Yes, this is my second thread in five minutes!
I’m so tired of the time and money it takes to keep my hair colored. I can see my roots come in less than a week. Every time I get my hair done, I think about what else I could be doing with the money. I want to break the cycle!
How did you do it?
I’ll tell you what skigranny #1 did. She got a cute short cut (similar to how Rita Moreno wore it in Happily Divorced), had her hair dyed grey, and then let that grow out.
Skigranny #2 still gets her hair colored, and personally, I think #1’s look is much cooler. 
Skimom never bothered with hair color; she just let nature take its course. My great-grandmother has been grey as long as I remember, so I don’t know how she transitioned. But the was blonde, so it was probably less noticeable.
I was too lazy to do what skigranny #1 did, but I think that works. I let my hair grow out until I had several inches of gray then got a new short cut. I love it. I went from frizzy to wavy/curly.
I use Style Edit powdered version to touch up roots betweeen colorings. It’s easy to apply and works very well. Available on Amazon.
When I was about 25% gray I decided that was it, so I switched from permanent color to semi-permanent. After some months I just let it fade away.
I use this. https://www.grecian-formula.com/
For years to cover Grey’s but since I have been in the sun a lot this summer… My hair tends to get sorta blonder and Grey’s get lighter. People tell me it all looks very natural. You can control how Grey or not you want with it. Then use it once or twice a week. Just apply to hair and brush through. I do this in the shower and takes like 30 seconds.
I don’t have much grey, but I swear by henna. You can get shades that aren’t just red. Henna conditions your hair, and it fades with time, so you never have a line. It’s messy, but looks great and is soooo inexpensive in comparison to salon coloring.
My co-worker just transitioned. She used to dye it auburn which was high contrast to the gray, so her stylist dyed it ash blonde and let that grow out. It was pretty seamless- I didn’t notice roots coming in and now it is all gray.
@skieurope - your great-grandmother is alive?!
Alive and well and still raising hell in her 90’s, as is my great-grandfather, her husband.
I am in the same situation as the OP. My hair was dark blond growing up, and now I get it highlighted and lowlighted. I have begun to get lighter and lighter so that when those grays finally turn white, it won’t look so terrible growing out, but I’m thinking this is going to take forever.
My mother has beautiful white hair and I am hoping that mine will be as pretty, but this is looking doubtful.
I just let it grow in - it’s still growing in. Most of my gray is in the back, so I don’t really notice it so much when I look in the mirror. Other people see more of it than I do.
@skieurope You never fail to amaze me with your expertise in unexpected areas! ^:)^
I’ve been gradually going lighter so the grey doesn’t show as much when it grows out but am unwilling to throw in towel and let it be natural. I can usually go 3 weeks before I see regrowth and I use the spray in stuff as well as root touch up kits in between. Part of my problem is that my husband, who is 2 years old than I am, already looks younger and has just a a few strands of grey so I don’t want to look even older!
I stopped getting my brunette hair colored when I gauged there was “enough” grey. My hair was a bit longer than shoulder length at the time.
I was getting weary of two things – 1. time & $$ going in to get my hair colored. 2. the time & product it was taking to get my hair to submit.
I stopped coloring and cut it very short (Jaime Curtis short). So happy! Never going back.
Not going this route, but a friend who is told me that there are facebook groups devoted to this topic (who knew?). You might want to check that out.
I used the semi-permanent route for a couple years in my early forties. Within a year or two, the gray was grown in. I used a blonde shade of semi-permanent so it never “covered” the gray, but simply blended it in. Both my kids and my H at the time I stopped the semi-permanent remarked that they far preferred my streaky gray hair to my “hair dye hair.” Even my salon has told me they will never ever dye my hair because my gray is “pretty.” I’m fortunate in that the streaky gray has stayed relatively the same for well over a decade now. My mother is 90 and has that same streaky gray that almost looks like gray highlights…she never went totally gray. I would love, love totally gray/white hair too, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. My friend has the most gorgeous white hair that I’ve ever seen and she’s at least 15 years younger than me.
It’s been many years since I went grey. At the time I just didn’t feel like I could justify the cost and like you, within a week I could begin to see the grey roots. Because I had colored my hair there were no grey streaks. Just my grey hair growing out and then my colored hair. It was horrible, but I did it. I think it took almost a year and then I was able to cut my hair and just be grey. I’m glad I did. My grey hair is actually a silver color and from time to time I get compliments on it. The downfall is that it can make you look older than you actually are. Good luck.
This week I switched to dying my hair with henna and indigo and before doing it, I tried to grow out as much “virgin” hair as possible and I think what I did would be relevant to going gray.
I switched from a permanent dye to a semi-permanent dye back in March. I tried to have the dye on my hair the minimum time possible so as to prevent permanently coloring it. It washed out in about 4 shampoos. Then, about 6-8 weeks ago I switched entirely to using a coverup stick and spray. This didn’t eliminate the grays, but at least made me look less gray. I probably could have gone a little bit longer this way, which would have given me 6 months since last permanently dying my hair. Then I went to my stylist and had her cut a lot more layers than I usually have in my hair, in order to get rid of a lot of the ends of the hair that had been repeatedly chemically dyed. If I ever do go gray, I will do this in order to avoid a drastically short cut.
One of my sister’s quit dying her hair a few years ago. She did it by dying her hair a light color that blended well with the gray roots. When enough of her hair was her natural color (about shoulder length) she had the rest cut.