Home Hair Coloring?
 

Hello Friends,

I was just wondering what you think is the best home hair coloring kits for covering a lot of gray. I typically keep my hair colored a reddish brown on the darker side. My natural hair color is dark brown. My son had me get my hair colored a really pretty reddish brown (more on the red side) for my dad's funeral for $50.00, but to be honest it grows out where I can already see a bit of the roots almost a month later. I was going to have them do it again, but I can buy a better hair color kit for much less than that. I will have them cut it for me though regularly. At 63, I am keeping my hair in a short to medium bob style with a side part. Should I maybe leave the part out, and just get it use to going backwards all over to help when the roots start popping in?

Thanks for any tips and advice.
Susan:)

I'm not a good one to answer, because I've never colored my hair. But I do have another suggestion. Have you considered having your hair frosted? That way when the roots start to show, it looks more natural. I have one friend who was dying her brown hair, switched to frosting, and no one noticed when she stopped having it frosted and just let it be natural. Grey or white hair can be really beautiful, and is not the age-related "stigma" it once was.

I preferred using Clariol Nice N Easy when I was coloring my hair. I liked it because it has 3 colors in the mixture which builds in highlights, I used Light Reddish Brown and then changed to Reddish Blonde and then phased out and let my hair go gray. When the roots started to show I would try to not part my hair until I could color again, I was coloring my hair every 3 or 4 weeks. Now that my hair has grown out I will not go back to coloring again as I am embracing my gray.

my hair is now a very light blond, the lightest color on the boxes. i do, however, have a dark what i refer to as a yarmulka spot on the crown of my head. all my hair is white-ish blond except this spot which comes in greyish, so i color that once a month or so. I use Miss Calirol at Walmart for $2.97/box.it blends it into my other hair. My mom has the same problem.. at 80, her hair is white-ish grey, except for that one spot which is black-is grey. Weird how the hair looses color in some spots and not others. th pieces by my face are so white, but with a touch of yellow, like the meat of a banana. From all my surgeries, my hair is straight now.but much longer

My mother use to frost my hair with a Clairol product but now it is dirt blond and gray so it is frosted naturally.

I remember my grandma on my dad's side use to get her hair done and colored with a simple rinse every week by this lady who did this back then with a blue type light color that covered the yellow in my grandma's gray. My grandma loved it. All she cared about was to not have any yellow in her hair. I think it's amusing though, because isn't yellow to some extent what is in blonde? And then today we wonder what looks acceptable with all the kids and even some older that have the striking blue, green, blood red hair etc.

The reason I like mine on the dark auburn side is I have olive type skin so it suits me.

My granny used laundry blueing in her white hair, because she was a smoker and the smoke would stain her hair a yellowish shade at the front, that did not look nice (think tobacco stains on fingers or walls).

At 50, I generally have may hair professionally coloured 3-4 times a year. It is my one vanity. I am a natural red head and when Franny colours my hair she uses 4-5 different shades of red (she uses foils) , sometimes with a purple or blond thrown in for good measure. I get lots of compliments on my hair colour. It does look dyed, but that is ok by me.

I have very thick wavy hair, cut short and it naturally stands up, which effectively hides the roots for quite awhile.

In between salon colouring, or if I cannot afford the salon, I will dye at home. I use L'Oréal products and even with short hair, usually have to buy two boxes to fully cover my thick hair.

I am not ready to let it go grey yet. I know that near my ears it is white, but ther is lots of colour left every where else.

I use to use Clairol natural instincts. I now treat myself to get my hair done to cover the gray by my hairdresser and have my hair cut the same time. As far as how quick the gray comes in, my experience is that the older you get, at least for me and some other ladies I've spoken to, the gray eventually turns white, and the sooner or more often you need to get your hair colored unfortunately. As they say, we're not getting old just older :)

I'm 64! Go natural!![ATTACH=CONFIG]557172[/ATTACH]

I buy the root touch up coloring kit and streak the color through my hair. It gives a natural look as natural hair isn't all one color. The kit comes with a great applicator. If you use an all color for dark hair always go with a shade lighter then your natural hair color and be sure it says ash. The goal of any great hair coloring is not to have every hair be the same shade. Unless of course you want the dye look.

I would suggest you go to a Sally's Beauty Supply and talk with one
of the employees there. They have to either be in school or have been
to school (to do hair) in order to work there.

Tell them what you want to do and they will direct you down the right
path.

In case you are wondering you DON'T need to be a professional to shop
there. I shop there often enough that I have their Sally card it gives me
the same discount that licensed professionals get, and the card costs $5
a year, but you can get that back if you take that receipt back in to buy
other stuff.

I have been a Sally shopper for over 20 years.

I was a hairdresser for over 30 years and am so glad I don't have to mess with it anymore, I am so over it. I hated the growing (new growth process) and yes after a couple three or four weeks you're going to see the new growth. Hated having to correct the home box colors. People really don't like paying for their mistakes. I suggest you have your hairdresser/stylist do it for you. She can do lowlights which would help you to grow it out gradually to get used to your natural new color. You can go longer with lowlights also.

It sounds like we have similar hair in color and style. I had bangs for a hundred years (or else, it just seems that way LOL) and have finally grown them out because I was tired of stringy damp bangs on my face in the summer heat. Now I keep my hair in a shoulder-length side-parted bob type style. Anyway, after wishing and hoping that my grey hair would grow in "pretty" (I had two aunts with beautiful white/grey hair), I finally realized I would not get so lucky and I just looked OLD. :) So I've been coloring with Natural Instincts semi-permanent color; I use the color called Chocolate Crème. It does a great job on my dark brown hair, and the greys come out a little bit lighter, sort of a dark reddish brown color, that almost makes my hair look highlighted. So far I'm happy with it! The color is inexpensive and easy to do myself.

I'm 65 and have been coloring my hair for at least 10 years. I should amend that, I have my hair colored. Yes, it is $50 a crack and I have mine done every 5 weeks. I look at women with terrible dye jobs and consider it's money well spent. I could never part my hair and do the roots and all that she does at home. Just my opinion, for what it's worth.

I use Loreal Excellence for covering gray. I've been coloring my hair monthly since I was 16 Years old. (That's 47 years!) I used to use Clairol or Loreal Preference, but started using Excellence when I started going gray.

I used to dye my hair myself and used whatever was on special. I have awful problems with psoriasis on my scalp now and have my hairdresser colour my hair. She does foils and doesn't get any on my scalp at all! It means less money for fabric, but worth it for my sanity as I have grays only at the front.... and I hate them!!

Loreal Preferance -- I started out using Revlon but when I got gray I had to change to Preferance -- DD uses the same product for her chestnut colored hair. I have been a light blonde out of a box for 52 years. My friend has a reverse color done in a shop, but around here it costs $100 or more to get a shop color so I do my own. I mix a couple of colors to get the one I like and I use the John Frieda shampoo that has a bit of color in it so I can stretch out the times between color jobs.

I have tried most of them over the years. I like the nutrisse brand. And there is a new one called Keratin by schwartzkopf I think it is. Very nice. I don't like Olio (Olia) because it doesn't cover the gray. Age defy will do but not my favorite. It does need touch up every 4 weeks. Sometimes I just mix half a batch and do the part and hairline in front. I can afford a salon and have the time but speaking only for myself I don't like sitting there while it gets done. I had it done once in a salon and it was fine but took a long time. I am 72.5. Mr Stitchnripper is going on 61. He is mostly gray. Everybody has their opinions. Mine is only for me. I don't want to be gray right now.

I have been using Zoto Age Defying from Sally's but my hair was getting dry - I wonder if I bought the peroxide too strong. This week I used Keratin by Schwartzkopf. My hair feels much better, but I will need to adjust the color choice. Caramel Blonde is a golden brown on my hair which is white in the front and an icky gray in the back. I let it go gray several years ago, but it just wasn't me.

This is a very interesting conversation to me. I have been coloring for 45 years..since I was 18 and started going grey prematurely, a trait on my mothers side. When I was young I had very thick dark brown hair kept just below my shoulders but as I got older my hair got thinner, also a family trait. I've had it professionally done but reached that point when it was too expensive so started coloring my own. Tried several brands and now use either Age Defy or Loreal Preference. I used the medium brown and as after a while friends and family suggested I go natural. I should mention that I have kept my hair style like Dorothy Hamill since I was 30. So recently I went to get my usual haircut just before coloring and said I wanted it a bit shorted so I could see the grey look. She said that since my hair is very fine the natural look was going to show my scalp and that hair color gave me the look of more hair. I went home and immediately my husband said "color it". He had always questioned why I had not let it go grey a long time ago but now understood. So although I sometimes envy those who let nature take its course, my 4' 10"little old lady body will continue to keep it colored until heaven takes me in.

Hair coloring was such a pain in the posterior that I stopped doing it about 5 years ago. It's all a gray white color now and I get far more compliments on it than I ever did while coloring it.

My husband, however, would like it colored because i made HIM feel younger.

My nephew, then about 9 years old, visited us for a week. At first he was puzzled about why I looked different.

Finally, he figured out that my hair was now white. He very innocently said,

"Aunt Cathy, you only look a year older."

My belly almost split tholding back laughter! I graciously thanked him for the compliment.

I have colored my hair since I was 13 or so and I am 63 now. I use the old nice and easy golden blonde I seem to always have rosy cheeks. The last time I colored the box of dye was $4.99. It works. It's easy. Good luck.
The Clariol web site has loads of tips.

I went to Walmart and got the most expensive one they had - Swartzkoff. Excellent.

use any hair color but add Gray Magic to the color and it will color better and last longer.