Hair - grey or highlights?

gillybob, your hair is lovely - well, it was when I saw it a few weeks ago, anyway!

You are very kind Marelli but my hair has never been "lovely" it is quite thin on top and thick at the back and sides (weird) and seems to have a life of its own most of the time. After my recent "colour job" I am shocked every time I pass a mirror !

Comment from someone in the ladies at work today. "Arn't these new hot air driers awful when you have thin wispy hair"!!

"Arn't these new hot air driers awful when you have thin wispy hair"!
Never mind, the EU will soon see to that grandma60!

I would love a layered bob, but I said on another post that it ended up as a thatched roof (according to DH).
Changed hairdresser since then, now shorter but not too short, and now my lovely new hairdresser is emigrating!!

Caramel low lights every 3 months. I do my roots at home every three weeks or so, hubby obligingly does the back.

Anyone else discovered Colour Wow root retouch kit? a bit like block mascara. It's quite good for touching up grey regrowth if you don't want to go the whole hog and faff about with the real messy stuff. I believe there's now a Charles Worthington spray for root re growth but every time I go to Boots they are all out of mid brown, clearly a lot of us mousy people around!

My hair is still dark brown except for an eskimo ruff of grey/white around my face, very unflattering. Fortunately, I have a thick fringe and long bob that falls forward over most of it and I just colour it using a colour a shade lighter than my natural colour. Because so little of my hair is grey I get away with only doing it every three or four months.

Sounds as though Hairdressing should be a recommended career by schools, as lots of us use them for colour and cutting. I was worried about doing my own hair colour, in case the white/grey bits go ginger, which can happen with colouring. I am impressed with those of you who do your own, and also with gillybob and her gorgeous vibrant colour.
Etheltbags1 how exciting to have the purple. Does it last long or wash out?
And Nonnie, my eye brows sadly have got a good few white longer hairs in them - I pluck out the worst ones!
I have a cut booked for Friday - layers - so will discover how much grey shows then and may decide to go back to colour, though I tend to agree with Chloe1984 - I find the cost quite high, especially if you make sure the roots don't show for long! I have been on the same journey as you Chloe - trying to accept the grey. I haven't tried the special shampoos yet so will give them a try.

There is a good silver toned hair mousse by Insette for grey hair it gives nice silver tones to any hair and is easily washed out if you change your mind.

Nanabelle, regarding eyebrows if you want to disguise the white hairs Benefit do an excellent eyebrow gel brush, a bit like a small mascara brush, it's very good.

Nanabelle your post re a career in hairdressing reminds me of when I told my mother I wanted to be a hairdresser. She was horrified at the thought of me washing dirty heads! She was very happy though when, instead, I chose a career in Nursing, whereby, I washed a lot worse than dirty heads!

I am so far past the grey that someone thought I had dyed it silver! Best transition tip I did to disguise grey roots was just having highlights along my parting every time I had a cut - so it all sort of blended in after a while.
I do miss the two red streaks I had half-hidden at the sides, but then saw a much younger person with lovely very pale/bleached hair and little pale blue streaks at the sides. May allow my daughter to play with her hair chalks on me...

ha ha just read Agus

Ridiculous, isn't it?

I have really coarse thick hair, which is very curly and darker(light brown) on the bottom half of my head and much blonder on the top half and just wavy rather than curly. On the very few occasions when I have been to a hairdresser they have all said that it's like having two entirely different sets of hair to work with.

My biggest problem though, now that I have grey hairs by my ears, a splodge of grey where I had a bad bump years ago, a narrow fringe around my face and along my parting, is what will take and stay on my hair. I currently use an applicator with a sort of plastic brush at the end and just sweep it through my hair where it looks greyest and until recently used Naturtint, as I could apply it as often as I liked without it drying my hair. However, it does colour well enough or for long enough anymore.

Which colourant do you think lasts the longest? I need a mid to dark blonde really, that I can streak through my hair in various places to act as a lowlight for the top half and a highlight for the bottom half.

I let my hair go grey about 2 years ago as I had enough of dyeing it every few weeks. I feel it is the best thing I have done for years. My hair has never look better and I save time and money not dyeing it I keep it short and have it cut every 6/8 weeks and I love it

In the end we all have to embrace the grey [or accept it anyway] but I am putting it off as long as possible as DH doesn't have grey hair yet.

I've been colouring my hair for so long that I can't remember when I started. Before I had any grey I changed the colour just for fun.

Now I would dearly love to embrace the grey but have no idea how to go about it other than to chop it all off and let it grow again. I've no intention of ever having short hair again so that isn't an option.

Wish I knew the answer.

I do know it isn't important in the grand scheme of things but constant trips to the hairdresser are expensive and time consuming.

I don't intend to ever start that, I have only had streaks put in once and it was great, but I can't afford my shoe habit AND go to the hairdresser. I shall have to carry on experimenting with home kits and cutting my own hair. For as long as my arms will let me, it's hard work doing the layers.

The first time I heard a young child ask their Mum , "is that my Nan?" I decided to give in and accept the inevitable. I ditched the colour and now enjoy my grey hair. No highlighting bills, no tut tutting as the roots show through. So enjoying the freedom. The only bit I miss is the juicier gossip I used to hear in the hairdressers - perfect titbits to be extracted and used in my next book.More money to spend on shoes too.

Embrace your "silver" hair - and pay less at the hairdressers!!

My hair has been coloured for years and is now white below the auburn shade my hairdressers use. ( no 5 if that means anything?) I want to go lighter and gradually blonde as re growth is a problem with obvious roots. However, my hairdresser advises that dark blonde shade is necessary as blonde will bit cover grey. Is it true that blonde shades don't cover grey? Would live to hear others experience please.

I use Nice n Easy hair colour.
Put it on, leave it 45 minutes, shampoo and dry hair as usual.
It costs £5 in Asda, gives several tones i.e. is not a solid colour block, my hairdresser says it is great.
I use Blonde Champagne and it is not a dark blonde.
It definitely covers the grey and I only colour it when the roots are obvious. The job's done for £5 about every 8 weeks.

Thanks coolgran, I shall try that. I have been having to go darker and use one that is a bit dark for my skin, to make it cover the grey, particularly where I have a thick streak where I was once hit on the head. I also have to leave it on for a good hour to get it to take. It's a good job my hair is so tough.

I go to the local college to get my hair done by the hairdressing students. They are well supervised and it costs £17 for regrowth, cut and blow. Highlights are £1 per foil. A lot cheaper than normal salons . I am too young to go grey!!!

I've been to our local college for a trim and blow dry and it was the best cut I have ever had,the student was supervised throughout the procedure and even though it certainly took longer than normal I was really pleased with the result,I must book another appointment as I am due a trim again soon,they charge £8.00 for wash cut and blow up to £25.00 for colour cut and blow dry,depending on what your need doing.