Thinking about going from brown to gray hair color? Read this first

Posted by kimberlyacworth Posted on Mar - 5 - 2018

Ready to go from brown to gray with your hair color?

AFTER going from brown to gray

Meet Maggie K from Greensboro, Ga. She is a professional that was tired of coloring her roots every 8 days. She has been toying with the idea to take her hair from brown-to-gray to live more freely. Read more…..

Maggie is a professional that is speaking on stage and has always been aware of how she appears as a professional in front of her peer groups. She travels around the world delivering high performing information to help teachers be able to communicate effectively with their students.

Maggie and her many shades of gray

Other lighting from highlighted brown hair to gray hair

When Maggie and I first entertained the idea of her taking her brown hair to gray, we had some considerations to think of such as:

the pros and cons of gray hair
what if her hair wouldn’t lift as light as we needed it to? Back up color was necessary.
maintenance of gray hair as it naturally grows in
the initial cost to remove the brown highlighted colors

Is platinum right for you?

Maggie wanted to achieve a pretty platinum color that was nice and icy looking to match with her skin tone. Know that when you are working with so many different tones of brown that has highlights and low lights in it, the “what lies beneath” emerges. This becomes a discovery process. I had to use many types of bleaching with an additive that re-bonds the insides of the hair to protect it from breaking.

Lightening hair is time consuming. It is a slow going process that has to be watched. Some areas of the hair or head that might be light enough have to be rinsed or removed early, other areas may be darker and need to be left on longer. In some cases a strand of hair could be 3 colors from brown to gray on a single strand!! . This where having a professional that has been trained on advanced bleaching is going to give you the best results.

the process of going from brown to gray with foils

Makeup colors matter with gray hair

Glo skin makeup

FYI as you decide on the right color goals to go with your skin tone and a back up plan if the hair won’t lighten as much as you would like it to, then the back up plan would be to come in a few weeks to have more lightener applied to keep the integrity of the hair. This is normal procedure when you are trying to lighten as much as you are in one appointment. We recommend 2 – 3 appointments to achieve the level of lightness. We did have to change out Maggie’s makeup with a beige to enhance her skin tone. She looked even younger after the makeup changes to beige foundation, pink lip colors and we even tried colors that we discovered didn’t work for her.

Patience is a key factor in the waiting game to process. Bring a phone, a book, something to do because hair color removal/bleaching when going from brown to gray can take hours. Hours meaning 7 hours sometimes more. Slow as you go is the way to think about hair color removal.

After the initial removal, we were looking for the hair staying healthy while processing especially the ends of the hair. One of the considerations in hair color removal is the ends because of them being lighter, the opportunity for breakage would be higher than normal if we hadn’t taken any precautions. We did use a re-bonding product to help keep the integrity of the hair. Once we were able to rinse the hair out and found we were happy with the raw underlying color, then we were able to pursue the right tone.

Choose the tone of gray wisely

When choosing a tone of gray when going from brown to gray, this is a visual adjustment for the person wearing these new colors. You might look at Pinterest or Instagram and think you will like the color but if the color you want is not held up against your skin tone, you might have the adverse affect with your skin tone and have to rethink or redo the color to make it work for you. This is a time consuming process but an important process all the same.

Try a wig on to get an idea if you like yourself in gray

I recommend trying on wigs BEFORE you make a big comittment to changing your hair color from brown to gray or red to gray to make sure you will be happy with the transition. Going from blonde to gray is easier because of the lighter shades.

Transitioning from brown to gray can be an adjustment visually with your eyes, skin tone, and getting used to looking at yourself in the mirror can take about two weeks. The maintenance on gray hair will still be a comittment by using Fabuloso color conditioner that keeps the direct dye pigments in the lightened hair. Keeping the hair toned every two to 4 weeks in the beginning will help your gray hair have longevity is essential to maintaining the gray tones because the underlying yellow in naturally dark hair can start to surface within a week or longer depending on how often you wash your hair, which shampoo and conditioning products are used all have affects on the hair. Those Fabuloso color tones can help keep the yellow at bay.

Do your research by having a color consultation done with Indulge Salon York Pa. You could even go to a paint store pick out some gray paint swatches that you like, hold them to your skin or take them home in the lighting that you are in the most to see if you like yourself in those colors. Color tones do matter. Some gray hair color tones have blue, beige, yellow or violet which all those tones can make a difference in your skin tone.

If you are interested in going from brown to gray, call us at 717.846.4424 or 706.999.9911 for a consultation prior to having the service done. We feel it is a privilege to provide good information for you to make a good decision on your color choices.