Going From Grey to Greyish

Hello again faithful readers. I am officially back.

And I have news.

After over a decade of religiously adhering to my own no hair dye lifestyle choice, I have changed my tune, and added a bit of...you guessed it—hair dye.

Going darker for definition with greyish hair

I've spent a good deal of time growing out and talking very publicly about having natural silver hair, so it seemed almost like a betrayal to reach for the dye, as silly as that sounds. But ultimately, it's never a good idea to allow one's ego to dictate the terms of anything in life, so eventually I got over myself and made the appointment.

I didn't want to completely lose my silver hair, but I had begun to feel like I really missed the contrast I had when I still had more of my dark hair in the front. It was beginning to lose some definition, something that I particularly began to notice in photographs. I always thought my silver hair really looked best when it was straightened—you could see the different shades within it reflected back with the smoother surface. But I don't straighten my hair any more—the heat and products required are time consuming, damaging, and they oxidize and turn the lightest strands yellow.

The first thing I did was get some very fine dark lowlights put in. It did work to give some definition back, but by itself it still felt sort of bland, so I added some turquoise at the tips, just for fun.

Loved it.

The turquoise didn't last long, but when your hair is as light as my silver bits are, you can easily top it up yourself at home—no bleach required.

I wore it like this for the better part of a year, but eventually still didn't have the definition and drama I was looking for.

Then my hairdresser told me i was missing a trick by not taking full advantage of how light my natural silver was, and we decided to go full Cruella De Ville, embracing my inner villain with some bolder, chunkier, ultra dark lowlights. He used a demi permanent color that is a near exact match to the color I was born with.

Loooove it.

Now, do I have to do a bit of maintenance? Why yes—yes I do. But because I still have my natural silver showing through, particularly on the under layers and sides where it grows most prominently, the upkeep is easy and minimal. The color does fade out over time, although over silver white hair like mine, demi permanent never really goes away, it just means the grow out looks less stark.

So that's it, really. The end of an era? Hardly. I'm still mostly grey.

Well, greyish.