Letting long colored hair go gray ...without a line of demarcation?

[AnnieA]

My hair is layered with the longest length about three inches below my shoulders. I'm 52 and got my first gray hair at 16, began to get comments about the amount of gray in my early 20s which is when I started coloring it. It's over 90% gray now and I'm seriously considering transitioning from its present dark copper blond which is a little lighter than my long ago natural copper red.

Thing is ...I want to maintain my current length, and I don't want bi-colored hair! I've been reading about working with a knowledgeable colorist, and it's a pretty complex and not! inexpensive process with no guarantee of no glitches along the way. I bought a gray wig to get a visual of how I'll look and love the gray. But I can't wear a wig during the transition in Mississippi! I wore the wig while in and out of the house for a few hours on a cool day and hated how hot it was. Not to mention all of the sudden showing up to work wearing a gray wig on a day other than Halloween seems bizarre!


Anyone here use a colorist to transition or know of someone who did it successfully?

 

[Ronni]

<raises hand> I did!

I had been coloring my hair various shades of hair very light red to strawberry blond for 15 years, ever since I started to notice the grays creeping in. A couple of years ago, I decided to let the red grow out. It was longer then than it is now, but still not as long as yours. I didn't want to look like a skunk with that line of demarcation, but I was also wanting to keep my hair as healthy as possible. I finally opted for a shorter cut than usual and one more color job, a sort of ashy strawberry blonde (she mixed some colors I think) but also with a bunch of lowlights and highlights that veered towards blonde/gray. As my hair grew out, we just kept up the low and high lights and blended that in as much as possible with the natural gray. It wasn't entirely imperceptible (and maybe that was just to me, because I knew what was going on) but SO much better than a very obvious growth line!!!

My hair is probably 50% gray now, and ever since it's all grown out I've been putting fun colors in it....turquoise and pink and lavender etc. I do it myself, it's a simple process..the gray grabs those colors easily, and they just slowly fade...no growth line at all.

 

[AnnieA]

Thanks, Ronnie! Yours looks great! The highlight/lowlight method seems to be good for the transition from what I've read.

I color my own hair now mixing three colors of professional grade Redken Shades EQ demi-permanent cream because I spent so much flippin' money over the years with general stylists who could never get the red right. Did go to a dedicated colorist once after a snafu by a stylist in their salon, but I couldn't afford to use her regularly. So I researched online and figured out how to mix what I like, and I do love the current color. It's just that I'm now ready to rock the gray. From what I can tell from times I let the roots go a little too long without a touch-up, it's a pretty platinum. Hope that proves to be the case all over!

 

[AnnieA]

Just found this video! Love it!!! Have watched countless ones over the past few weeks and her hair is a similar length and color to mine.