In 2023 I made a decision to let my hair go grey. I was tired of having my regrowth touched up every 5 to 6 weeks and how the grey hairs contrasted to my dyed brown hair making it even more obvious. I was actually seeing a few women around my age and even younger embracing their grey hair and I actually liked how it looked. So this is my personal story on how to transition to grey hair.

My Decision to go Grey

I think a lot of women of a certain age are afraid of going grey.  I get it – we’ve been brainwashed by years and years of advertising that grey hair means you are OLD. But this is not the case anymore. Plenty of women are embracing their natural grey highlights and are rocking it!

There are many positives for going grey. You cut down on the cost of hairdresser appointments, you are ceasing to use chemicals on your hair that damage the natural shine and condition of your hair, and for brunettes and dark haired women it is a lot softer on your face than dark hair dyes. I now view women of my age that are still dying their hair in dark shades, as looking older. Why can’t we just age gracefully without worrying about what society thinks?

I remember asking my former hairdresser years ago when I turned 60, “should I transition to grey hair”? Her reply was “no definitely not – it will make you look older”! So I kept returning to the salon having my grey roots dyed and thinking “how long do I have to keep this up”?

My lightbulb moment was when I realised that I wasn’t really that young anymore and who am I exactly trying to impress with my dyed hair? I’m at that age where I’m comfortable in my own skin and accepting of the ageing process, grey hairs, wrinkles and all.

How my Hairdresser Helped me Transition to Grey

After my birthday in February 2023 I told my hairdresser I wanted to transition to grey and I asked for her thoughts on the matter. She was extremely helpful and said that there were two ways to do it: go cold turkey and allow my grey flecked hair to come through naturally; or lighten my hair with blonde streaks and use toner to blend the grey through. I opted for the second choice.

I have twice in the past 12 months had blond streaks put through my brown hair to lighten it and allow the grey flecks to blend into the lighter coloured hair. You will notice from this photo that it’s very difficult to notice that I do in fact have grey regrowth.

Every 6 to 8 weeks I return to my Hairdresser and she may put some silver grey foils through my hair to try to blend the grey regrowth through. She also used a purple toner to reduce the yellowing blond streaks and I regularly use a purple toning conditioner at home to do the same.

After almost 15 months my grey regrowth is slowly growing down and soon I will be completely natural apart from maybe having some foils put through my hair now and again to make it a little lighter.

Embracing My New Hair

I actually love the smokiness of my new hair colour and although I am still very salt and pepper, I imagine that my hair will start to get more greys or white hairs coming through as I get older. A friend told me last year when I announced that I was transitioning to grey not to do it. She said “You are too young. It is going to make you look older”. But I actually think it’s softer and more flattering on my face.

Everyone’s hair turns grey different and generally it doesn’t become a uniform shade of gunmetal overnight. It takes time and patience because grey growth can be patchy. So this is why you should transition with the help of a good Hairdresser.

Each time I return from the Hairdresser I’m loving my hair more and more. I’m not at all self conscious about my new grey highlights. My best friend is a former blonde and is now embracing her natural grey hair by putting some pink or copper highlights through it. It always looks great and very on trend!

I can see that my darker greying hair is starting to come through the blonde streaks that I had months ago. But I like how it looks.

My last haircut was a few weeks ago and I’m now not having any highlights or foils put through my hair. It will hopefully grow out naturally and still keep looking great. All that my Hairdresser used this time was a toner to take out the yellow.

Let me know your thoughts about embracing your grey hair. I think it’s high time that we were liberated from society’s notion that grey hair doesn’t look cool!