Never Underestimate What a Good Haircut Can Do ~ My Gray Journey

It has been several months since I have posted about My Gray Journey and I thought it was time for an update. Fortunately, my hair does grow fast and, though fine, is very thick. That being said, it is not going to take too terribly long, I just need to be patient.

My hair had gotten pretty long. In fact, my hair dresser pointed out to me that I have not had my hair cut since August! That is a long time. It did look pretty curled.

In the above photos, you can see how long my hair had gotten in just a short amount of time. In the photo on the left my roots had been touched up one each side of my part and in the photo on the right, those same roots had grown out some. But honestly, that is not the best way to grow out your gray. Especially if you DIY. Now I do think you need to do whatever makes you feel better about how your hair looks. In my case, pulling out the old Kindness 20 and rolling my hair. 

My "wash & go" hair simply was not working for me. I have even used some spray on hair color. That worked ok when I only had a tab bit of root growth by my part. As my hair grew out it would take half the can to cover those roots and that got pricey! 

Once again, I was hating how my hair looked. The ends were strawy and suffering from being over processed. The tip ends were blond and the hair got darker as it approached the gray/silver roots. I called my hairdresser and made an appointment. I knew at the time I did not want a really short haircut even though, with my gray roots being about 4 inches long near my part and 6-8 inches long on the rest of my head, we probably could have cut off all the color. However, I look like my dad, grandpa and my dad's 4 brothers. When my hair is short, I just look more like them. I know, vain. 

Here I am with my new "do"

Here I am with my new "do". A shout out to my hairdresser, Brooke at T. Fox Salon in Hoover. She always does a good job at making me look good. In 6 months there is going to be very little brown left. Then I am going to let it grow getting only the ends trimmed every 6-8 weeks.

I also have a video with this post. I hope that you will stop by and take a look at it. I go into a couple of things I have done to my hair that I would not recommend doing. 

November Gray Journey Post: Own It! Embrace It! Rock It!

Being patient and waiting is one of those little things in life...

Hugs,

Missy

Going Natural ~ My Gray Journey

Going Natural: Embrace It! Own It! Rock It! Well, 

I'm still working on the "Rock It" part. 

Do you remember when and where you were when you discovered that you were turning gray? That is, your hair had started turning gray? I do. I was 20 years old, at work in a retail store. During a lull in customers one of my co-workers, who was taller than me, said "Man, you're turning gray!" I freaked a little. I did not want to be turning gray at 20! I can remember, as a small child, playing with my daddy's graying hair. He was in his early 30's I think. Well, I got my dad's early graying genes. My co-worker and I immediately began to start plucking. And for quite a while, that is how I controlled my gray. But then, my hair started getting thin.... 

Since then my hair has been brown, dark brown, red, auburn, orange, blond, almost black (supposed to have been brown), frosted, highlighted and natural. I have gone both the DIY route to color my hair and have had my hair colored professionally at a salon. Either way,  i still had roots to deal with. My hair grows fast and keeping the roots covered is a chore and can be expensive when you are going to a professional hair dresser. But in my early years what I did to hide my gray hair is I kept my hair colored. Then I got busy with my career and I did well to go to a salon to have an occasional haircut. In my late 20's I decided to stop coloring my hair altogether.  I didn't mind a little salt & pepper. In fact I embraced it! I married, we were (and still are) happy and moved on with our lives.

Then motherhood happened...

This is me at 39. I had a good head of salt and pepper. This is also one of the 2-3 times in my life that I had short hair. I remember that this was the day we brought our daughter from the hospital. She was premature and stayed in the hospital for 3 weeks after being born. The day we brought her home I was asked 3 times, before leaving the hospital with her, if I was excited about my "grand-daughter" coming home. Yep. To my face. 😒

For several years following I was constantly being asked about my "grand-daughter". When she was in kindergarten, I was volunteering at her school. Yep, I was asked, once again, about my "grand-daughter". On my way home I stopped by the store, bought a couple of "boxes" and that night, no more gray! 😁 I have not been asked about my "grand-daughter" since! I suppose you could say that my vanity got the best of me. But you know what, I do not regret coloring my hair these past 15 years. 

Now our daughter is in college, I am a lot older and tired of my roots, (My daughter always called them "gray seams" and did not like them!), tired of the expense, tired of the effort. Besides, my gray hair is really pretty! It goes from white to silver to a salt and pepper. Naturally streaked! I am ready to EMBRACE IT! 

My hair does grow fast. Above you can see my "silver" hairline or as my daughter calls them, "gray seams".
I think this is only about 4-5 weeks of root growth.

As you can see here, the gray really shows after a few short weeks of having my hair done. This is only about 4-5 weeks of growth.  It does grow fast!

I hate it when my roots get that long. It is like they are screaming at me every time I look in the mirror. Options? Spray on color....(will cover that in 'tips' down below). 

7 Tips For Going Naturally Gray

1.  Invest in a can of "spray on" temporary color. You can pick up a can at Walmart for $8-$10 or Sally's for $5-$6. There are different brands and they all work the same. (Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of these company's other than they seem to get a good bit of my money...) This is great for touching up your part or your hairline. As the roots get longer, it takes more for coverage. And it does leave a dry "gunk" feeling on your hair. But is effective. 

Yes, I still have a Kindness 20 and I love it!

2.Take a few extra minutes to fix your hair so that it looks nice. If it means taking an extra 30 minutes or more to get out the Kindness 20 and rolling your hair, do it.

 

I honestly believe that if you feel like your hair looks good, you will feel better about the roots or at least, notice them less. Even if you have a late 70's-80's look. Seems like I heard that those styles are coming back. 😃

3. Wear a hat. If you have shoulder length or longer hair, it will take around 2 years for your roots to grow to that full length. That is a long time to wear a hat! But there are also some really nice cool hats out there. Who knows! Maybe we can start a new trend!

4. Color the roots on each side of your part. But first, you want to start parting your hair on the opposite side. Keep the roots touched up about 1&1/4 inch on each side of the part line being sure to cover the back past your crown. As your gray roots grow out, your "touched - up" hair is "combed over" the gray. Eventually your gray hair grows out and you go back to your old way of parting your hair. It will be all gray with "low - light" undertones where you have been coloring the roots. 

The downside to this is as your untouched gray roots grow, your combed over hair looks just like that, a bad "comb over".  Yep, that is all gray peaking through my small section of hair that I have kept colored around my part line. (It is not marked in the photo, but on the left side of my part you can see gray peeking through as well.) That is when I get out the spray on hair color and do my best to fill it in..... 



5. Get a cute, shorter haircut that is feathered. I have a friend who is doing this and it is just adorable and she looks great! 

6. Get some silver & gray highlights and low lights. If you are like me, and prefer the longer hair, this is a good option for a nice "natural look" of blending as your hair continues to grow. I may eventually have something like this done to my hair because I am finding it difficult to go allow my gray grow gracefully. I will keep you posted. 😊

7. Just let it go. Yes, just let it go and focus on what it will look like in 2 years. I have a friend who did that. She stopped coloring her hair 2 years ago. She "just let it go" and was patient about it. She, like me, was tired of the expense, effort and she resisted the temptation of going back to keep up her roots. Her hair is just gorgeous now! If you are tempted to go back to coloring, go to Pinterest and look at all of the beautiful, gray hairstyles there. (Here is my Pin collection here: Hair that you are free to go check out.) 

Have you or are you "going naturally gray"? Are you "Rocking It"? Do you have any suggestions to add? I would love to hear/read comments from you on how your journey is going.

I will keep you posted as my journey continues. And I will continue to work on the "Rock It" part. Going natural, just another one of those simple,

Little Things In Life
Hugs, 
Missy