Thread: Going back to gray - seeking advice

I regret coloring my hair to cover the gray and want to go back. Rather than stop coloring altogether, I'm thinking about using a temporary color product as a way to phase it back in. I really dislike the gray roots. A lady at Sally's recommended a demi permanent color. I'm thinking about using this to cover the gray and see how it looks as it washes off. When it stops looking awful then stop coloring. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts on using a demi permanent product? Anything else better?

all i can advise is be careful and test patch first. like for 6 weeks, then decide. i had the reverse when i went from blond back to brunette. semis and demis can stain light hair. it wont go magically back to your natural color. anything that is darker than the hair it goes on, may likely stain the hair. and...it will likely stain in the base tones so you might get a green(ash), pink/red(warm), purple (cool) stain.

just be careful, i had pink ends for a while so decided to fully commit and covered the bleached blond-pink with hot pink manic panic...but that might not go over so well at your job ;)

As an ex hairdresser - and person with prematurely white hair who dealt with regrowth by a) having it coloured every four weeks, religiously and then b) letting it grow out for six weeks then cutting it all off - I would recommend lowlights. Lowlight/highlight combinations are the absolute *best* way to return to your natural hair colour. It is not necessarily cheap, but it works.

The colours you ought to use depend on your base shade. If you were dark, and you've got a really significant percentage of grey (60, 70 percent) you are going to have to deal with a transition from dark hair to light hair. Well, you're going to have to deal with that anyway, but if the hair is already significantly white underneath the transition is going to require a significant change of look while the unwanted colour is growing out. If you're lighter-haired to start with you've got a much easier job ahead of you.

I would first recommend having a set of lowlights done in the same colour that you're trying to grow out, at about the time you'd normally have your roots done. That will break up the regrowth but not hide it completely. By the time you're looking at two months to 12 weeks you may want to consider having highlights done as well, to break up the block of coloured hair.

Nobody is going to be able to give you highlights to match your natural grey hair, especially not on previously coloured hair, and any hairdresser who tries to sell it to you is a *liar*. Either that or a genius who is going to have to charge you a LOT of money and keep you in the salon a LONG time. So don't even bother. If you go the highlight route work with your colourist to pick a shade or two that will work well in your natural hair as it grows down. Reds, coppers, caramels and blonde shades are all options.

Eventually you'll alternate lowlights and highlights, preferably with decreasing frequency and volume. If your hair is shorter and layered you will be able to get away with a lot less colouring. If it's one length, you can actually get away with just doing the parting, crown and hairline most of the time.

Meanwhile, every time you visit the hairdresser s/he cuts half an inch off the bottom and after a long time, voila! Your virgin hair is dominant and you don't need those lowlights any more.

Thanks for the tips. I will talk to my hairdresser about howlight/highligt combinations. My hair is very long and I suspect this will be very expensive. But it can't hurt to ask. Thanks again.