My Process for Going Gray
I can’t tell you how happy I am that I don’t have to go in and get my hair done anymore! With COVID-19, my roots would be pretty scary by now with all the beauty salons closed. And box color wouldn’t help me at all since I purposefully had blond highlights to hide my gray and make my color last longer.
Some of you might be considering going el naturale so I wanted to share my process with you! And give you some tips.
Why I Went Gray
Bottom line. No money honey! My husband’s business had closed, I wasn’t making much money at the time, and we had tons of debt. It just didn’t make sense to keep spending the money on hair color. I loved my blond highlights, but I couldn’t justify the expense.
How I Did It
The first thing I did was sit down with my hair stylist. I trust her, and she always gives it to me straight. I wanted to know two things:
Should I color it gray to help with the transition?
How long will this take?
She said, “Absolutely not!” to the first question and about a year to the second. She said that no matter how hard a stylist tries, coloring your hair gray just doesn’t work. It doesn’t look natural nor does it blend naturally. Not wanting to look weird for a year, I confirmed it with my daughter-in-love who’s in the beauty industry, and she agreed. Plus the idea was to save money so coloring it gray just wasn’t an option anyway. So be prepared to avoid any cameras for a year. I had to take one professional photo at the beginning. It wasn’t bad because my roots weren’t showing too much yet, but you can still tell (you can see it at thewatersgroupnm.com).
That year seemed to take forever! But from the half-way point on, my stylist recommended that I cut my hair shorter to help and add a few more layers. It was like magic! The old color and now my gray blended in great! Come to think of it, it might’ve been a little past half way. Either way, the added layers and shorter style helped tremendously, and I didn’t feel so self-conscious.
Unexpected Surprises
I wasn’t prepared for a couple of things. The first was the admiration I got! Both my husband and I weren’t sure about the gray thing. It was kind of emotional like leaving your youth behind. But I’ll never forget the day I got in the car after running into the store (he waited in the car) and he said, “Your gray is all sparkly. I think I’m going to like it.” Others expressed their admiration for being so courageous to embrace my gray (not sure that was a compliment lol). And, I got so many compliments on it even from youngsters (might as well start talking old, right? Lol).
Pre-gray. You can see the gold tones in makeup.
Post gray. Softer corals and purples.
The other surprise was I had to change some of my wardrobe and makeup! The makeup thing was tough! I love makeup and normally wore gold-toned colors but that was no longer an option with gray. I gave away all of those to my daughter-in-love (she’s a makeup artist) and switched to pinks, corals (on lips and cheeks), and continued using my gray-toned and purple colors. I rock red lipstick, too, like never before! At first, I felt my skin looked washed out and pale, which I didn’t expect. I’m now used to the softer look and don’t feel like I look dead. Lol. Since I wear black and white more than anything anyway, my wardrobe wasn’t as hard because gray looks really good with those colors. Teal, coral, and jewel tones look pretty good, too.
And the final surprise is that I didn’t like my natural color at all at first. I think it’s because I loved that golden coloring I had, which is my favorite to this day. After I went gray, I had the pretty gray highlights but just plain old dark brown. That took a good few months to get used to. The more I’ve grayed around my face, the more I like my hair color. I do think not being completely gray or silver helped a lot. Having my natural color made the “going gray” process easier for my ego and not as much of a shock.
In Summary
I think it was one of the best decisions I’ve made. I still need to get some more photos taken for my website, social media, etc. since going gray. That’s my plan once this pandemic is over.
There ya have it. If you’re considering it, be prepared with a heavy dose of patience, creativity, and some changes in your wardrobe and makeup.
