Hair Dye and/or Highlights

unaveragejane

I want to get a crunchy mama perspective on hair dye and highlights. I've started finding a lot more gray in my hair recently, and I'm just not ready to leave it as-is. Plus my highlights from last Mother's Day have grown out just a tad (or 6 inches) and look quite drab. I wasn't going to do anything about it, but I just feel so frumpy. On the other hand, if everyday things like Vaseline and tin foil are bad for me, how awful is hair dye and bleach?? I was going to an Aveda salon b/c it is supposed to be "better" but I don't know if it truly is or not. Somebody help me!

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PipSqueak0313

I don't get what the big deal about hiding grey is......the last time I colored my hair was at some point before I had any grey.....so long ago I don't remember when it was......more than a decade ago for sure.  I feel older than I am some days, I don't need to look younger than I am to compensate.

CLLDLL

I'm anxiously watching this thread to see the answers. 

I've only done highlights twice in my life.  Most of the time, I tend to think like PipSqueak.  Let nature be.  But my "greys" are more white than grey.  It kind of bothers me.  This coming from someone who rarely wears makeup and is lucky to have matching clothes on.

Funny side story: My maternal grandma had "grey" hair that was white.  She used to dye it grey with bluing, which I guess was a common thing back in her day.  My friends used to call her my blue-haired grandma, because it did look kinda blue instead of grey in the right light.

unaveragejane

I'm 32. I'm not uncomfortable with my age. I am, however, very uncomfortable with my looks. I am plain as dirt with a beaky nose. I don't need frumpy hair to drag me further down.

PipSqueak0313

unaveragejane said:

I'm 32. I'm not uncomfortable with my age. I am, however, very uncomfortable with my looks. I am plain as dirt with a beaky nose. I don't need frumpy hair to drag me further down.

Try a different hair style.  Sometimes that's all that is needed to avoid frumpiness.

nanabanana06

I'm a stylist. So far from crunchy in this perspective. I bleach, tone, and color my haironce a month . I'm not in the Aveda camp as far as "narural" goes. I do go to an Aveda salon for my waxing and hair cuts though. I do my own color using Matrix bleach, 20 vol, and whatever crazy ass color I feel like. The key is doing it correctly.

Danie007

Nana_Osaki06 said:

I'm a stylist. So far from crunchy in this perspective. I bleach, tone, and color my haironce a month . I'm not in the Aveda camp as far as "narural" goes. I do go to an Aveda salon for my waxing and hair cuts though. I do my own color using Matrix bleach, 20 vol, and whatever crazy ass color I feel like. The key is doing it correctly.

This is my point if view too. I mean it's on your hair. Unless you do it in an unventilated room, or eat your hair I think it's ok.

mmm50

FWIW I used to use Aveda products on my hair until I checked them out on EWG and found out they are middle-of-the-road for being "natural" and there are a lot of cheaper options with the same scores on EWG.  

Roxie5739

I have been seeing greys for years and now use the colors from Whole Foods. So still coloring but at least limiting the chemicals. I think the brand is called Naturtint and the colors are great and last 4-6 weeks.

YellowLily2013

I'm in the natural camp... But my hair is soo dark that it just turns out awful if I were to dye it. So maybe I'm a bit jealous.

Eta: effing hate autocorrect. It gets it wrong!

nanabanana06

Mapleme said:

I dye my hair because I like it red. I've heard that copper red doesn't take well in grey hair (why a lot of old ladies have blue red hair), so I don't know what I'll do when I start having greys, but I'll cross that bridge then. I live in and come from a place where grey hair is NBD, so I don't think it will both me (except that I like being a redhead). Interestingly Aveda dye irritates my skin for a few days so I generally aim for the chemicals.

My mom has a lot of grey and I add a touch of copper to her hair. Matrix makes a line just for grey hair. I do a warm base and then add a copper in the same level. Looks great. Little old ladies get blue hair from the violet shampoo they use to keep it from going rusty or dull. Your only supposed to use once or twice a week. They swim in it apparently.

freezorburn

I started getting greys when I was 13. I think it's mostly stress-related, because I tend to get more of them when under extreme stress, and then sometimes they start growing back in at the roots with color. They are actually more white than grey. And I initially tried dyeing them but they didn't hold color very well at all. Eventually I decided I could either stress out about it and spend lots of time, energy and money trying to color them, or just let them be and not worry about it. I'm a lot happier not worrying about it.

MKC12/22/2006

I love Aveda. It's not 100% natural, but it's still better than a lot of other harsh dyes. Certainly smells better. Mostly I love it because the color stays much better than many other types I've tried.

If you live in a bigger city, you might have other more natural coloring options. A friend of mine has an all natural salon in Minneapolis for example.