1st time hair color ... CG to use??

ScrappyTam · 08-31-2012, 07:44 AM

I have been fairly consistent with following a CG routine. The time has come for me to color up some gray hair. There's not a lot of it, but there's enough showing on the top of my head that it sorta dulls down my very very dark brown hair.

I'm looking for something I can do at home to mostly cover up the gray. I was looking at doing a slightly lighter color than my natural color... thinking that the darkness of my hair won't be changed and that the gray will now look a bit more like highlights. Is that a crazy thought?

Are there certain brands of hair color that might work better than others? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

curlypearl · 08-31-2012, 09:37 AM

I think the grey definitely shows up as highlights on my hair, but you need to be cautious, because color is tricky!

I use Preference by L'oreal and I like it but it is permanent color so you may prefer to start out with something less permanent. I have med/dark brown hair and I use two colors at once, mostly light brown medium golden blonde. That way I get great highlights. I only color the roots so that I don't apply too much color over previously dyed hair which is damaging.

You might want to consider having a salon do it the first time just to see the technique.

I'm sure other curlies will have good advice too and other brand suggestions.

One strong suggestion: follow the instructions on the box to do a strand test first since you are doing this for the first time. My hair always comes out darker than the color on the box suggests - a strand test will show you the color before you do your entire head. It's easy to do. Good luck with this!

hairy situation · 09-18-2012, 05:29 AM

The problem with dark brown hair is that once you start coloring it, even a darker color, it will get lighter as the color fades. I know this from harsh personal experience

My hair has a lot of red in it and gets really brassy if I do anything at all to it.

The best thing is to find color that doesn't strip the natural color out of your hair and I have not found anything in the drugstore that does this. The "semi permanent" ones like Natural Instincts are just as bad as "permanent" color for me and they all fry my hair at least somewhat. People love Robert Craig color (available online) which is gentler, but that didn't color my gray well.

Henna (the 100% pure kind) is good for coloring gray, but it is red, so you would have red highlights. It is also time consuming and kind of messy. On the plus side it doesn't strip color from your hair so if your hair is very dark and only has a little gray it works nicely. You can also use indigo+henna to get brown instead of red, though the indigo will fade over time and the red won't--henna is very permanent. Recently I've experimented with Surya "hennas", which come in a variety of colours and have mostly natural ingredients. I was hoping to do brown or blonde highlights, but I've discovered that only the redder colors cover gray for more than a couple of washes.

Right now I am trying a dark ash brown I ordered from eSalon and it covered the red and the gray really nicely. Now to see how long before it fades and gets brassy.....

It's hard to find something strong enough to color gray, that won't lighten your natural dark color. I hope you get some good answers as I could use the info, too!

mycurlytresses · 09-18-2012, 09:43 AM

I use Clairol semi-permanent from Sally's. It is ammonia-free and peroxide-free. Some of the semi-permanent colors in regular stores contain one or the other which I believe strips the hair. I have gray around my temple. I use the dark brown color and it makes the gray look like subtle blonde/red highlights. People think they're natural highlights and compliment my hair all the time. Even when I explain it's colored gray hair they don't believe me. :-)

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