GROWING OUT GRAY

As we get older, our hair ages and starts to turn gray. About 70% of my clientele has some gray hair. And no, that doesn’t mean that I’m doing the hair of a bunch of little old ladies all day. Believe it or not, most people notice their first gray hairs in their 30′s and 40′s. Last year was quite the awakening for myself as I noticed more and more gray hairs popping up all around my hairline. Since then, the “every now and then root touch-up” has become a necessity. All of the sudden getting my hair colored seemed more like a chore and not so much fun anymore. I know a lot of my clients feel that burden too. A few of them have decided to ban the bottle and go back to their natural color, gray and all.

Having gray hair is starting to become a trend. One of my clients even brought in her own Pinterest board dedicated to all the gray hair color that she liked.

If you are one of the people that are tired of being chained to high maintenance color appointments and would like to see your gray in all it’s glory, then I have a plan for you. Don’t worry, you don’t have to shave your head and start all over! It won’t be that painful of a process. It will however, take your time and patience. And if you decide you don’t like yourself with gray hair, guess what? All you have to do is start coloring it again.

Phase 1:

As you can see by my beautiful client Kristin on the right, she came in initially with about one inch of new growth. Her natural hair is about 60% gray and 40% medium to dark brown. On the first visit we highlighted with a cool blonde and lowlighted with a medium brown that matched her ends. It was only necessary to highlight the sides, top, and crown of her hair. The goal is to subtly camouflage and blend in the gray.

Phase 2:

The next time Kristin came in to the salon she had about 2-3 inches of new growth, which can translate into 4-6 months of grow out. (Remember what I said about patience) Again we did a partial highlight of cool blonde highlights and medium brown lowlights. The result was a beautiful blending of 4 different colors that included her own.

The last part of this process is really up to your own hair and your hairstylist’s recommendations. You can continue to highlight and lowlight your hair, only lowlight, only highlight, or cut the remaining all over colored ends off. This process can take anywhere from six months to one year depending on how long your hair is and how much gray you can stand seeing. The clients that I have done this process on, I am happy to say have stayed haircolor free and have embraced the beauty of their gray hair!