The Easiest Way To Go Gray!
Editor plus50women
Did you know that caucasian women's hair normally turns gray earlier then African American women or Asian women? Or that extreme stress in our lives can also cause our hair to gray faster?
Gray hair is simply the lack of pigmentation. As we age, our hair naturally turns gray. As a youth worshiping society, gray hair has gotten a bad rap. Hair dye manufactures are not only thrilled with the negative press gray hair has received, but they spend millions of dollars to promote that negativity in TV commercials, newsprint ads and billboards across the USA.
Making women feel bad about aging is a billion dollar industry. If women suddenly felt good about their wrinkles or their graying hair, manufactures of youth enhancing products would be out of business. That is why you can't buy hair dye in the shade of gray! By helping women go gray, those same manufactures would be loosing their best paying customer. You!
So how do you go gray with the least stress and quickest results? The answer is not one most women want to hear. As women, we are emotionally attached to our hair. Our hair symbolizes femininity, sexiness, youthfulness. The idea of cutting our hair short isn't always appealing.
Yet if you can muster the strength to cut your hair two to three inches in length, going gray will be a much simpler, faster process. It's called a pixie hair do. That pixie do will provide you with two really positive results.
1). The over processed hair you currently are dealing with will be gone.
Think about how dry and brittle your hair is from coloring it for the last 3 decades? Now imagine it gone!
2). By cutting your hair short, the grow out time needed to reach your natural hair color will be minimal.
If you cut your hair short, you will only need to keep your hair short for 4-6 months, until your natural hair color has grown out. At that time, you can go back to your favorite hair style. Think about it. In as little as 6 months, you will be free of coloring your hair for life! If cutting your hair short is something you just can't do, then there are other options you can pursue.
To keep your shoulder length hair, then brace yourself for 12-18 months of gray roots. If your hair is brown, you could lighten your hair color, which would minimalize the drastic contrast of gray to brown. Another option is to use a semi-permanent hair dye. You would continue to color your hair, with the semi-permanent dye washing out in 4-6 washings. If your hair is 8" long, you would use the semi-permanent hair dye for 16 months.
The negative to dying gray hair, is that gray hair is very hard to dye. Hair dye doesn't penetrate easily, nor is it absorbed by gray hair, like it is with brown, red, black or blonde. This lack of absorbance results in a lighter or darker shade then the rest of your processed hair color. The color difference may be too, noticeable for you, once your gray roots have reached a sizable length.
Since you are using a semi-permanent hair dye, the more you wash your hair, the more often you will have to re-dye your hair, which becomes expensive. As the semi-permanent color washes out, your gray roots will become more noticeable.
Another option is to add light highlights to your hair, to help blend in the gray roots (I chose this option and it worked great! I loved the results). Everyone's gray hair is a unique shade of it's own, therefore, some shades of gray are easier to blend then others. Until you commit to grow your hair out, you won't know how difficult the coloring process will be.
Going gray is not easy, but it is worth the time and effort to accomplish. There is something very freeing and enjoyable about excepting ourselves for who and what we are. Aging is not the end, but a new beginning. Once we rid ourselves of perceived notions of what we should look like, embracing our true selves can be incredibly rewarding and liberating.
Keep in mind, it may take you two or three attempts to grow out your natural hair color. Each time, the process will become easier, until one day, growing your hair out will be a breeze. As with everything we deal with in life, it's a mind thing. We mentally have to readjust our thought process to not feel old, just because our hair is graying. The color of our hair has never stopped us from accomplishing our goals before, so why should it stop us now?
Go gray, be happy and enjoy the rest of your life! With the money you save on hair dye products, you could splurge and do something fun!