I’m now thirty-mumble and the greys are starting to show. I’ve never colored my hair for fun, but certainly plan to at some point in the future in order to cover the grey. If you color your hair how did you decide the time had come?
I started highlighting my hair at 29. I had enough greys in one spot that I almost had a noticeable grey streak. That’s what made me start. Now I do highlights and lowlights. I’m 35.
You can either be like my wife, who looked in the mirror one day, saw the gray peeking out and bombed it back to black. Or you can be like my sister, who’s been heard to say “my actual hair color… well, I don’t really remember what it is.”
I started coloring my hair when I was 15. I noticed my first gray when I was 27, hiding amongst the root re-growth. I have to use permanent color, as the grays are resistant to color and only the permanent formulas will cover it. I’ve done pretty much every color, natural and not natural over the years. Now that I’m 40, I stick to a color that’s fairly close to natural (dark mahogany brown). I think my natural color would be called just really dark brown, but it seems that coloring it that dark doesn’t look great on an aging woman. There’s a balance that must be attempted when one starts getting older, I think trying to become blonde just looks weird on an non-blonde, and color that’s too dark is silly-looking and obvious. Either extreme makes older women look pasty and weird.
As far as I can tell, the grays I have are shiny and silver. When I start to have a hard time covering them even with permanent color (I’ve seen older women try to use reds and such over resistant gray hair - looks silly), I’ll probably give in to natural and hope for that gorgeous silver/gray I’ve seen on very few old ladies, but looks great worn long. I figure I’ve got another 15-20 years before I need to worry about it.
In our community seniors are going back to natural. Partly because of the economy but it also seems to be a local(?) fad too.
I am not a senior, just trying to live in denial of ageing for a while. 
Someday I’m sure I’ll too go a beautiful, natural silver but first I intend it to fight it with all the possible chemicals at my hair’s disposal.
While I’m not there yet, I know some people who did it once it became impractical to pick them out.
If my hair were salt & pepper or the beautiful snowy white of the lucky few, going natural would be fine. Instead, my greys are about the color of old asphalt.
So that’s how I knew when it was time to color (or color more often) – when I noticed how unflattering the roots were.
I didn’t start until late 40’s. At that point there was enough grey amongst the dark brown that it was obvious around my face. Still just strands in most areas, but my temples were around 1/4 grey. The main reason I went ahead is that I don’t look my age otherwise, and I like people thinking I’m 35 instead of 49. grin I’m not very good at girly stuff, like trying to dye hair at home. So I go to a salon every 3 months and get highlights (and lowlights, to keep the highlights from becoming dominant). I would probably go every 2 months if I could afford it, but 3 months is OK because the highlights aren’t THAT much lighter than my natural color, and the roots aren’t really obvious.
Same here. From 29 to 32 so far.
I don’t know if I will go completely gray any time soon. My dad didn’t start looking too gray until 55 or so.
My mom, on the other hand, has jet-black hair that has gone mostly completely gray. But she’s been dying since 18 and can’t go back.
I’m 51 and still natural, still holding out. I don’t know why my hair is still almost entirely black, with only one small area semi-gray. Whenever it does get around to going all gray, I think I’ll just let it. I just don’t want to follow my mom’s example, who got herself locked into covering gray decades ago and hasn’t found a way to stop, now in her late seventies. I thought maybe it’s better to just not get hooked on it. Also, my hair is too fragile to support much coloring; even highlights stress it out too much.
“Thirty-mumble”… Love it! Me too. Anyways, I have a gray patch that isn’t too obvious so I’m planning on leaving it alone for a while. It’s apparently a family thing, all the female relatives on Mom’s side have it. I’m a redhead, and the gray just kind of looks like highlights unless you get really close. And I don’t let too many people get that close! My mom is 61 and doesn’t have much gray at all, and her mom is early-80s and only started getting really gray in the last few years. I’m hoping to be like them. 
Wait…I thought redheads don’t go gray. They certainly don’t seem to in my family, anyway (Mom’s in her fifties with no gray hairs, and her grandmother never went gray either). What sort of red are we talking about, auburn, strawberry blond, carroty or coppery?
I started in my early 20s just so I would not be faced with the issue.
Then, as soon as I noticed the random ‘grays’ were turning a beautiful silver, I stopped.
I never try to dye to my ‘natural’ color. It shows. I like to use temporary colors occasionally, in a color much light than my own. I’ not trying to hide the gray, that would shallow and vain and a denial of my hard earned maturity; I’m just trying something different.
Nope, not vain or afraid of age, not me.
I’m not a lady, but I’m in my early 40s and I’ve just started coloring. I’m blonder now than I’ve been since childhood!
I’ve been dyeing my hair since I was fourteen. I though I found a grey hair in the regrowth a couple of months ago, so I nuked it from orbit.
I don’t remember when I started dying my greys - we go grey early in my family (dark brown hair and greys start showing up in our teens), so it was probably about 20 or so. I plucked them for a short time, but I was starting to get a bald spot. I’ve let the greys grow out, but they really look terrible and age me decades. I’ll probably stop dying when the front is all grey, instead of just grizzled.
I usually use semi-permanent colours; I don’t like the stark re-growth line of permanent dyes. My greys are kind of resistant, but my hair is good and tough. I agree that older ladies can’t dye really dark and look natural; I’m still using dark brown, but I’m aware that I’ll have to move up the colour charts as I get older. Maybe a shade for a decade.
My partner (early 50s) has let nature take its course in this respect. Which has worked out great because she has this magnificent swirl of steel grey hair with a gorgeous white stripe through it that other women envy. She’s been asked where she “had it done” many times.
What brand have you found that works on your grey hair?
I found my first grey hairs as a teenager. I put off coloring until my early thirties, though. When it was still mostly not-grey and I was obviously young, I didn’t care. Once I hit about 30% and folks seemed unable to talk to me without staring and commenting about the grey, I caved in and started covering it. It’s amazing how rude people can be, it was like the “My eyes are right here!” thing except they were staring at my head instead of my chest.
Now at 40, I’m starting to lighten up a bit, the med-dark brown thing wasn’t working anymore and the roots were too obvious. I’m around 75% gray now and figure I’ll keep coloring until it’s all grey/white and I can rock the short punky 'do.