In my article last week, I discussed body shaming in the form of shaming gray hair. If you want to read more, click on the link below:

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/gray-by-choice

This week, I want to talk more about my process of going gray: the successes and failures. I am by no means a cosmetologist, so this process is not the official go-to. However, this is what worked for me.

I feel like I should start off by saying the hair color I started with was a dark red. It wasn’t my natural color, I’m really a blonde. I decided the second semester of my freshman year in college to dye it dark red. After having my hair red for a while, I felt the desire to change it, and gray is what I decided on. I made the change over the course of a couple weeks to protect my hair. I knew bleaching was a dangerous process, and that it would kill my hair, so I spaced it out over time. Yes, my hair looked really ugly colors in between, but it was worth it. I have no regrets.

I started off the process by using Color Oops to help unsaturate my hair of dye and strip the red color. I was hoping it would return to my natural color, but instead, it turned an ugly orange color. Shortly after, I bleached it, hoping to intensely lighten the color. I ended up bleaching it a total of three times before it was light enough to do anything with. I tried to wait at least three days in between each bleach treatment. Each time I bleached it, I conditioned my hair, leaving the product in for at least five minutes. I rinsed it using cool water to ensure the hair locked in the moisture. I also used a leave-in conditioner with argan and monoi oils. My favorite leave-in conditioner is Mystic Divine from Sally’s. Coconut oil is also a really good product to use after treatments. Next, I mixed a T18 toner and half of a 50 violet toner additive with a 20 developer. After processing for half an hour, my hair was nearly there, with a light ashy color. For the last process, I used a T14 toner instead of a T18 toner, mixing the dye the same way. The results were significantly different, and exactly what I wanted.

For a less permanent gray hair style, I recommend Ion semi-permanent gray hair dye, also available at Sally’s or online.

Now I am happily flaunting gray my hair, and you can too!