I guess this will be a journey and ill probably have to come and read your wonderful posts often for encouragement!! Im 57 and about 6 weeks in. I had it all grown off and wore it silver for five years, and then in 2008 I allowed negative people to tell me I was too young to have silver hair. Joni's grey hair transition started when she was in her 50s, and tired of dyeing. And its been 3 years and the best thing she ever did. Just an option! If I could just buzz cut it & grow out from there Id be fine but that would sure look stupid for a while lol. In my 30s a few grey strands showed, and it helped to hide them. The most drastic part of this whole process was coloring it the dark brunette in September. Be prepared to be a bit purple until you get it right! Well, some people said this would make me look old, others said that I was really brave! I didn't though. These past few years were simultaneously the most difficult, most scary, most rewarding, and most freeing of all. Heres to a healthier life made more beautiful with our shining silver halos! I realize that if I don't see how I like my silver hair now that I may end up coloring it for another 15 years just to keep him happy with how his mommy looks! How I Feel One Year After Saying Good-Bye to the Dye That is what I am thinking of doing this week. I told my children and my boyfriend on my 53rd birthday. Wow, it is hard to believe but it is now ONE year since I ditched the dye and embraced my grays. METHOD #3: THE DYE STRIP TECHNIQUE. We believe that by simply CHOOSING, we can make a positive impact on our health and the health of the planet. I had been considering going grey and so, this was the perfect time to attempt it as I could save a lot by not having my hair colored. Several of my silver sisters, who have been through the full transition, graciously offered up their transition collages so you could see. I haven't been happy with the color of my highlights and their tendency towards brassiness for many years, so about 6 months ago, I decided to go cold turkey. How did you do it? In 2019, Turkey produced 1.45 million tonnes of tea (which was 4% of the world's total tea production), which made it one of the largest tea markets in the world . I wasnt feeling good with my hair dye, so I made the decision to stop using it. We are proud to belong to this community of amazing women who just accept themselves and each other, just as we are! IT IS A LONG ROAD BACK ONCE YOU CAVE IN I KNOW!!!!! What changed? I have been tempted to hit color, but I keep reminding my self, that anything worth having usually takes time and patients. This has probably made my transition to gray easier than it would have been in my home country. We kept it pixie short for about 6 months. Dye Strip Method. I had a lot of thoughts to work through as I tried to make sense of this time in my life. Anyway, I am getting lots of compliments and people asking me how I got that colorthey are surprised when I tell them its all naturalmy own grey! 243K followers. So reading all these nice stories amke me stronger to, at leat, give it a try. Cut it as you want. My husband is very supportive and anxious to see the end result, I might just make it this time. Bring it on ! People from all over the globe supporting, empowering, encouraging, motivating and inspiring each other in so many ways became a movement! August 31, 2020 (updated December 19, 2022). Your email address will not be published. Share. I never felt tempted to dye my hair again, though! How To Let Your Hair Fade to Gray Gracefully - D Magazine The hair care content is also for educational use, I am not a hair care professional or dermatologist, please be careful with your hair and skin. I'm seriously thinking of taking the plunge, too! I was tired of covering up. But I have a plan. I want to cut back on the relaxing bit I have course hair and I do like the straight look. I found myself looking at grey photos of women on the internet, I so loved the color. The reactions now are significantly more positive than negative to my grays. I sit here with a huge desire to do it but the doubt that I have the strength and perserverance to stick with it. Colored my hair a light brown one last time to get rid of the red, which had faded to a lovely neon orange shade. Depending on your hair type, it will probably take about2 years for gray hair to grow past your chin. I started with my first grey streak when I was 20 years old. It took me 9 months to be done with several big chops. I am so happy to have found all of you ladies that like me have made the decision to go grey! Take a few months to be prepared physically and mentally.Its all about faking it until you make it.Have you ever been somewhere that you were not supposed to be?If you have, you know that if you look insecure or nervous or out of place, someone will ask you what you are doing.However, if you walk along as if you OWN the place, people will not even think twice toquestion you being there.This is ALL about confidence.Take a few months to get your confidence at the level that will deter those who want to tell you that youre insane, that gray will age you, that this just isntdone. My name is Lisa. This site has given me the courage. I made the decision to embrace my silver hair just after my 48th birthday. What happened to my hair! Have a weird yellow bit on top even though my hair was brown . I have connected with so many ladies, and Im honored to call them my friends: Michele, Tina, Karen, Leanne, Sherry, Lashawnda and Ondine the list goes on and on! Just let your natural gray hair come in as it will. I just chose to go gray cold turkey, no color corrections, no interfering in my natural grow-out process even if this surely wasn't the most stylish solution Anyone who has started going gray knows that this doesn't happen overnight; it's a process that seems to take forever, and you have good and bad days. Please do not copy or redistribute anything from this site without further permission. Shave your head, no seriously. Thanks for seeing us all through the tough transition! all my best to you ladies out there who are going this route too- more power to ya! I'm Going Grey And Ready To Rock It ~ Just Our View From Here I got so fed up having to do my roots now every 2 weeks. Tips for Going Gray. They are my joy! Was it hard? It helped but did not lift it all. My decision was based on repeated allergic reactions (that were steadily progressing to a sever breathing emergency) to dye. I documented the cut I got at the 2 year mark in the video below. All-over toning (avoiding the new growth as much as possible), after the highlight processing was complete. The goal of #SILVERCON is to create a space for people who have either already transitioned to silver, or are just thinking about ditching the dye. I plan to wear it in a pony tail or pulled up once it stRts to really show my silver/white. yes, our hair like our skin is aging with us. I have no clue whats under there but Im excited to find out. Hi Joy, you may find that you hair grows in thicker and healthier after you stop coloring. And, I still wouldnt have the color I was expecting! Martha Truslow Smith created Going grey with (grohm)(bray) in 2016 with a simple, yet difficult mission: to start a different dialogue . My thought is that this will allow the grey to grow in while still maintaining a professional image. My hair is very long and dyed dark brown and my roots are growing out gray with silver highlights. But its always there if I need it. Age: 25; started graying at 12. How To Survive Going Gray: The First Year: Tips, Tricks & Hacks, The Dye Strip Technique for Going Gray in Secret, The Surprising Truth about Transitioning to Gray Hair, Its Time to Bust These Tired Myths About Gray Hair, Color Lounge Answers All Your Salon Transition Questions, How to Piss Off a Gray-Haired Woman in 5 Seconds or Less, 7 Unexpected Benefits of Going Gray From Dyed Hair, 10 Mistakes NEVER to Make If You Want to Successfully Transition to Gray Hair. There is a strong movement that is beginning to take shape! And there are so many reasons why I could go back to dying my hair. Give up??? I'm in month 2-3 and it's going better than i thought. If you choose to go short, you can cut that time down tremendously. I am 61, have recently retired from full time work, and decided, on a whim really, that I no longer wanted or needed to colour my hair. In those 3 years, Ive learned that nothing about who I am has changed. Its a little healthier. I have since found a new salon. I have a very good stylist, and we worked with a combination of color one month, skip 2 months, highlights/lowlights the 3rd month, skip 2 months and start over. My hair was breaking off and falling . This is a movement. They can then consciously use coping mechanisms to . Focus on health. I tried to look into this but my colored hair was too dark to lift to gray. I will be 55 the end of the month. It made me jealous how good his hair looks and there's no monthly upkeep. Groups like The Gray Book helped so much providing support and inspiration. My hairdresser (who wants to be supportive) warned me that some people are going to ask if I'm his grandmother, which does worry me a bit, but I'm hoping to keep myself current and fashionable enough to not look like a dowdy granny. I had thought about letting my dark brown hair go gray for about 10 years. I'm glad to have found this blog. Also a good check up, especially a thyroid test would be a good idea.Mari, After much soul searching Ive decided to go gray! As the hair grows from the roots, the demarcation line keeps widening as the months pass. I let all my hair (silver gray) come in and last summer folded under the same peer pressure . On average, for mid length to long hair 'cold turkey' grow-out, it takes about 20 months. Happy Wednesday ladies. Sharon, all the best to you too. PROS AND CONS OF GOING GRAY COLD TURKEY WITH LONG HAIR. I just turned 50 in June and I have decided to ditch the dye. The hardest part about going gray for me personally was deciding to go for it. One of the best decisions about me I have made. Then 2 months later, toner, cut/ styled. I am active and happy and I am not the color of my hair !! I had 2.5 years (thats how long it took me to fully transition my hair color) to get used to the new me, and, with every inch of growth of my two-toned hair, I felt more free, more me than I had ever felt. first and foremost healthy hair starts with a healthy diet. I have been colouring my hair for the last 20 years and most recently have had to colour every 2-3 weeks. All Images in this blog belong to the women in the picture, myself, or were used with purchase or commercial permissions. I am 2 months no dye, after 25 years of highlights. It's going to take some time and just like growing out a . Over the last 10 years or so, my stylist has highlighted it every 3rd visit to help mask the gray roots when they come in. Lets make some change. But once my grays grew in long enough to where I could almost tuck them behind my ears (around 6 months) it starts to look intentional rather than questionable and at that point it all started to get a bit easier. . I call this my final cut because its where I cut off all the remaining dyed bits of my hair marking the first time in over 20 years that my hair was 100% its natural color. Required fields are marked *. Im at the skunk stage, dark dyed hair & it grows in totally silver. Lol, nothing special! A pixie cut could have been an option, but I wasnt ready for a drastic change of color and cut at the same time! Let us know how things go. AVEDA by Aveda: Blue Malva Color Shampoo 33.8 OZ It looked a little splotchy with gray, sliver and dark brown but not as terrible as you might think. Whether you choose to do highlights and blending along the way or just go cold turkey and grow it all out naturally, some days are simply better than . Katie at Katie Goes Platinum has many full transition stories including mine on her blog. I could feeeeeel that I wasnt that girl. I went on a great adventure to find myself. Never found someone to support my idea of going gray. My very expensive and expert colorist advises that it is nearly impossible to remove all of the semi-permanent color from my hair and it cannot be returned to gray just by removing it. This woman had such an impact on me and she will never know it. I started to build my own self-worth, my own self-confidence, based on the person I found out I was. I'm in the process of going from brunette to gray. lot's of lean protein is important, avoiding too much fat, eating the right carbs, and drinking lots of water is key. Add to Cart . They wanted a mom with long, dark hair. This became so much more than a journey about hair! I used to pluck them all out with my Tweezermans but when I couldnt keep up, I started hitting the salon every 2 months, which turned into 6 weeks which eventually turned into every 4 weeks as the years passed.