The decision to go gray has not been an easy one, and was certainly not made overnight.
As I was saying in my introductory post, I've been dying my hair since I was 16 years old and I'm 33 now. You can do th emath and realize that there is a long history there. Complex too...
I've always had long hair (longest: buttocks, shortest: shoulder-length long bob, which for me is the equivalent of a buzz cut). Most of my adult life, my hair has been mid-back length; that's where it's most comfortable for me.
Here's a quick (?) history of my hair, so you can get an idea where I'm coming from.
My natural color is a dark brown, not exactly very warm, but not mousy either. At the age of 15, I did the unthinkable and cut my long buttocks-length natural hair into a long bob. Oh, did I mention I also went blonde on that occasion? Worst mistake of my life. I've always regretted this decision. but oh, well. Not much could be done after that but wait it out! At least, it wasn't drugs or cigarettes, right?
I then started to dye my hair brown again for a few years. It was a very long time ago, and I can't say for sure if it was semi-permanent or permanent, but I did this in a salon for years.
At the age of 23, I moved in another country for graduate school. My financial conjuncture made it impossible for me to keep up with the demands of a monthly salon visit, which had become necessary as my first grays were showing up early to the party. So I switched to drugstore semi-permanent dye for a few years.
In 2008, I started using Lush's Caca Brun henna bars, as I was looking for a more natural solution. I was tired of the drugstore coloring kits, and kept up with the henna routine for about a year and a half. In late 2009, my sister once told me that my hair was starting to look green from the continuous use of henna. I will admit that because my hair was showing a lot of grays, and growing fairly fast, I had to reapply every month. Perhaps that particular brand is not adapted to frequent use? Anyway, no need to say that it scared me, and I immediately stopped using henna. I must say that my hair at that point was extremely healthy and that the grays were showing like very subtle copper highlights in a mane of deep rich mahogany hair. Beautiful, but greenish too.
So in late 2009, I started to go to the salon again, as I had moved back home after graduation and while I was waiting to start a new job in yet another country a few months later. For a few months, I used Inoa color. I was super happy with it; it was a permanent color, covering the grays really well, and almost my natural color. Very natural result, very happy customer.
Until 2010... When I moved to a new country, new city, new hair dresser... Finding a new hair dresser can be a lengthy process, and unfortunately for me, there were only two salons here that carried the Inoa products. I chose one of them, and started to go there for a few months. I think their colorist was probably not the best, and she was adding too much "warmth" in the mix. After a few months, I saw a picture of my hair on a social media site, and realized that holy crap my hair was very red! I had not seen that coming! You know, this violet-pinkish undertone that hair dressers for a reason unbeknownst to me find attractive. I decided right then and there to stop with this salon and switch back to home-coloring.
It was the summer of 2011, I started on a Garnier Herbashine regimen. I opted for a semi-permanent dye, because it lets gray hairs shine through the color (even though it does cover them, they still show as very natural highlights, in my case a lovely golden blonde on a canopy of dark brown -I used the color 500, virtually my exact natural color). I also figured that should I ever decide to go gray, it would be easier to do so from a semi-permanent dye than from a permanent one.
in March 2013, I made the decision not to dye my hair anymore. It's been almost 17 years of coloring, and I'm kind of tired... It's expensive, and the more I do it, the harder it's going to be to come off of it. I still have enough pigmented hair around my face and on the top of my head that I can hide unpleasant roots by playing with my part until the semi-permanent dye fades away.
I hope this blog will help you make the decision to go gray.
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