OP here - thanks everyone. You have given me food for thought. After some thinking I have decided to continue touching up at home but will have to do it more frequently. It is a daunting task that takes up to 2 hrs because of hair thickness. Still, I don't want that brassy look that many of you commented about, so I will have to double up my efforts with touching up.

You’ll spend much more time and money trying to keep bleached hair from looking brassy/gold than if you just committed to root touch ups on your brown hair every few weeks. Plus you can do root touch ups at home.

I don’t have a good solution for you but this is why all the middle aged women I know have the same blond/orangish hair color. Going blond to cover gray sounds stylish until it makes you look like all the other 55-year-old women at the salon.

God you sound cheap.

I personally never think going lighter on graying, dark hair looks quite right. It just looks like covering gray and is usually pretty brassy. If you do it, expect it to be very high maintenance. Not something you can keep up at home. I would go for an initial colouring with a stylist and stay dark. See if you can get away with a single process permanent color and root touchups at home in between.

My MIL has similar complexion and hair color. She is 67 though and half grey now, I think it looks cool. Before she was just coloring all over constantly. I honestly think it's much easier to do that get it to blond.

I have similar coloring, dark brown hair when I was younger and pale skin tone. I am also 42 but my grays started coming in in my late 20s. For many years I covered them at an Aveda salon and it was terrific. But given how dark my hair was as the %age of grays increased it showed quickly when it grew in.

A few years ago I died my hair a dark blonde at the salon which was achieved with bleach lifting the darker die. It "sort of" worked. On the one hand you are right that the grays growing in will blend better with lighter color hair and you can extend the time between color appts. But the color my stylist achieved was too brassy; despite a few attempts it was not quite the right color for my skin tone; I think bc the dark color that had been lifted left an orange tinge. I have now grown out my gray -- in part with the thought that I might die it blond from a "clean" palette.

My advice: defin. go to the salon dont do it at home. Have them lift as much of the dark color that they can. Tell them you want to avoid brassy undertones with will clash with a pale skin-tone.

Good luck!

It's a horrible idea to bleach and do it at home.
I would do highlights and do 6 weeks maintance in the salon only. If you want to save-hair is not the area for savings. Otherwise let it be just natural.

42-years-old, dark brown/black natural hair color, very pale complexion. My hair is thick. I have lots of grays that are becoming less manageable as time goes by. I cover them with a dark brown, a shade lighter than my natural color.
I think the time has come for me to transition to a completely light color in order to cover grays more easily.
Please let me know what would be the best course of action. Should I have a salon bleach hair for me and how many times it would take to do it? Should I do it at home? The monthly maintenance will be done at home.