hey ladies this is erica johnston and welcome back to my channel
so are you thinking about going gray or maybe you're in the midst of going gray
or you've already transitioned and you just are ready to like give it
up and go back to dyeing your hair this is a
great video for you because we're going to talk about
whether or not you're ready right and a lot of you question
that you're like am i ready i don't know what does it mean so this video will
really help you and it will also help you understand
what it means to kind of go through the transition and maybe even
afterwards like myself over three and a half years transitioned
go through the other side and still having ups and downs
but i just want you to know i'm having an up right now and i feel really really
good so keep watching
the past two weeks i've posted a couple of videos that
have really garnered a lot of comments and i'm so excited
that i'm starting to see you ladies commenting
back and forth with one another like i just feel
i don't know i'm feeling really really excited about this channel
and i love that like that's why i'm making these videos right
so if you're thinking about growing gray i want to talk about something that is a
little bit different and it might seem a little deep and i know some of
you might say it's just hair and some of you might not even care but i feel like
if you're if you're here and you're watching this
then you do care and there is a grieving process
that can sometimes happen with the transition
and you know for some of you you just are getting it chopped off you're
getting that pixie cut and you're loving it right away
that's great that's amazing right but for
for other people you know other women you're
transitioning and you're really really struggling
so i want you to know first off i'm here for you
i totally get it and you know you need to
just kind of like push through that tough stuff
and once you've pushed through it doesn't necessarily mean that you're
going to get used to it and i think some of us it just takes us longer to
get used to the new us and looking at somebody different
like truly different in the mirror um i had one of you send me uh
an instagram message and you sent me a picture
of you with your dyed hair and then you sent me one of you now
and really look like two different people to be honest
but both stunning right and i'm kind of glad that she sent me
the picture of herself um with her gray hair first because
i wasn't swayed by the other picture right so i looked at that picture and i
was like oh my goodness she's like absolutely stunning and then i looked at
her with her dyed hair and i'm like whoa it looks like a different person but
still beautiful right so i think you know what i think
we just need to realize that
because of the society you know the societal belief
of gray being equated with old we are really the pioneers
of this movement right like i know that there's been women in the past
you know that have gone gray young but they were really few and far between
and you know we like i know as myself as a kid i
would look at somebody with gray hair
who was young and it was just my mind couldn't accept it like i didn't like it
as a kid whereas now you know like literally i went to a store today
and the young you know 20 something she was like i love your hair it's so cool
and i was like thanks that's the norm like the younger
generation now is looking at gray and they're like that's
awesome and some comments that i get too from women are like
i want to go gray younger right where
you know a lot of us you know 40s 50s 60s and up
we're just like oh my gosh we wish we didn't you know have any gray
but i'm really embracing my gray and you know
the past few weeks have i have kind of struggled i'm not gonna lie like i've
gone through like really good times and then since i did
the pink rose overtone i just have not really
been loving my hair like it's just been kind of blah
and i don't know i just haven't loved it and then i noticed like
yellowing discoloration and all this i just used my
pastel silver overtone again and i was looking in the mirror
and i'm like am i going crazy like i literally was
thinking that my hair was turning like pink at the roots like i'm just
wondering do i need to get my eyesight checked you
know what's going on and then i'm noticing sort of blonde and
i'm guessing that that's like the yellow being neutralized
but i'm just noticing all these different things happening
so i wake up yesterday morning and i had this moment and i looked in
the mirror and i'm like okay so my hair isn't as
like brilliantly silver as it was you know maybe a month or two
ago but i like it like i really like it
right now again and i'm excited about that and
i just want you to know that that's kind of part and parcel
it's almost like a real grieving process right like you might look in the mirror
and be like angry and sad and maybe in denial
and like all these different feelings that you have
from what lenny did you want to go outside regardless
grieving period there really there really can be one
and it's very normal and then there's just this like
i don't know letting go and can i say that i'll never have moments
again where i want to dye my hair probably not i probably will have those
moments i want you to know that
it took me several tries to
finally grow out my gray hair and that if you do the same and you
you know say that's it i'm ready and you really think you are
and you know you last a month and you cave and you dye your hair
that's okay just don't please don't feel like a failure because you're not
and you know it just it really doesn't matter
it really doesn't in the end it's just about
you know priorities about like really what's important or what do
you not want to do like for myself i just i
don't want to be putting chemicals on my hair i don't
want to be dying my hair every two weeks i'm just
not i'm not interested in it and i really i really do want to make a
difference in the world and help younger women embrace their
hair so getting your messages and you know
when you tell me and even oh my goodness my favorite
thing is when somebody older than me tells me you know that i've given
them the confidence to to embrace their gray like it means
the world to me i am so excited because my own mom
she transitioned to gray after me this past year she really was like
that's it this is crazy like my daughter is gray why am i still
a slave to the dye and so she decided to transition and her hair is
gorgeous so be realistic with your expectations
and you know i have said this before when you start to grow it out
you can really see what you've got and you need to give it more than just
a month okay because a month it does you don't get the full picture
like you can sort of see oh yeah i've got some
silvers and everything like that but you can't really see your true
growth pattern so i will say you know even if you decide you don't
it's not for you i would give it at least three months so
make the decision give it at least three months and then
really look at your hair like take a mirror and just look around
at your growth pattern and sort of figure it out like what have you got so
for myself you know i've got dark like fairly dark
hair underneath here and then sort of sprinkle
throughout so like i said you know i tried
several times to grow up my hair and every single time i did it it was just
a matter of me not really thinking it all
through of the long term right and i think that that's the most
important thing um so what i did was i just would wake
up and i'd be like that's it i'm gonna grow up my hair and
you know i would last the most i ever lasted was a month
until i actually sat down and that's when
you know i started looking at pictures you know of other people with gray hair
that was really helpful and i used pinterest to start with but i
mean now instagram is just like absolutely you know booming with
silver hair beauties and um you know if you don't have instagram
it's very very easy to get and you don't even have to post your own
pictures you can just have an account and then follow
other people um and then my account is @EricaHJohnston
so you can even follow me so you know i did that and then i
decided you know i want to i really want to do
this and so i actually had to sit down and
really think it through and that's where i said before you know like i had to
have small attainable goals and then and so
on so the things that you need to know if
you're thinking about going gray is it's not er it's not always
maintenance free right so there is some maintenance with
having gray hair or i mean for some people i know they just use like shampoo
and conditioner and they don't care and whatever it's fine but you know if you
really do you're concerned with keeping your
silvers as bright as possible you know silver gray hair is very very
thin and it can attract everything
you know you really do want to care for your gray hair so that it looks
vibrant and lovely and not dry and you know coarse and that sort of
thing so yeah so there is some maintenance you know i've got lots of
videos about purple shampoos and my favorite absolute
favorite thing that i'm using is pastel silver by
overtone it's like the best product out there that i've found
and i just slap it on and it leaves my hair really really soft but it just
neutralizes any brassiness that i have so you know
yes my hair has discoloration which i cannot for the life of me get rid of
like i've tried everything and you know i have to confess something
and i know professional hairstylist you are going
to be mad at me but i was kind of desperate and i i
didn't feel like going to a hair salon because i was worried that
they were going to end up like toning my hair or doing something else
so i ordered the malibu c packet on i don't even want to say where i
bought it from because i know i'm going to get like big time slapped
on the hand but i ordered it and i tried it and it did
zip so i think it's a really good product if you've
actually got hair color in your hair but at that
point that i used it all of the uh rose gold overtone was
like completely gone so it did nothing so i was hoping and i wanted to see
maybe if it was possible that yellowing from the sun could be
sort of taken out with malibu c but it didn't
work so anyways yeah so there's a lot of my
sweetie there's a lot of products out there that are really
really really good but to me for me i don't think anything can get rid of
yellowing from the sun so just know that there is some
maintenance you know depending on what your goals are
and if zero yellowing is your thing then you
will need to wear a hat out in the harsh sunlight
okay just an fi fyi you got to give yourself realistic goals
for the length of time that it's going to take you to grow it out
so are you keeping your hair long are you going to chop it off in a pixie cut
set those reasonable goals because a lot of you message me and you're like oh my
gosh this is like watching paint dry this is so long and you know it's true
like our gray seemed to come in so quickly
you know when mine were showing up like every single week after dyeing my hair
but you know after that like after i really started growing out i was like
my gosh my hair is like not even growing but i assure you it is so you know hair
grows at a set rate every month and it's not much let me tell you
yeah so just give yourself that goal like if you've got long hair
and you are hell-bent on not cutting it then i'm gonna tell you it's gonna take
you a very long time to grow it all out so
it could take upwards to like three years four years
um to grow the whole thing out so yeah so just set that say okay
here's my goal you wanna come up buddy you know here's my goal
and i'm gonna do this okay um be prepared hi be prepared for
not everyone to like it you know that's a that's a huge possibility
and you know i did a video a couple weeks ago
about negative comments and just to help you out so i mean really
uh you should watch that that video so you want to be armed with that
information beforehand and be kind of prepared
for how to act you know and not to take things personally right so those are
just some of the things that you want to think about if you're
going gray i also have another video i did
called your going grade checklist you can watch that i'll link that above
and yeah so basically just to wrap up just know
that if you're thinking about going gray understand that there
could potentially be like a little grieving period
um you know there's some maintenance required
you got to think about how like the length of time a reasonable amount of
time you want to give yourself to grow it out
and then just potentially that you might not be always receiving
you know positive support right so but that being said you will always have
positive support on this channel and so you can always comment
and send me a message i love to hear from you
and you know if i don't get to your comment do know that i read them all
okay and i'm doing my best to keep up with everybody's comments and
i do appreciate it so if you are finished watching and you don't
feel like watching any more see you later otherwise i'm going to
show you something really cool so the past couple years i've been
playing hockey on tuesday nights on women's league
and i love it it's so much fun and we go for drinks afterwards and so this year
things are different because you know if i choose to play hockey it's
just going to end up being like four on four and we can't go for
drinks afterwards which is always like one of my favorite things is like the
social aspect of playing team sports so i decided this
year that i'm going to do something different
and i've always wanted to take ballet and i know it's crazy i am
like five foot eleven i know i'm like a giant
and to imagine me as a ballerina is like so hilarious but i feel
you know as i'm getting older i'm just i just want to do all the things that i
want to do and that maybe didn't do for i don't know reasons that
are kind of stupid to be honest and like
i feel especially after growing my hair out i feel almost like i can do anything
so i'm really excited i'm gonna start ballet
so i didn't i didn't go out and buy like the pink tights and the black leotard
i'm not there yet and i don't know if i ever will be but i
did buy myself some ballet slippers so i'm so excited
uh and i went to the shop and i had to to um
go online and make an appointment to go in the store so it was just like
me it was the only customer in there but the woman was so nice and she
uh she fitted me and the first car they tried on i was like oh these are great
they fit amazing and and uh she looked at them
and she was like no she was like those are no good
and so she gave me these ones and they look so little and cute and tiny
and i just have to put them on for you because i'm so excited for you to see
how cute these little ballet slippers are
so i'm going to be a ballerina they've got like little leather bottoms
on them do you like those lenny what do you think you like my ballet
slippers i'm excited i'm gonna be a giant
ballerina yes i am all right so that's my news for
this week i hope that you enjoyed this video and of course
if you have any specific questions you let me know be sure to give this video
a like give a little thumbs up and subscribe to my channel if you haven't
already done so and until next week bye for now
you're just like ready to throw in the towel
this sounds stupid hit the die hit the box of dye you're just ready to
hit that hey everyone this is erica johnston and
oh my god i'm like sitting like this like what is wrong with me that's
so rude okay you can just i can't see you while
you're eating
hey buddy i'm just filming right now okay where just sitting here
so my kids just came home they are making their lunch right now i'm just
going to keep filming while they make their lunch no i'm not
okay hi everyone hi oh that's nice