Want to go gray?
There’s a vogue for it among young women, apparently.
The process is simplicity itself. All you have to do is:
Lesson #1: Start with healthy hair and scalp.
…It turns out that you need to have a healthy head of hair before bleaching or stripping your hair. “If we bleach your split ends, they will fall off,” Javier told me matter-of-factly…
Lesson #2: Don’t wash your hair at least five days before your appointment.
When you are going platinum you want as much natural oil in your scalp as possible…So I tied my hair up in a greasy ponytail for a week. “Use dry shampoo sparingly and only if you have to,” Javier advised me.
Lesson #3: The darker and coarser your hair, the longer it takes to go platinum.
Before you can gloss your hair gray or silver, you have to go platinum. This is a time- and chemical-intensive process where your colorist slowly strips the dark pigments from your hair until you look like Goldilocks. I arrived at Sally Hershberger Downtown at 9 a.m. and I didn’t leave until 9 p.m. We started bleaching my hair the moment I arrived at the salon, but we didn’t finish the bleaching until about 5 p.m. The chemicals burn and itch a bit on your scalp, which is why you need a healthy scalp to begin with. By the time your hair is blonde, it will be noticeably drier and potentially of a different texture than you’re used to…
Lesson #4: You need to gloss every two weeks.
Once you’ve processed your hair blonde, you need to gloss your gray, and re-gloss every two weeks because while your hair is permanently removed of pigment (until it regrows), your pigment gloss will eventually wash off. ..
Lesson #5: It’s high-maintenance and it’s not cheap.
I was always a fan of dollar store shampoos and conditioner. I didn’t care because everyone liked my long voluminous hair regardless. Now that my hair has become more fragile and prone to breakage after bleaching, I have to follow the following rules:
A) Wash hair once a week using products formulated especially for color-treated hair…
B) Be gentle with your hair.
When you’re lathering up in the shower, you need to gently massage your scalp. Always air dry your hair when possible. “Treat your hair like a newborn baby,” Javier says. “It’s really fragile…C) Use a leave-in conditioner to lock in color…
D) Gently rub oil into your ends.
OR—
You can just wait a few decades and save yourself the hassle. I can assure you that sooner or later, if you live long enough, it will happen.
By the way, the effect achieved by the lengthy and difficult process described in the quote is not anything like real gray hair, although I suppose the women doing this don’t want “real” gray hair. I once mentioned to a friend of mine that gray hair isn’t gray, it’s a mixture of depigmented (white) hairs and whatever your natural color might be in the hairs that still retain their pigment. Slowly, over time, the color mix of the hair lightens as a larger percentage of the hairs become white. She was flabbergasted; she had thought that hair went gray in some uniform way—that grey was a stage each hair passed through on its way to white.
[NOTE: Some photos here of the results of the gray-dying process on the young.]
So, this is how the senators in Congress do it?
Could the time wasted on this have something to do with why there aren’t more female CEOs?
Why go to all that trouble and expense? A little talcum powder, a bit of dry shampoo…and, voila, you’re Marie Antoinette!
The look in the pictures you linked would be awesome in certain types of science fiction or fantasy movies, otherwise . . . not so much.
I came by my gray naturally, through stress and age.
I’d SWEAR that that notion came from Japan — and anime.
You’ll find that ‘grey’ hair was pretty common in anime — as a contrast between the full black — and was especially popular in black and white cels.
It was actually an attempt at blonde.
You did this, Neo? For God’s sake WHY???
snopercod:
What on earth would make you think I did it?
I’m quoting the article at the link!
I’m not giving up my beauty secrets, but let’s just say it’s not what I do.
Ugh … I’ll just wait for my hair to go naturally grey. Luckily, I think I inherited the gene for that from my mother, who was dark-brunette, and whose hair began to go beautifully grey in streaks and strands in her late thirties. Really, she looked as if she had a very, very expensive streaking on her hair.
As I am or was a dishwater browny-blond, the effect is not nearly so spectacular. But it will do – I earned that grey, dammit.
Whew! You scared me, Neo!
OK, here is the definitive analysis of this post.
1) Bad, bad neo. I am in total sympathy with snopercod. There was every reason on Earth to misapprehend. Slap on hand.
2) The process described is usually a sign that someone is now in love, and mazel tov.
3) Men look so much better with “gray” hair and men who dye their hair not only look ridiculous – – worse – – they broadcast the message that they are ridiculous.
4) Whether a woman with gray hair looks as good as a man with gray hair depends on too many variables to enumerate.
5) A woman whose hair is “gray” (because of age) can easily and “naturally” choose some treatment which confuses the issue in a very attractive way.
6) Men and women are different, which is most definitely not a criticism of men and women who are not, and who can be appealing in their own way.
7) Young women who adopt “gray” hair are far more fascinating than young women who are blue or pink or purple or red.
8) Regardless of the color, curly hair is a suspect characteristic.
Don’t forget the blueheads. Much simpler process.
I just knew if I waited long enough my hair would come back in fashion!
My 80’s flight attendant GF inisted we call them “exceptionally blonde” hairs.
I always liked the look of some folks whose graying (by age) is really whiting. Their naturally occurring gray hair is actually a solid white. Basketball coach Lute Olsen is an example. Barbara Bush also.
Ok so I’m in a minority here and can’t talk my wife into letting a grey streak or so show through, but she has a young face for 49, and I think it’s pretty sexy in some women who aren’t that old but let some “platinum” show. Like highlights?
Just me I guess, but it I find it very attractive and a huge turn on.
Starlord:
Natural gray (which could includes a natural gray streak) can be very attractive. It depends on the shade of gray and the coloring of the person. Some women look extraordinarily beautiful with it, and some do not.
Sounds like yet another trans – transsex, transrace, transage. What next?
I found my first gray hair when I was 26. It took a long time, but they’re winning now.
My wife comes from a family where they go gray in their forties. She died her hair until she was 60. Then she felt like she could go “natural.” She has beautiful gray hair as does her brother.
Me, I come from a family of people who don’t get very gray. Tinges of gray at the temples so far. Like so many things it is a genetic trait.
neo-neocon,
I see many Asian women color their hair the fact is most having very dark hair or cruel like chines, most of them what color they put looks not match thier skin, looks.
I do agree for some women its very attractive on them, natur alwayes better than what human doing.
I started going gray in high school, and have looked like a Badger since my mid 30’s, ( Iam 53 now ). I female friend of mine used to give me all sorts of greif for my gray hair, as she was 2 years older than I, and was still blonde. Then, one day, she was a gray hair among the blonde, and that afternoon, she became a redhead. She told me flat out, that even one word on my part about her hair would have dire consequences, which hardly seemed fair.
A decade ago, I was accused… well asked… if I had had that done, partially. I was insulted but let it pass. The ladies were sure grooving on it. Damn college town hipster, and they were old, as women go. Bleh. I’ve been graying at least since I was 16… mid-teens, for sure. Because of that, I have much less fuss about gray, though too. Got it from my birth mother, but she was totally white by 35. I’m glad I missed THAT mark, but haven’t minded being pepper gray for most of my adult life, and now sort of looking forward to white. My beard, mostly, is white. Hair just won’t go along yet.
Better gray than nay.
I view my gray hair as a sign of achievement as having survived this long. But there is genetics involved, too. My Dad had black hair which didn’t turn gray until he was in his late 60s. My Mom had shock white hair early on; she also carries the bald gene, which my brother is. So I got my Dad’s hair longevity and my mother’s early gray hair coloring. I can deal with that, as if I have a choice.
One of many:
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/grey-new-black-hollywood-silver-foxes-gallery-1.23709?pmSlide=1.41531
How is this any different than dying one’s hair any other color?
Yancey Ward:
Dying one’s hair a lighter color always involves stripping, which is harsh, and then dying on top of it. But for some reason this seems particularly difficult to maintain; I don’t know why.
Is there any end to how crazy people can get in altering their looks?
My father, and his whole family, had a gorgeous crown of thick, waving, springy silvery white – not gray, white – hair by the time he was 65 or so. Just beautiful. I’m hoping I will, too.
My tiny Sicilian Firefly’s mop of gray/white hair is spectacular. Keeps it cut short and it tops her 4’11″/95-lb July 4th frame magically. A lucky T-Rex is what I am.
Tonawanda
3) Men look so much better with “gray” hair and men who dye their hair not only look ridiculous — – worse — – they broadcast the message that they are ridiculous.
My brother-in-law had a big bucks sales manager job until he was 79. He dyed his gray hair in the belief that it made him look more youthful and energetic, and would thus help customers’ response to him. I can’t say that he was wrong. He also went to the gym.
I find it rather comical that someone would dye hair to get it gray. Dye hair gray versus dye gray hair…
My sister was a blonde as a young child. Her hair got progressively darker as she aged- reddish light brown as a teenager, and brown in middle age. She commenced dying her hair a light brown- touch of blonde- and I have to admit that she has looked better for it.
I inherited my maternal grandmother’s un-graying tendencies, and in my mid sixties have only a touch of gray at the temples.
Neoconscum
My tiny Sicilian Firefly’s mop of gray/white hair is spectacular.
A high school classmate of Italian ancestry had red hair, courtesy of grandparents who came from Milan. She has always been good-looking, but didn’t look particularly Italian to me. Now that she has a flowing mop of gray, white hair, she reminds me of Sophia Loren.
My hair is a mixture of brown and gray. Since my hair grows insanely fast, it’d have to touch it up weekly and am not about to do that. So gray it will be and I like it.