Grey and natural
You’ve been dying to stop dyeing your hair for years and have decided it’s time to get off the colour wagon. It’s a decision you could be making for many reasons. You may not want to commit to colouring your hair any longer because of the time, effort or money spent on colour services. Maybe you want a healthier lifestyle and want to be free of the bondage of permanent colour touch-ups and chemicals on your scalp! You may not even be colouring your hair to cover greys and have decided you want to grow in your own natural hair colour.
You’ll most likely now have to deal with the downside of the colour transition, especially if stopping covering greys or there’s a big difference between the colour of your dyed hair and natural shade: the skunk line, which is the strong band, or demarcation line, where the natural hair colour and dyed colour meet. There are, however, some options to help as you grow out the dyed hair.
Quit colour cold Turkey
Persevere and live with the skunk line as your natural hair grows in. Get frequent trims to close the gap between your coloured hair and the natural hair coming in at the root. Hair grows at a rate of about six inches a year (1/2 inch every two months), so it could take a little time to grow out, depending on your hair length.
Dark Hair Transition
If you are growing out hair that is dyed a darker colour than your natural shade, consider semi-permanent or demi-permanent hair colour formulas applied to the regrowth until the permanent hair colour has been trimmed off.
“Light Hair / Blond Transition”
Excerpt From The ABCs How to Always Be Curly and Love It! (Tellwell Talent); this material may be protected by copyright.
“If you have been dyeing your hair blond or a high lift shade, you may opt for highlights on your regrowth to gradually grow in your natural hair colour. Highlights are permanent and can help break the stark contrast of the demarcation line as you grow out your blond ends.
If you are transitioning to grey from hair that was dyed blond, you could choose to do lowlights in a demi-permanent lighter brown colour (lowlights in too dark a tone will make you look stripy). The lowlights will add a little dimension to your roots and down the previously coloured ends to help with the stark look of your natural grey hair growing in.
You can apply both highlights and lowlights from roots to ends until you grow in your natural colour. Both will help break up the demarcation line to make the colour transition easier for you to live with.
Get a trim every three months or so to close the gap between the coloured blond ends and the natural hair growth.”
So you’ve done it! You've transitioned! What if after that growing out process you feel your natural grey colour is boring and blah? I've had a few clients feel this way. I ask them to try one more thing before throwing in the towel.
You can add highlights (which are permanent), or semi-permanent or demi-permanent lowlights if you don’t want to commit to a permanent colour that will fade out.
Both these colour techniques are applied away from the scalp, so chemicals are not processing on your skin, making them healthier colour options.
Highlights will nicely brighten up the grey monotone, while the lightness provided by the highlights will give the illusion of more volume to the hair.
Applying lowlights will add dimension and depth to your grey tone. Lowlights will give the illusion of less volume to your hair.
Both highlights and lowlights can be done as frequently as every few months or, for a very low-commitment colour service, just once or twice a year and can give you the lift you need to your base colour.”
