First time hair dye-to get rid of gray

[Anonymous]

Hi -I have dark hair and have been plucking out the grays from my roots for the last few years but they’re becoming more noticeable and starting to extend to other parts of my hair beyond the roots. Any tips on how to dye black hair, ideally in a way that doesn’t require hours in a salon each month?

[Anonymous]

I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

[Anonymous]

Becomes unbearable

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

Good luck with that. Sounds like a lot of work and the all dark sounds like it will be very stark, unflattering and fake. But it least it will require a lot of upkeep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

Any stylist will tell you they can’t cover most of the grey with highlights and lowlights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

Any stylist will tell you they can’t cover most of the grey with highlights and lowlights.

Highlights kept me from dyeing my hair completely for a couple of years- it doesn’t cover the grey but on brown hair it can help camouflage it a bit. I was able to go over 6 months without doing additional color after getting them.

[Anonymous]

I get a semi-permanent gloss at the salon every six weeks. It doesn't take hours - like, half an hour. It's worked well for me (so far).

[Anonymous]

The OP said black hair, so I don't think highlights will work as well as they can on brown/light brown hair. My suggestion is to embrace the natural highlights that the gray is giving you. It's often a striking combination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The OP said black hair, so I don't think highlights will work as well as they can on brown/light brown hair. My suggestion is to embrace the natural highlights that the gray is giving you. It's often a striking combination.

+1
You absolutely can cover with highlights on lighter hair. My stylist is amazing at it. You just need to go ashier to blend more with the grays as they become more and more pervasive (sob).

With v. dark hair it could be striking if the grays are placed well. Not scattering of silver but nice chunks. That's pretty rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The OP said black hair, so I don't think highlights will work as well as they can on brown/light brown hair. My suggestion is to embrace the natural highlights that the gray is giving you. It's often a striking combination.

+1
You absolutely can cover with highlights on lighter hair. My stylist is amazing at it. You just need to go ashier to blend more with the grays as they become more and more pervasive (sob).

With v. dark hair it could be striking if the grays are placed well. Not scattering of silver but nice chunks. That's pretty rare.

+1. I’m the first poster. I also said lowlights. Pretty clear that most of the posters don’t actually have black hair and haven’t addressed grays. Or their stylists are not very good. The price is not cheap. No random grays are not “striking.” They just look like random gray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

Good luck with that. Sounds like a lot of work and the all dark sounds like it will be very stark, unflattering and fake. But it least it will require a lot of upkeep.

Thanks! You sound unhelpful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ve started with low lights and highlights. Once it bears unbearable, I’ll dye it all dark.

Any stylist will tell you they can’t cover most of the grey with highlights and lowlights.

We might be think of different amounts of gray.

[Anonymous]

I also have super dark hair. Fully dyeing it is the only solution I’ve found. If you don’t want to go salon, Madison Reed is decent at home hair color.

[Anonymous]

Agree with pp on full dye job for dark brown/black hair. My first grays came in at 19 and I've been dyeing them for 40 years. Now I am down to every 3 weeks. As long as my eyebrows are black, I will keep going until probably 70s. I look at the salon time as my self-care break thus make it pleasant with a nice drink and some recreational reading.

[Anonymous]

Don’t do it. It never looks good. Dark hair that is getting some grays scattered can be very pretty embrace it.

There is no good way to dye dark (but graying) hair. It will turn your naturally dark hairs reddish or brassy as it fades. And the gray roots come in fast. You will be going in at least every 6 weeks when the grays are few, more like every 3 week when you have a lot of you want to upkeep.

The compromise would be a demi-permanent gloss. It sort of blends the grays, but there just isn’t any hiding gray roots plus dark hair. You’ll still be back in the salon every 6 weeks. And when you are 50% gray this won’t work well anymore. This is what I had been doing. I’m probably 5-10% gray and stopped- glad I did