Dear Friends at Going Gray, I have been colouring my hair all my life for fun, whimsy, brighten up my face, etc. I have decided to go gray because I am sick of covering it up;. it is coming in fiercely now. it is practically white. Also I saw all the before and after photos on the going gray websites and lo and behold (with few exceptions) everybody looked fine and not necessarily older or dowdy. Also since I have decided, I have been seeing a lot of silver and white haired (Eileen Fisher/Flax-types, which I am one) on the streets, in stores, etc and they all look great. I have decided that I am secure enough in my working situation to do this and I am totally psyched. Now for the transition, I am not willing to cut my hair because it takes too long to grow back. By the way, I have no support for this decision. Friends and clients are stunned into silence. Hairdressers want to cut. But with every passing day, I am more resolved to do it, my way.
I have already come through what I call the first phase of discovery. On the chats, go gray people (my friends) advise to lighten up to blend (low lights). Well I have been dark blonde and burnished red for so long it took me while to realize that none of these colours would work anymore and looking at my actual grey roots, I discovered that they are salt and pepper because, duh, my original was some kind of brown. So I went dark, I picked up a box of brown colouring and just 2 inches from the actual roots, covered up the red, blonde, etc. So that now it actually looks very natural. soft brown with the salt n pepper roots. Another funny thing is that the grey actually now seems to be coming in very slowly, especially when I wear it curly; but every now and then I like blow it out and wear it straight. Now my main problem is that none of the roots actually show up in a photo. I just look like I have a silver aura around me in the photos so I don’t know how I could possibly document this process (for your project). …..I live alone; no one to take these pictures, I am not particularly photogenic and just using a cell phone camera, the roots simply do not show.. And you are right this is becoming way to introspective…….obsessive. Anyway I will attach some photos if that is allowed. and I will try to document in a few months perhaps it will be more dramatic then. Thanks for being there.
Do you have gorgeous gray hair worthy of flaunting? Do you know someone else that does? Are you looking for support with letting your hair go gray? Send us your story along with a picture to goinggray@goinggrayblog.com.
