Each week, Good Weekend’s how-to column shares expert advice on how to navigate some of modern life’s big – and small – challenges. This week: How to go grey.
If you want to stop dyeing your hair, you can just stop. What’s so hard? The resistance, says Jules Peacocke, director of Sydney-based silver specialist salon Lily Jackson, is due to a little thing called the patriarchy. Official figures aren’t kept, but the industry estimates that about three-quarters or more of Australian women dye their hair, mostly to mask the grey, which they fear screams old and irrelevant. In our culture, a woman’s attractiveness depends on her looking youthful. Silver-haired men, on the other hand, feel little pressure to sit in a salon for several hours every four to six weeks to “touch up” their hair at a cost of $250 or more.
Fifty-five-year-old Peacocke, who stopped dyeing her own hair 15 years ago, has been an evangelist for “grey transitioning” for 20 years. She considers it an act of rebellion against expectations – and a growing “movement”. She helps women be natural “in a way that’s not only beautiful but fashionable [with] a strong aesthetic”.
First off, how to avoid the dreaded grey or white regrowth, known as the “skunk line”? Book a consultation with a specialist when the regrowth is about two to three centimetres, says Peacocke, so they can examine how much grey there is and where it is: “It’s different for everyone.” In general, the regrowth band is softened or blended with the dyed hair until it grows out. It will take about 12 to 15 months and four or five salon visits. You can embrace your natural hair or enhance your silver streaks for a dramatic look.
But there’s also an “instant” method: the dyed hair is bleached and then coloured to a grey tone. Peacocke is wary of this solution because it can damage the hair and is unsuitable for brunettes. It’s also expensive, taking two to three days at about $2500 a day at Lily Jackson.
When you do go grey, she says, “you’ll need an incredible haircut. It’s the difference between looking older than you are and younger.” Can you transition to grey at home? You can try store-bought temporary products that will wash out, says Peacocke; you’ll need to keep at it until the grey reaches the length you want. Or you can stop dyeing and cover the regrowth with retouch sprays or powders.
You could even cut your hair very short when the grey band appears. Think of it as a tiny blow to the patriarchy.
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