Off-Topic OT: Brunette graying hair -- adding in blonde highlights instead?

[Pam61]

I grew my natural hair out about five years ago or so. My natural is a cool brown shade (with about 30-40 percent gray) and I had been coloring it a reddish brown. For the transition I just kept cutting my hair until it was completely grown out and it took about a year. It's so nice not having to color it and keep up with the maintenance.

[bfit]

I dyed my brown hair blonde for many years, but it grew out during the pandemic and then everyone could tell that I wasn't blonde and that I had gray hair so I wasn't fooling anyone anymore anyway. Now I've let it go back to the natural brown with a few lighter brown highlights that my hairdresser just randomly brushes on. The highlights cover up some of the gray (but not all) and make my hair look "brighter" overall since my natural brown is kind of dull. I think it's a good compromise, and the highlights do not cost as much or take as long to get done as overall color. There's a lot of ways to go other than just dying your hair all the same color. A friend of mine is gray, blonde, and purple!

[zoegirl]

That is basically what I did. I have a short pixie cut and have been coloring my hair for years. But for the last few years, I have not been happy with the color. My dad (and others!) always said women needed to color their hair so they would not look old, so that was ingrained in me from an early age. A few years ago, I even developed a horrible allergy to hair dye and had to find a salon that uses an allergy free dye (Wella). But I was determined to not let my gray show! A few months ago, I decided to start adding in lowlights to cover up the bad dyed color and let the gray grow in as "highlights." Then we gradually decreased the lowlights. All of the dye has grown out now but I may go back and add a few highlights and lowlights again just to punch it up a little. I'm pretty salt and peppery but not as gray as I thought I would be. Since my hair is so short, it didn't take long at all to grow out.

[Lori_Michigan]

Update: I did end up just adding in blonde highlights (just the Clairol frosting kit with the pull-through cap). I've been dying my hair brown and then adding these highlights for well over a decade now, so I'm used to highlighting it myself.

It looks a lot better than just a gray definite stripe on the part, and the blonde highlights are just interspersed with the gray. It's been a few months now since I added the brown, but my grays are coming in mixed with my natural brown hair, no rhyme or reason, just like perimenopause! I'd rather they just stick to the script and come in all at once, but alas, it's hit or miss. So, the blonde highlights are kind of acting like a bridge at the moment.

These box highlights usually last me about two or three months, which is much easier than dying it brown and then highlighting every two weeks. I think I'll keep it up!