Best laid plans... If at first you don't succeed... When one door closes... etc. etc. etc. My hopes to become instantly gray has not worked. The color that I hoped for would not stay for more than a week despite religious adherence to the prescribed home care protocol. I tried a new salon thinking it was the product but was met with the same results. UGH! I had to accept that instant gratification was not possible as my hair was strongly fighting the metamorphosis into the color of advanced age. Sadly I felt I was back to the beginning: to color my hair or the seemingly painful options of letting the gray grow out or cutting it short (the horror). The new salon suggested a temporary glaze on my hair to blend in the grays rendering them less obvious. The veil of color lasted only a week before I felt the stares from others publicly flogging me for the offense of partially gray hair. They seem to be asking: Is she doing that intentionally? Does she know how bad that looks? What is she thinking? What was I thinking? It did look awful and I just could not continue to walk around like that. This was now personal and failure is not an option.
I am not willing to go back to the every three week color appointments and hating seeing the shimmer of gray peeking out. I have embraced my gray and I want to keep moving towards my goal - so I took measures into my own hands. The temporary gloss seemed to work but not for long enough therefore a trip to the store was in order to discover my DIY options. I found a nice temporary product that I now use to blend in the grays. I use it each time I wash my hair and actually had compliments on the appearance of my hair - what!?!
My gray really is not fully showing yet due to the glaze but I feel I am on the path to let it grow out, keep my hair healthy, achieve the goal of long gray hair, and ultimately the love of self that comes with fulling embracing my natural state.