it was a nice shade of silver/white. I just let it keep growing out, but had to be careful not to let the hairdresser turn it too blonde.

I made sure she knew that I didn't want a line anyplace to show regrowth. Now it is all grown out and I only use a temporary rinse once in a while, when I feel like a change.

The rinse does wash out and then I sometimes go for awhile using Shimmering Highlights shampoo for when I am in the silver mood. I have the best of both worlds and am happy with it.

I wish I'd done it sooner, but I had to wait until a lot of the black turned gray because I did not want a salt/pepper look, personally.

[AshenLady]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/PistisSophia/IMG_0193iksxmas.jpg

[AshenLady]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b313/PistisSophia/IMG_0228nity1.jpg

[curls2grow]

AshenLady, were you naturally brunette before you colored your hair to "nearly black"? Your color looks great!

[wtchmel]

ashenlady, I just have to comment, your skin is nearly perfect!! I'm so envious, I just turned forty, and have tons of wrinkles and what not. Thanks for sharing your pics.

[Emichiee]

Hey I just wanted to add>

grey hairs are a bit coarser than normal ones. I measured customers hhair with a micrometer in my past job. So that might explain the thickening or at least not thinning for some.

[AshenLady]

Wtchmel, you have made my day!! Really, that is such a nice thing to write. I was quite tired in the photo; towards the end of Christmas Day......and yes, I went from brunette to coloring it as close as I could get to what it was naturally, with all kinds of coloring; always too dark or too red or too black.

Now, I am silver/white/gray.......I once again, am free!

I kept trying to stay a brunette but it finally become impossible but I am happy with what I have now morphed into.

Thank you both.

[unaspenser]

I know some folks on LHC and hennaforhair.com have had good luck removing some henna color with intensive oiling with EVOO or treatments with full-fat yogurt. You could give that a shot and see if you can lighten up your current color to make the transition a bit gentler.

[pietri]

Wow, Ashenlady, those photos make a really good point (the whole thing about a picture saying much more than words) - I love your natural hair :)

unaspenser, I've heard about that, but I'll wait until my roots are more noticeable and I'm sure I want to go natural *slightly afraid of taking that step*

[pietri]

Actually, are any curly grayhaired longhairs here? My hair is curly (see my avatar) and most of the photos I remember seeing on LHC were of straighter hairtypes (I think... but since I can't look it up perhaps someone could post a photo?)

[trollkjerring]

I am not exactly in the same situation cause I am growing out black dyed hair and my virgin hair is an ashy mediumblond with a few silver strands but I want to encourage you to go for it. The most awful time is when you only have one centimeter of roots cause as you already mentioned the lighter colored virgin hair looks strange but it will get easier the longer your roots grow, at least it is the case for me now.
I never liked my natural color but now I love it, it's the color mother nature gave me and this is always the best color:grinhappy:
trollkjerring

[pietri]

I'm a bit worried that my hair will look "washed out", I like stronger hair colours and I think my main problem aren't the grays but the non-descriptive medium ash blonde ones, if there was more contrast I would have grown the gray out ages ago...

But I like the look of silver sparkles instead of copper sparkles :)

[MerryKat]

Pietri
I am in the same boat. I had actually grown my roots to about 2" when I just could not resist the henna bug any more. I have done 2 henna glosses, so the red is a bit softer than a full henna. I like the henna but I was really starting to love my silver spangles.

My natural colour is a medium brown which was originally auburn (still a bit red in the sun) and my dyed colours are a lot darker. The one good thing has been that the henna has blended all the other different dye layers into one colour. I am going to leave my hair alone for the next few months and see how it looks.

I may have a bash at fading the henna if the line is too distinct. I have a lot of damage (thanks to all the chemical dyes) which I will definitely cut of in time, so hopefully that will also take care of the colour change.

I have a totally irrational fear of ending up with a skunk line of henna red and full silver in years to come, and the only way to prevent that is to grow out the dye now. My DH says I am too young for silver hair, but he obviously has not looked in the mirror recently - lol. And he will just have to learn to like it. He loves my hair long and I am sure that as long as it is long he will adjust (or maybe not even notice until the process is complete).

[Caldonia Sun]

Regarding curly silver hair, someone on LHC posted that they had seen a woman with silver ringlets, waist-length that was stunning. No pics, though.

The growing out phase is a pain, but I have come to truly like my silver. I bought black/white rimmed glasses to set it off. Also a few different clothing colors than I usually wear. I don't think the texture has changed at all; seems the same to me. It really has been freeing. Maybe it's the rebel in me, but I feel like I'm not conforming to what the whole beauty industry says I should look like. Kinda like stickin' a finger in their eye.:lafhard:

[pietri]

I googled for websites or pictures of gray curly hair (I even tried to add "long" because I'm apparently unrealistic) fully expecting to find some strange sites but: nothing really. Hardly anything on gray curly hair, never mind long gray curls... I think I might have to be a rebel ;)

[darkwaves]

I have curly hair, and I'm letting my silvers come in naturally. (I was dying it until a year ago, then I realized that if I didn't stop while I still had just a few handfuls of strands, I was going to have to cope with a major regrowth line. Long story, but I'm happy I stopped dying.)

I love my silver strands -- they are curlier than the rest of my hair. And I'd love to see pictures of long curly silver hair.

[Pilgrim]

I've been growing in my gray since August of 2004. The line of demarcation hasn't really bothered me much. Lately I've been considering using henna, but what does stop me is the thought of growing in the gray again someday! But I often feel I need more warmth in my hair color; the gray is so ashy! Then I thought about doing just the henna glossing, adding in colors to go toward more of a blond color. And I feel my hair needs some shine and less frizz, which I hear henna helps with. Can you tell I'm struggling with this? :lafhard: I'm just pondering all these things! Anyway, here's a pic of curly gray hair. It's not a good quality pic, but you can see the gray and the line of demarcation. Btw, my hair is much darker underneath and in the back. The gray is much more pronounced in the front and the old color below has faded drastically.

Edited: Never mind - I decided to delete the pic. :notsure: At any rate, I'm not happy with my hair color these days!

[pietri]

Oh, I should have gotten up earlier to catch your photo, Pilgrim ;)

You're right, the difficult thing is that both henna and silver hair (sounds much better than gray, plus I don't have to try and remember if its grey or gray) look great.
I think my lazier side is winning, it's not that I mind actually doing a henna treatment, more like the doing-henna-treatment-every-three-weeks-to-look-good bit.
I'm contemplating trying to lighten the henna with joghurt, oilings etc, but I'm a tiny bit afraid I'll end up with a skunk line silver/ashblonde to orange instead of the inevitable silver/ashblonde to deep red... orange looks bad on me!

[curls2grow]

pietri, I am so glad you started this thread. I have a big family event in May of next year, so I will keep my brunette color going until then for sure. After that, I am seriously wanting to stop coloring. It never occurred to me that letting the gray grow in could make me look washed out. But I guess I can start it, revisit makeup color choices, and always recolor again if I change my mind.

[Pilgrim]

Oh, I should have gotten up earlier to catch your photo, Pilgrim ;)

You're right, the difficult thing is that both henna and silver hair (sounds much better than gray, plus I don't have to try and remember if its grey or gray) look great.
I think my lazier side is winning, it's not that I mind actually doing a henna treatment, more like the doing-henna-treatment-every-three-weeks-to-look-good bit.
I'm contemplating trying to lighten the henna with joghurt, oilings etc, but I'm a tiny bit afraid I'll end up with a skunk line silver/ashblonde to orange instead of the inevitable silver/ashblonde to deep red... orange looks bad on me!
I'm sorry about the picture - I have posted some on LHC in my photo journal.

I think henna'd hair is beautiful, but don't know if I have the coloring for it. And I agree that silver ;) hair is beautiful, too. What I don't like on myself is that mix of gray and still-pigmented hair. All white would be great, but I'm not there, yet!

I suppose if your hair ended up orange after trying to lighten it, you could henna again to darken it. Or...maybe not!

Has anyone heard about someone using henna and something like turmeric to turn grays blonde? Seems like I read something about it on the henna thread on LHC.

[Rosepetal]

I'm going to experiment with rosemary and sage tea rinses to see if I can cover my sparklies until I am... uhhhh... alot more sparkly and ready to accept it!

Apparently, you can then stop doing the rinses and the color will fade out quickly. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm starting today.

Also, you may be able to use cassia or "blonde henna" as a more lasting color treatment, if you don't like the red henna or indigo colors.

[Pilgrim]

Rosepetal, I'd be interested to hear how the tea experiment works for you. I've heard it does deposit color on the hair, but that it takes a long time to show. I tried it myself, but I didn't have the patience! I did it for about three weeks.

Btw, my understanding is that Cassia doesn't deposit color on the hair. But I think it is supposed to make the hair shinier, which is always a good thing!

[viewdemonde]

Dear Pietri and Caldonia Sun,

I'm from Australia.....hi!

I grew into grey a few years ago. Althought I love my hair - think it's really pretty - ageism is alive and well and living here in Australia.

I'm going for job interviews and am very conscious that my actual haircut needs to be "cutting edge" as it were. I surf the web for wardobe inspiration, too, to play up my hair colour. My role model is Yasmina, a mature-age model whose style I love. Check her out! Problem is I need to loose about three stone! Check out Oprah Winfrey's website, too, for grey-haired inspiration. I'll post some pics soon.