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Why does nobody talk about how hard it is to blend grays on coarse hair?
Had a guy come in last month, salt and pepper all through his crown. I tried my usual blending technique but the gray just sat there looking like chunks. He asked me if I was "scared of the white". How do you handle heavy gray blending without spending an extra 20 minutes?
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alicer5317m ago
Y'know what, my friend who does hair out of her house told me a story that fits this perfectly. She had a guy with that wiry salt and pepper too, you could barely see the gray until you got up close. She spent twenty minutes trying to use her regular color, and it just sat on top like cheap paint on a rough wall. Finally she just wet his hair down with a spray bottle, used a tiny brush with a super diluted dye, and practically massaged it into each individual strand. Took forever but the gray blended right in with no chunks. She said it's because coarse gray hair has that thick cuticle that won't open up unless you really work at it. So I think that extra time is just how it's gotta be, not something you're doing wrong.
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emma_baker612h ago
Oh man, that's rough! It's like the gray just decides to rebel against whatever you're doing (which I swear happens more with salt and pepper than solid white). I've noticed it's the same thing everywhere in life - when something is halfway between two states, people get all weird about handling it. Like painting a room that's half old gloss paint and half new matte finish - the transition never looks smooth unless you spend way more time than you planned. For coarse gray blending specifically, I've had the best luck switching to a smaller brush and using a really fine, almost watery product that soaks in rather than sitting on top. But yeah, that extra 20 minutes is just baked into the job sometimes, you know?
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