Maintaining Fabulous Gray Hair

Hi guys! I’m a little behind on my posts due to a very active February. Full of birthday celebrations, company, grandson birthday, our anniversary and finally some catch-up time. So if you’ve been waiting for this post as promised, it’s finally here! This is on maintaining fabulous gray hair.

We will revisit my gray journey– when I decided to go gray three years ago and how I maintain my long (crazy) gray hair today.

When I started this journey I was already going gray but my brunette side had the upper hand. My solution for not looking like a skunk was to have it gently bleached out over a short time. My go to is always “full speed ahead” no “dilly dallying” and no “regrets”. I’m impatient that way, I just like to jump right in! Not always the best approach but I don’t regret my journey.

In 2016 my hair was very long, very dark brown (as you can see in the pic above), and I decided it was time to go gray. (You can read the story here.). I’ve always been blessed with very accommodating hair. Full, thick and easily curls or straightens.

Today my hair is slightly shorter, grayer, still full and still crazy. Somedays…aye aye aye! I just want to chop it off and start with a short style. One that won’t take me so long to dry and curl before I have to head out the door.

If you’re thinking of going gray, know that for a dark headed girl, a Latina, or both—that staying/maintaining gray is WORK. (I know! The price we pay!)

My current hair status: this is the beautiful (natural) graying of my roots plus the yellowing from the bleaching.

And this is my hair after a washing— pure madness! My hair tangles A LOT–not a little! It has lots of natural curl that adds to the amount of time I have to spend untangling before I can even attempt to dry it. Moving to the Midwest from Texas has meant that I have to blow dry more often than I ever want to due to the cold temps.

I prefer to air dry my hair and go but that’s not the case.

What you should know is that there will be more maintenance for your gray if it wasn’t done naturally. (In my experience anyway!) And even when you have complete gray/silver hair – like my Boo, you have yellowing and brassiness to your hair that is not a favorite shade of mine. That’s why I love these two products! Fanola no yellow shampoo and Pravana ChromeSilk Vivids.

My schedule for my hair is this:

Shampoo once a week. I used to shampoo more often but since going through the bleaching, my hair is drier. (I switch from one week with just Pantene shampoo & conditioner) & (next week is Fanola no yellow shampoo with Pantene conditioner)
Once a month I add coconut oil to my whole hair, tie it up with a clip & allow it to replenish my hair for about 2-4 hours before shampooing with Pantene (I don’t use conditioner in this round cause that’s what the coconut oil just did).
When needed (about every 3-4 months) I apply a treatment of Pravana ChromeSilk Vivids with conditioner and allow to set for 3-4 hours before shampooing as usual. I do this when I want a little vibrancy to my gray shading.

TIPS~

Things to know about FANOLA shampoo: this stuff is amazing and powerful. If you have bleached or silver/white hair and notice yellowing this is your jam!

Follow the instructions explicitly! It will stain your hands if you use bare hands to apply (I recommend disposable gloves)
Leave on ONLY for 4 minutes or less or you will see purple shading. The first time I used it, I left it in 3 minutes and it was fabulous and a noticeable difference!
It will dry your hair out because of its potency. Another reason for me doing the coconut oil treatment once a month!

Between blow drying and styling my hair because of the texture and length it roughly takes me a little over an hour. That’s way more time than I prefer.

But some days I do straight…

Some days are full blown curled…

And the great thing about curling is that once I curl it, it holds the curls for several days if I wrap and twist it up at night and then just run my fingers through it or brush it out.

Like this…(3rd day after curling!)

I’ve had long hair for most of my life and have been thinking lately of cutting it into a short style but then chicken out. My hair grows back quite fast and am blessed with full crazy hair -but then I think of how easy it is to just tie it up, tuck it under a cap/hat and go, or wear it down and crazy full when I want regardless of the time it takes me. We’ll see what style I decide to go with in the next couple months!

For now I’m happy I found a way to maintain mine. I love the way it looks and feels! Crazy -big -hair–don’t care~

If you’ve been wondering what it takes for maintaining fabulous gray hair, I hope my tips help you. So how do you keep your yellow tones at bay each month?