I’m 56 and don’t color. I’ve got very dark brown hair and started seeing gray in my early 20s – there’s now a lot of silver, most, but certainly not all, of it in one particular streak.
The other day in the john a coworker my age asked me if I’d colored it because the streak was hidden. When I said no, she – very, very blond – said “Good, don’t, it looks great.”
I’m the flats and no makeup type, though, so you really can’t use me as much of a data point.
My sister, who’s four years older than I, is completely silver at this point and looks fabulous.
I found my first grey hair at age 14, just a year after puberty, so I could tell things were going to go downhill fast – now at 33, I have two big grey patches at my temples, and then threads of silver tinsel scattered throughout. I dye my hair a shade darker than my natural dark brown.
For years, I bemoaned inheriting the hair genes from my dad’s side of the family - straight, fine, and thinning. However, when Dad died at 72, he hardly had any gray. I’m 57, and while mine is quite thin, it’s still my own color with no trace of gray or white or anything. My mom, on the other hand, started going gray at 40.
One of my sisters has accused me of coloring it. Oh yeah, because I’m sooooooo into my looks… :rolleyes: Like twicks, I’m very low maintenance, altho I did occasionally dye my hair light auburn in my 30s - just for giggles. I quit that when I got tired of the hassle.
I’m 35 and haven’t started yet, though arguably I could stand do. Thing is, it’s mostly going grey around my temples, which I can disguise by putting my hair up the way I usually do. I’ll get around to it, but I have a thing of hair dye in my bathroom just in case I freak out one day.
My sister started going grey in high school. By their 30’s, all my siblings, had a substantial shock of grey hair. I’m 55 with only a few strands of grey, but I know I won’t dye it. That’s way too much maintenance for me, I’m just not into it. I’ve only had my hair permed once, the chemicals freaked me out, never would I even consider, doing such a thing again.
One of my complaints with dyed hair is it looks natural when women first start doing it, but as the years roll by, either their eyesight or their judgment goes, and now they’re 70 with some unnatural/creepy coloured thin hair. I mean, who’s going to tell them then?
When I was younger, I dyed my hair for fun, but eventually the hassle outweighed the fun and I let it go back to my natural color. Now it’s dark brown with sprinklings of silver, and I feel pretty good about it. I think it’ll be a long long time before I feel like coloring it again. Hopefully by then I’ll be old enough to get away with doing something fun like pink.
I’ll be 40 this Sunday, and I’ve got enough grey that it’s noticeable. I refuse to dye it, though, because a) I like my natural color and would have a difficult time trying to match it, and b) I’ve earned each and every one!
Coppery red… maybe I’m actually going blonde? I don’t know. Sure looks gray to me! But I’d like to believe that redheads don’t go gray. I have a relative (granddad’s cousin, what does that make us?) who was a natural strawberry blonde but wanted redder hair so she started henna-ing it. She’s now 90-something and still henna-ing the four hairs she has left…
I’ve got no greys yet, 'though I really want them.
My mom went the “highlights” route for several years starting around 40, and now has progressed to an all over color with added highlights. Works for her - no one has any idea she’s got greys.
Unless you’re really into DIY, I’d suggest going to a colorist and asking their opinion, at least the first time. Some grey is easier to integrate into highlights than others, some will need a very particular color or process to hold the color, and they’ll have a better idea of what colors will flatter your skin than you do. Sometimes, nature gets it wrong, and you’ll actually like a color that’s pretty different from what you were born with.
Clairol Natural Instinct seems to work pretty well for me - I do just the roots, and leave it on the maximum time allowed, but don’t put it on all of my hair for the last five minutes as they recommend - my ends were getting dye build-up and getting too dark.
That’s what I use, too, and I really like it. I leave it on my roots even longer than recommended – maybe 30-45 minutes – because my grey hair is very stubborn. I use #31 or #35 (darkest brown), so I don’t have to worry about the roots being darker than the rest of my hair, because no one would be able to tell, anyway.
I’m 31 and my hair has been graying since I was 26 or so. It’s not too noticeable from a distance but up close it’s fairly obvious. I have zero interest in dyeing it to mask the gray.
I had a ballet teacher as a child who always wore her silver-gray-brown hair in a long thick braid. She was gorgeous and I decided I wanted to wear my hair just like hers when mine got gray. So my plan is to never cut nor dye my hair.
Right now my hair falls just past my waist. When I braid it I get a brown braid with just a little gray. Sadly for my grand plan, my hair thins out a lot towards the bottom–no thick braid for me! It’s a very narrow braid.
Oh well.
By the way, my former ballet teacher is still around and apparently still wears her now-silver hair the same way!
I started out in life with hair so black it had blue highlights, but at about age 17, the premature gray started in (inherited, thank you so very much, maternal side of the family!! :rolleyes: ). I didn’t decide to finally start coloring my hair until my early thirties when it was about 85 percent gone and everybody kept telling me i looked too young to have hair that gray. And of course, it was color-resistant, so I had to have it done professionally.
About ten years ago I switched to dark blonde because 1. my hair grows like wildfire and the gray line would start showing up only a few days after coloring. I’d have to have it redone less than two weeks later, which got exorbitant, price-wise, and, 2. the original dark had to go as I aged. Extra added blonde bonus: what’s left of my dark original hair and the newer gray picks up the lighter hair coloring in different intensities so it looks like I have highlights and lowlights in different shades of blonde.
The general rule of thumb is that as you age, you should keep lightening your hair. It de-ages you immensely. Something my 40-mumble sister has yet to grasp, but i keep trying.
I’m 55 today, but nature and good genes have kept me looking a good ten years younger, so letting it go back to its natural state isn’t right for me yet, either. For now, I’m to remain a blonde.
Come live in my crunchy town, and you’ll never have to do it. Supposedly grey hair looks “earthy” and “natural”, and dyeing it out is frowned upon by the locals.
Ugh yes, my father-in-law dyes his hair jet black; my mother-in-law dyes hers some kind of deep brunette. Neither is done well or look realistic at all, and the pure white roots and thin hair on both of them do not help.
I’ve met a couple of women who have awesome, pure white hair that is totally natural. I will definitely let my hair go undyed if my hair does that in a decade or two.
I wonder if this would work on sun bleaching too. I use henna shampoos occasionally because I don’t particularly like how the sun lightens my hair during the summer. You probably know that red hair isn’t a remotely solid color, but there are hairs between blonde/white and dark red…I wish I had more of the dark red, because it’s a pretty color, closer to blood red than copper. Too bad most henna shampoos seem designed to lighten red hair rather than darken it.
Yes! Henna is a “deposit only” color. It doesn’t provide lift or lightening (although if you buy a hair color with henna in it, rather than just pure high grade henna, it may have other chemicals to lighten. I just use real henna and lemon juice as the mild acid to activate it.)
The easiest thing to do is try it: let the hair gather in your hairbrush for a week or so and pull it out and use a small amount of henna on it. Let it sit as directed and then wash it out. It will show you what you’ll end up with, without risking the hair on your head! Also recommended for people who have used chemical dyes; some chemical dyes contain metallic salts which can interact with henna and turn your hair frog-butt green. I’ve not had that problem, and I’ve used henna over chemically dyed hair, but I did the hairbrush test first, just in case!
But yes, the henna will make your sun-bleached hairs coppery red, and depending on your other reds, may bring some to the darker red you’re looking for. ETA: Repeated applications of henna will bring it deeper and darker.
If your hair is dark brown or black, henna will give you a really cool red “glow” that’s really only visible in direct sunlight.
I have a relative (granddad’s cousin, what does that make us?) who was a natural strawberry blonde but wanted redder hair so she started henna-ing it. She’s now 90-something and still henna-ing the four hairs she has left…
