1. when did you first see the gray I’m forty and I haven’t gotten a single grey yet. However, I’m a redhead and it seems like a lot of redheads don’t really go grey, they just get paler and paler. It is true my hair isn’t as birght as it once was.
2. Do you color your hair Nope.
3. If so, at what age will/did you stop I’m not sure if I’ll ever start. Most auburn dyes look so artificial.
4. Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive. I don’t think grey hair makes women look less attractive but it definitely ages them. I’ve know women who went grey very early and in their twenties, it’s striking. By their late thirties, it makes them look much older than they are. We’re conditioned to think grey hair implies age.
My mom has been greying for a couple of years now (ironically it’s been sincebro_mcl and I left the house) and I think it looks fine on her. She coloured it a few times (black) but she’s pretty much letting it ride. She’s never worn makeup, and she looks about 40-45 although she’s 57.
I joke that when she goes completely grey, she should grow it out, tie it with a rubber band and work the Jane Goodall thing (she’s a doctor).
I started out as a tow-headed child, but my hair gradually darkened as I got older. By my early twenties, I couldn’t honestly call myself a blonde anymore. I saw my first white hair when I was 24, but while more and more individual hairs have gone white, they’re not really noticeable.
The result seems to be that my hair can’t lay claim to any true color - not blonde, not brown, not gray, not salt and pepper - just a sort of mousy medium blah.
So, yes, occasionally I dye it. I’ve gone dark brown, which was striking against my fair skin. I’ve gone red, which really got me noticed. I’ve also gone blonde, which I liked but nobody else noticed.
Currently, my hair is down below my bra strap, and I haven’t dyed it in a very long time.
My blonde hair has darkened somewhat (though still considered blonde, I guess), but no gray yet, and I’m 51. I do highlights to brighten it up.
I have a friend who had black hair that is now Barbara Bush Gray/white. She doesn’t like that flat “shoe polish” black look, so she has her colorist leave about 15-20% of her gray in it. I love the look.
There are grays and there are grays. Some are beautiful (IMO) and some not so much. I know plenty of women who let it go and plenty who color it. More power to 'em, either way they decide to go.
I’m 43 and I have only a few gray hairs, about the same amount for the past 5 years or so. I’ve never colored my hair and never intend to. I think silver or white hair looks fabulous.
My husband has been graying for years now. He had black curly hair and a black beard, but now he’s all salt and pepper and he looks very handsome that way.
I’m 39 and I’ve been coloring my hair for a loooong time. Initially it was because hair color is fun (blue-black in college, various reds and purples), but now it’s to cover the grey.
I can’t remember when I sw my first grey har, but it was early. My dad was salt-and-pepper by the time he graduated college.
I estimate that I am probably 60-70% grey at this point.
I have a close friend who is 2 years younger than I am and has the same amount of grey. She’s never colored her hair and she looks gorgeous. Every so often, I wonder what it would be like to stop coloring it, but I know that it would look different on me than on her because our coloring is different.
The other thing I think about is that I would have to go and live among sightless people for about 2 years while it was growing out, or else invest in lots of hats and headwraps. My roots positively GLOW when there’s more than a centimeter or two, and my natural color is dark brown. There’s no subtle blending in here.
I am 41 and I just started noticing a couple of white hairs. This has caused me to stop coloring my hair. Because I am curious.
As a child I had that red headed alien look – red hair, translucent white skin, light eyes. As I got older my hair darkened to an auburn color and there it stayed until my thirties. In my teens and twenties I colored it all kinds of colors – including green and purple – because hair color is fun. But somewhere in my thirties it started to turn browner, closer to chestnut, and I colored it back to auburn because I think of myself with auburn hair.
This pattern of starting with red hair and moving on through progressively darker brown has happened to two of my aunts, and both ended up in their forties with warm chestnut hair shot with silver which I thought was lovely.
So I have stopped coloring my hair to see if that’s what I got, too. If it is, I’ll not color it again. If it’s mostly grey as opposed to silver or white I will probably go back to coloring it as I don’t like that look nearly as well.
I was sixteen. My hairdresser found some during a haircut.
Do you color your hair
Sometimes. I’ve started doing it again after a while of just not caring, having it grow out, and then realizing that there was a lot more than I realized. Right now, my hair is black with non-natural red tips. I’m 24, so I can still get away with that.
If so, at what age will/did you stop
If it ever ALL goes totally grey/silver, I might consider it. Might. Maybe. Or not. Who knows?
Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive.
Right now, yes. I’m 24. My hair is dark brown, almost black. The greys stand out, and they’re concentrated around my part. You can see them from a mile away, and it makes it look as though I just don’t care. Which, to be fair, I didn’t for a while. Were I bit older, I’d argue it wouldn’t–I don’t think that iron strands mixed with black hair looks bad at all. But. . .not right now.
My wife’s hair is coal-black, with about 5% gray. Her hair is beautiful because it’s attached to her. That will continue to be true if/when it goes all gray.
1. Do you find gray hair attractive
Hair color is irrelevant in and of itself. It’s like asking if I find green shirts attractive. Um, maybe. There’s nothing inherently attractive or unattractive about a color.
2. How do you feel about covering it up.
I suppose it’s different for different people. I hope my wife never decides to cover hers up. Generally, I think being comfortable with your age and appearance is about 1000 times more appealing than cosmeticizing yourself.
PS: we’re both 34. Her first gray hairs appeared maybe three years ago. I’m getting gray in my beard. You remember those “Just for Men” commercials with the slogan “Restore your natural color”? My father was incensed by those. He never failed to inform the television, “Gray* is* my natural color. It’s natural for your hair to go gray!” Dad has a low irritation threshold, but he was right.
When did you first see the gray
I had my first grey hair in my 20’s, but it was just one or so every now and then. I didn’t get regularly find more than one grey hair until I was about 35.
Do you color your hair
Yes. I was blond in college, went back to my natural color in my 20’s, and now dye it as close to natural as I can get.
If so, at what age will/did you stop
If I get salt and pepper grey, I’d like that. Right now, there’s not enough grey hair to be more than a spattering here and there. I don’t like the look of that, although I do love the salt & pepper look! So I’ll wait for more grey before abandoning the dye jobs.
Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive.
The way it currently is, yes. There are enough grey strands to be noticeable but not enough to get a nice salt & pepper look.
I noticed my first gray hair when I was 21, one morning while I was putting on makeup. I have very dark brown hair, so I’m surprised I didn’t notice it earlier. That was two years ago.
Do you color your hair
Nope. Never will, either. It’s hard to get darker shades not look like flat ick. And my hair color is very nice, I think. I saw a picture of me taken in high school, when I had waist-length hair, and I couldn’t believe I’d ever decided to cut off hair that beautiful. What was I thinking?
If so, at what age will/did you stop
N/A
Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive.
I don’t really have enough to tell. I’ve only got five to ten, spread throughout the front left side of my head. So far, they’re turning out to be a random mix of silver, white and blonde, and coarser than the rest of my hair. My mom, who has true black hair, has lots of silver shot through her hair, and I’m hoping that’s what mine will look like. The silver hairs do make me feel old, though. I don’t think they detract from my mother’s attractiveness; I think it’s gorgeous.
My wife is starting to go grey. She has what I call “streaks of silver” around the temples. I have tried to convince her that I find it truly hot, especially since our oldest daughter-in-law is now pregnant, and there’s just something really exciting about sleeping with a grandma. Unfortunately, her hairdresser keeps convincing her that it looks like “Frankenstein’s Bride” for a woman to have grey streaks, so she keeps coloring it. She thinks I’m trying to humor her because my own hair is completely white (and has been since I was 40). Oddly, she thinks I look “distinguished and very experienced in life,” which she finds sexy (and that’s a good thing, because it offsets my belly, which looks “massive and very experienced in eating.”)
One of the sexiest women I know is one of my wife’s co-workers who has true salt-and-pepper hair – she keeps it in a fairly short but quite feminine style, and the effect is a saucy, world-wise look. Her husband says it makes her look “old enough to know better, but young enough to want to anyway.”
I was about 20 when I saw the first one. I plucked it out immediately. I plucked out about five a year for about ten years. A couple of years ago, I started to get a little patch on the top back right of my head that is pretty consistently gray. I’ve stopped pulling them out for fear of baldness. I fully expect them to infect the rest of my head.
Do you color your hair?
I did once. I had blond highlights put in to disguise the gray. I hated the highlights so deeply that I got them colored over the next time I went in. I’d like to try again with a more caramel-colored highlight (I have very dark brown hair), and with chunkier highlights instead of skinny ones. Maybe I’ll still hate it. I don’t know. I’m also pretty cheap, and it’s hard for me to part with the money for coloring. And I don’t trust myself to do it at home.
If so, at what age will you stop?
I don’t know. 40? 45? Right now, I just feel like 32 is too young to be going gray all over the place. There is a 70+ year old woman at my church that has horrible fake raven-colored hair, and I’m pretty sure I’ll have the good sense not to do THAT.
Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive?
I don’t really think of myself as attractive. However, I’d feel better if they were gone, so yes, I guess so.
For what it’s worth, my husband would prefer me not to color my hair, but supports whatever makes me feel better. I have this fantasy of going white - I think older ladies with white hair are totally stunning.
Not me, but my mom. She’s got the same situation as the OP’s wife - beautiful black hair that went gray really early.
when did you first see the gray
She says about 18.
Do you color your hair
She’s been coloring it for 38 years. She finally trained my dad to do it and he does a nice job.
If so, at what age will/did you stop
Can’t answer for her … but I tell her she should never stop. She honestly does NOT look like a 56-year old, she’s absolutely beautiful. Granted, with gray hair she’ll still be beautiful with her beautiful wrinkle-free, olive skin but for me it’s like a Dorian Gray thing…if she goes gray, suddenly my whole world will feel “old.”
Do you think the gray hair makes you any less attractive.
I don’t know if she does it to look more attractive, more young (or if that’s the same) or just out of habit. I think she sort of feels pressure from my dad and me. My dad, who has light brown hair, still doesn’t have much gray at 57.
My brother, for the record, has had gray hairs since 18 (same complexion as mom) and now at 30 he is quite gray. He is not interested in dying it, he likes to look older.
I first started getting the odd white hair in high school, for which my mother teased me when she noticed one. Thanks Mom. :rolleyes:
I’m 29 now, and I’m starting to develop a little patch of grey hair. They’re mostly all still quite short and buried in amongst the rest of my hair, so I really only notice them when I’m brushing my hair. I’ve never bothered with colouring my hair - there’s just too much of it, and I quite like my natural colour (medium brown with red and gold highlights) - so I think I’m going to let the grey grow out and see how it looks.
