I am new here and this is my first post!

I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this question...

I have dark brown hair, waist length, about 35 3/4 inches long. It doesn't seem to be growing anymore.

I have been coloring it for several years. A couple years ago, I started letting the greay grow out, and I hated it. A great deal of my hair is now white! To see white around my face instead of dark brown is quite a change.

Now my husband has died, leaving me to raise 6 kids, and go from housewife and mom to working, single Mom. My husband didn't care what color my hair was, BTW.

Because I have been coloring my hair, (permanent color) and the last time I bought a color I liked that is more auburn than my natural color (dark brown), my hair is now three colors. It looks horrible. This is the same problem I had before, along with not liking the grey.

I just don't want to mess with coloring anymore. My grey is very resistant. I have tried various products, but usually have roots showing within a week. It is too hard to keep up with now.

Has anyone here ever gone through growing out dark hair to grey? I am 46 and I guess I should face the fact that I am becoming an "older woman."

I would appreciate any tips or advice for going through this process and not looking tacky, if that is even possible!!!

Since I am now working, and hoping to start a business or find a way to work from home, I need to try to look somewhat professional at times.

Am I just dreaming?????

Welcome!  I moved your post over here so others could join in with their comments.

Growing out dark hair to grey is not an easy process.  Although I would love to say - just let it grow out, I know how hard that can be.  Maybe you could talk with a color specialist about doing a "highlight" that would simulate the grey hair and make the growing out less noticable?  

As for accepting you are becoming an older woman - Blech!  Forget it!  You are as young as you want to be.  

Welcome to boards!  :)

Welcome, "Other" Terri!  I'm new here, too, and wanted to say hello.  I'm very sorry to hear about your husband passing...it must be so difficult.  I agree with BikerBraid about consulting a professional stylist.  If you find a good one, they'll hopefully know what to do.  But if they advise cutting your hair off RUN AWAY!!!   ;D
*hugs*

Welcome aboard OtherTerri.
I am sorry to hear about your husband's passing. May you have health and keep his fond remembrance.

I am sorry I don't have any suggestions about the gray hair. The only thing I do know, is that my aunt is going to a salon where they do a "halo" or "wreath" kind of dark colouring or lowlights that are streaked through her natural gray hair that are all around her face (thus the name "wreath"). The result is absolutely elegant and totally invisible, she is still gray all over but it is "less" gray since they dye strands of her hair in her natural pre-gray hair colour. I hope I explained it well. Maybe that technique would help in the growing out period???

HI & WELCOME!  ;D I not sure what to do about letting the grey grow out, I am in a puzzled state on what to do with mine.  ??? I have very dark brown hair that I have been coloring black for about 10 years but even though my hair is still 95% dark I see more and more grey. I am considering possibly using a temporary color that will blend the grey but eventually fade out, still not sure. :-/

Hello,
My mom has also been frustrated about growing her hair out.  She has dark brown hair, but more and more of it is growing in gray and she's tired of coloring it.  She had been dying her hair a dark blonde, so the grey grow out isnt THAT noticeable yet.  Finally we cut her hair, and now she wears it curly and pulled back in a headband.  Looks very cute and she is happy with it.  I think she's just decided to let it go and not worry about the grey that's growing in.

You could stop dying it and then grow your natural hair for a year or so and then have it cut to a bob.  Then you could grow the bob out to a long length.  In my opinion that would probably be the best way to go, and I'll tell you why.

It would be impossible to get your dyed dark brown hair back to white, or even close to it.  Getting it to a medium blonde would either be impossible, or would do so much damage to your hair that you would need to cut LOTS of length off.  

I had my hair dyed black for about 3 months, and went to the salon to have the color lightened (this is a time other than when I tried to do it myself).  The stylist said that blacks and dark browns are extremely difficult to remove, and they simply will not do it if you used a metallic (Feria is metallic) or henna dye because the chemicals used to strip your hair are incompatible with the chemicals used in those 2 types of dyes.  I think I used Clairol dyes (or something that sounds like clairol) so the stylist put two applications of stripper (just like bleach) on my hair.  It took 6 HOURS, and she was only able to lighten my hair to a medium brown.  And she also had to cut off about 5 inches of my hair because that hair was still almost black.  I also paid $200+ to have it done.  My hair is extremely tough; pretty much everyone thought my hair would all fall out with 2 applications of stripper but luckily it didn't...

So I highly do not recommend going that route.  If you do anyway, they will make you sign a sheet saying they cannot gaurantee the outcome and that even if your hair DOES fall out or turn green or some other wierd color, you still have to pay them their $$$.

Another route that MIGHT work is to have lighter highlights put in just where the grey is growing in.  You would probably need to go for multiple visits (I guess hair doesnt fall out as much if you spread the treatments out) so it would also probably cost you a pretty penny.

I'm sorry to tell you that  :( but that's honestly how it is.  

So it's just my opinion that you should grow your hair to a long enough length that you can live with it (whether that be pixie cut, cheekbones, chin, or just above shoulders) then cut the dyed hair off and grow it from there.  That way your hair will all be one color, and will be healthy and you can kinda 'start over' with it.  I think long grey hair is fantastic.  Once I saw a woman who had pure white hair, very thick, and it was below her waist.  I was just in awe, it was so beautiful. :)

So those I guess are your options.  Hopefully that helped and wasn't too discouraging.  I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do!  

Welcome OtherTerri!  I am sorry to hear about your husband's death.  ((((HUG)))) and more ((((HUGS)))) for the kids.  

I have no help for your hair color problem.  I suspect that it would probably look professional when in an updo for business purposes -- and some styles would probably help "hide" or "blend" the colors or even look good with the contrast.  

I very recently saw a professional woman with 2-3 hair colors - I'm pretty sure it was a deliberate choice.  Her hair is short and curly but she had a center light/blonde at the crown/back, medium brown ring around that, and a another splash of light/blonde and then medium brown -- really can't explain it, but she pulls it off with being a very put-together looking woman i.e. classy business attire and make-up, and an air of confidence.  

So I think with a good hairstyle, business attire and that confident air (not to mention knowing your stuff in whatever business you do) the hair color should not be a problem!

belated welcome.
oh, and i plead henna on everything color related these days that is not about bleaching ;)
but it's not for people who don't like a mess, but on the otherhand it's a process that actually allows to retouch the roots as often as you feel like without killing your hair and body.

Welcome!!

I know I am a little late to reply but I wanted to share my...well my mother's experience with grey hair. First I want to say that you should eccept your age, but you do NOT need to start thinking you are OLD because your hair is gray! My grandmother went from black hair to pepper when her grey hair started taking over when she was only 19. So just because you have grey hair, you are not old, nor do you have to deal with the grey if you truely hate it. Anyway, my mother is 50 years old with mid back length hair and she dyes it but does it professionally. Every 5-6 weeks, she goes in to tuch up her roots. You can do this if you have the time and money. She feels alot better because of her hair. She is 50 years old! She did not chop off all her hair and go gray because that is what our society expects. She is maintaining her hair for herself!

Very belated welcome here!

I am very sorry for your hardship.

Regarding the grey and getting older - it is a transition but there is definite light in the tunnel.  Some things just need a little time to settle in but they do and usually you will be quite satisfied when they do.

The color was a biggie for me.  I started going grey very early and then it just kind of stayed at that grey grey grey stage instead of turning the white I had hoped for but I quite coloring when I decided to grow mine out - at around age fifty (late bloomer).  There are quite a few who continue with the color and use permanent color and just touch up the roots - seems to work very well, especially for blondes; darker colors sometimes need a transition of low and highlights to blend things if they decide to stop.

Welcome ;~) ...g