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Going grey – I’m 43 and I stopped coloring my hair

February 19, 2021 By Erin L. 1 Comment

Going grey – I’m 43 and I stopped coloring my hair

I found my first grey hair at 16. By my mid-twenties, I started coloring my hair every 6-8 weeks. Thus began a cycle that continued every two months for almost 15 years.

I knew I was over 50% grey. I figured it was probably a lot more than that. But I distinctly remember the day I asked my hair stylist how much grey was underneath the dye and her telling me it was probably 90-100%.  WHOA! We talked about how often I was having to dye it, how I’d have roots within a week. But I kept coming back.

Every visit, we’d talk about it more. One day she said, you know, we could try not coloring your roots and just see what happens with some blended highlights. I took a deep breath and said “let’s do it.” I didn’t look back. That was February of 2019.

 

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I didn’t go cold turkey

A lot of women in the Facebook groups I’m a part of have quit coloring their hair cold turkey. I wasn’t ready for that. I simply stopped coloring my roots, and added in some platinum highlights to start. Then a few months in, we did another round of ash blonde highlights, with a few lowlights as well as a glaze. Doing this helped with the demarcation line. The last time I put dye on my hair at a salon was in May 2019.

 

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What I’ve learned during the “going grey” process:

1. Some days are better than others. Just like I had bad hair days when I was coloring my hair, I had them while I was growing it out. Pony tails and hats are your friend.

 

2. It’s a slow process. Unless you want to do something drastic like a Pixie cut or pay for some crazy chemical process to go grey, you have to just wait it out. I’d say it took me about 18 months before it was at a point that I was generally happy with it.

Growing out grey hair

 

3. Purple shampoos help with the yellowing/brassiness that can occur. 

4. Going grey gave me the guts to try out some fun color on my hair. I’ve always wanted to play around with pinks and purples but that doesn’t work as well with brown hair. So I’ve been using Overtone on my ends throughout the pandemic, and I totally love it.

Do I feel like I look old?

Not at all. Yes, that was a big concern of mine. Was I letting myself go? But honesty, this is the most authentic me. I’ve had to play around with make-up, and clothing. I used to wear so much grey, and now I find I need pops of color so I don’t look washed out.  I curl my hair and put on make-up (when I want to). I still feel like me, but dare I say, better? Honestly, it’s high time society stopped with the idea of women aging being a bad thing.

I’m thinking of embracing my grey. Any advice?

Here’s the bottom line. If you start this process and absolutely hate it, you can always dye your hair again. For me, I was just so dang tired of spending all that money every four weeks, and I was super curious to see what it looked like. I have way more white than I ever would have thought and majority of the time absolutely love it. Do I still have days where I think “Gah, what did I do?”? Sure. That’s where the Overtone comes in, just to spice things up.

But I don’t regret it one bit. This is me. This is Erin.

43 year old with grey hair

 

You can follow me on Instagram: @takebackme to see more of my “going grey” journey.

A letter to my son on his 12th birthday

December 15, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

A letter to my son on his 12th birthday

This was a big year – 2020 pandemic/Covid aside. There were many, many changes. You finished elementary school. Your voice changed. You’re now taller than both your grandmothers AND your mother. (Rude.) You started middle school. I stare at you sometimes, searching for the hints of my baby boy. He’s still there. I see him… [Read More]

Week 13: What does time even mean anymore?

June 16, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Week 13: What does time even mean anymore?

I haven’t written anything in a few weeks. I mean, what’s there to say? It’s all one gigantic groundhog day with some world-ending kind of bullshit popping up now and again. Let’s see, what’s happened in the last month…. North Carolina re-opened to Phase 2 and our Covid cases are now spiking. People are losing… [Read More]

Quarantine Week 9: I’m going a little crazy

May 12, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Quarantine Week 9: I’m going a little crazy

Nine weeks. Nine weeks at home. I filled up my gas tank last Friday for the first time since quarantine began. Weird. I’ve been IN an actual grocery store five times in the last two months. Again, weird. My son has left our neighborhood four times, my daughter five in nine weeks — for driveway/patio visit with… [Read More]

Quarantine Diary: Week 7

April 28, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Quarantine Diary: Week 7

Oh hi, it’s me. It’s Tuesday morning and I’m still wearing my robe, even though I sat down to start my work day an hour ago. Yesterday, on a family walk, I threatened to push my 9 year old into a tree if she didn’t change her tone. I screamed “I’m on a call” one… [Read More]

Quarantine Diary: It’s been a month

April 13, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Quarantine Diary: It’s been a month

I can’t believe we’re going into week 5 of this. In some ways it’s become a bit easier as we’ve created some sort of a routine. We know what to expect. But in other ways, it’s harder. I miss hugging people – my mom, my sister, my friends. I wonder how long this will go… [Read More]

What my child is reading, Vol. 5: book recommendations for tweens during quarantine

April 8, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

What my child is reading, Vol. 5: book recommendations for tweens during quarantine

I’m back with a few new book recommendations for tweens. Needless to say, my 11 year old has been reading a lot over these past few week. He’s a big reader anyway, but given he has way more free time right now, he’s on a much faster track than normal. Generally speaking, he’s a big… [Read More]

Quarantine: Three weeks down

April 3, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Quarantine: Three weeks down

Right now, my 11 year old is riding his bike in circles in our cul-de-sac with hip hop music blaring from a speaker in our garage. Not sure how our neighbors feel about it but he’s getting fresh air and some exercise so… I can’t believe we’ve been quarantined for three weeks, and that, at… [Read More]

Quarantine: Going into Week 3

March 30, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

Quarantine: Going into Week 3

Welp, our state and county are officially in “stay at home” mode. It’s not really any different than what we’ve been doing the last two weeks, but I guess it will force others to sit their asses at home. School is still figuring out this whole distance learning. I feel for our county as it’s… [Read More]

A letter to my daughter on her 9th birthday

March 24, 2020 By Erin L. Leave a Comment

A letter to my daughter on her 9th birthday

My darling Emmy Lou, What a strange time to be writing this birthday letter. This past year has been full of amazing, wonderful things, yet these past two weeks have been full of uncertainty and changes. We had planned a small party with your friends for this Saturday and upon hearing that wouldn’t happen, you… [Read More]

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