Happy Tuesday friends! We are officially on Summer break and excited about it! While most of Hawaii is starting to slowly reopen again, the family and I are still heeding precautions and social distancing as much as possible. But, there have been a lot of changes in our immediate circle and I’m gonna share them with you today. A few weeks ago I posted an image on Instagram with “new hair”. I stated that I would update as to the reason for it and this is that long-awaited post. I have decided that I’m going to be transitioning to grey hair and let my natural hair grow out. Today, I share that with all of you.
Grey or Bust?
If you’ve been a long time follower of my Blog or YouTube channel, you may have noticed that my gray roots (or even the lengths of my hair) show often. Sometimes I cover them up, sometimes I let them go – but after months of thinking this over, I’ve decided I would give gray a try. Let me start by saying that having darker hair and trying to go grey is not easy. Did you know that you need to lighten your hair to go grey? Well, I certainly didn’t know that before I jumped to the thought that I could go all grey first and let the natural stuff grow out.
Watch the video where I explain it all
I filmed a video for my YouTube channel explaining the process which you can watch here, or embedded below.
Fall and winter of 2019 up until March, I had bright red hair, which you can see from the images below. I love red hair and anyone who has been following me a while knows that it’s my go-to Fall/Winter color and has been for years. But red doesn’t easily leave my hair or wash out as simply as it does for others. I can keep the red in my hair for over 6 months without it fading or washing out, even with semi-permanent dyes.
I removed the red from my hair (or at least I thought I did, more about that in my video), and thought I was left with my brunette hair after removing the color. Well, turns out that the red did not remove from my roots and I was left with a pinkish/red hue to my hair. I digress and made it work.
With change came damage
I used a number of different products to achieve the lighter-toned bleached hair. Quick Blue and Ion Sensitive Scalp developer in 40 volume seemed to do the trick and get it pretty light, but I did have to do this three times. Of course, you can see how much it damaged my hair in the process.
Of course, after trying to lighten my hair dramatically (probably about 8-9 shades), I had a lot of damage. Even if I used Olaplex (thankfully I had #1 and #2), I still had damage and dry areas. But, I’m also thankful my hair didn’t just fall out. I did go in and cut off about 11 inches of hair to revive not only my curl but hopefully breathe life back into my hair after basically killing it.
Some of the products I used to achieve my current hair color
Some of the products used to achieve my current hair shade include:
- Ion Color Brilliance Sensitive Skin 40vol developer
- Ion Color Brilliance Bright White Cream Lightener
- Quick Blue Hair Bleach
- Wella T14 and T18 Toner
- Ion Violet Gray Semi Permanent Hair Color
- Ion Titanium Permanent Hair Color
- Clairol Silver Lights Shampoo & Conditioner
- ColorLux Silver Color Changing Shampoo
- Color Oops (to remove the red)
After wearing my hair long for about 2 days (maybe 3), I struggled to work with it. The dead ends and lengths of my hair were so damaged that it tangled consistently over those few days and I just couldn’t get my curls revived to a healthy look. I loved the color, but struggled with the damage. After trying to make it work a few days, I decided I needed to cut it. I took off a total of 11 inches from the length of my hair and then went in and did a light dusting of the ends. (see below)
Since cutting my hair, I have been wearing it down much more often and satin scrunchies have been the only hair tie to pull it all back. While you can still see some brownish-red near the roots of my head, I’m really liking the color so far. As you can see in my video – there are areas that really took on the gray (near my neck and ends of hair), but I’m liking it this light.
Wearing my hair down more!
I have been embracing wearing it down as much as possible because I don’t have to worry too much about demarcation right now. I took the photo below, today so that you could see how my hair looks after a few weeks.
Overall, I’m excited for this journey. I know that it won’t be an easy one, especially since I was called out on having gray hair before in the past. But, I’m going to embrace this change and transition to the best of my ability. It may not be easy, but such is life. I’ll be updating along the way and sharing my progress here as well as on my YouTube channel. If you’re a fellow grey hair/silver sister, I’d love to hear from you. Let me know in the comments or feel free to reach out via email.
Wishing you all a wonderful week! xo
