# What's the upper age-limit for going gray? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 27, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195 "2009-01-27T06:13:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/1 "2009-01-27T06:13:17Z")
I’ve heard of people going gray as children, and have seen gray hair on a handful of twenty-somethings, but I just realized, I have no firm concept of the opposite end of the spectrum. I tend to assume that people in their 50s and 60s without noticeably gray hair are certainly using hair dye. Is this correct? How about people in their 40s? Incidentally, I’m 31 and have a few gray hairs; nothing anyone would notice unless they were examining really closely. I seem to remember my dad’s temples graying in his early 40s, and now at 60 he’s more salt than pepper overall. I figure I’ll follow the same route, but I’m curious as to what the extremes are. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/2 "2009-01-27T06:22:00Z")
I had an aunt and an uncle (still have the uncle), siblings, not spouses, who had black hair that in each of them was not completely gray well into their late 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/3 "2009-01-27T06:44:06Z")
Indeed, my grandfather is 82ish and he still has black hair with some gray but it’s not that gray. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dye it (he’s retired and I just don’t see him caring about it much). ---
**Author:** ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 8:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/4 "2009-01-27T08:32:37Z")
My grandfather died at age 74 (cancer) and his hair was jet black - no grey. I’m 53. Full head of hair, a tad of grey at the sideburns. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/5 "2009-01-27T08:41:16Z")
I’m 63, and the only gray hair I have is my goatee. My brother is 66, and the same way. Some people turn gray from the top down, others from the chin up. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/6 "2009-01-27T08:56:44Z")
I’m 40. I have two white hairs. Two. I leave my hair undyed for three reasons, in no particular order: 1. women my age go blonde. I don’t like blonde. Also, since women younger than me go brunette and I’m brunette, being brunette makes me look younger. 2. not-dying is a lot more convenient than dying. 3. it pisses my have-dyed-since-their-20s acquaintances no end to see my un-dyed hair, sometimes with one of the white hairs poking out, sneaking among the straighter dark hairs (for some reason my two white hairs are curlier than the rest). Mom is 67, gray going on white… she’d be some sort of streaked if she stopped dyeing. Grandma is 95 and, yeah, now she’s gray. She didn’t go gray until her late 80s. Grandpa, 94, is less gray than Grandma and didn’t start showing grey until 90. My other grandma had grey hairs starting in her 50s, but her hair never went white; she died at 86. Other-grandpa died at 65, Dad at 63 and their hair was still ash blonde. One of my aunts by marriage had silver hair by 30 and white by 50. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/7 "2009-01-27T10:26:36Z")
My father lived to 62, and had gray temples, but otherwise dark brown hair. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/8 "2009-01-27T10:40:43Z")
My dad didn’t start graying until his 60s. Same for his brother. Hopefully, that means I’ve got a long way to go, too. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/9 "2009-01-27T11:56:52Z")
My mom’s in her late sixties and has only a few grey hairs in one spot. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/10 "2009-01-27T12:07:52Z")
My mother will be 84 next month and is less than 5% gray. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/11 "2009-01-27T13:54:12Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > 1. not-dying is a lot more convenient than dying. Indubitably 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/12 "2009-01-27T14:30:33Z")
To the best of my recollection, my dad didn’t have any gray hair when he died in his mid-70s. I’m 56 and the only gray I have is in my beard. My youngest brother (44) also has a gray beard, but no gray on top. ---
**Author:** ![nofloyd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nofloyd/32/2870_2.png) [@nofloyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nofloyd)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/13 "2009-01-27T14:31:43Z")
Dad didn’t seriously start graying until his eighties, and there was still original color for many years. The beard area went first in his seventies. It’s only know that he’s ninety that it looks complete. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/14 "2009-01-27T14:39:58Z")
Nevermind, beaten to punch. ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/15 "2009-01-27T14:43:27Z")
My maternal grandmother had very dark hair, and it was still uniformly dark in her wedding photos, taken around age 40. It was also very long, she’d cut it not long after that and saved the braids, so I was able to see exactly what her hair had been like when I was a child. Somewhere in her mid-50s, I’m told, it went completely white very quickly. Having three kids between 40 and 50 will do that to you, I guess. On the other hand, I’ve been going (very) slowly grey since I was 16. I expect to have some visible streaks by the time I’m 30. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/16 "2009-01-27T14:54:22Z")
Mr. S is 53 and still mostly brown, a few grays here and there. His beard is definitely trending toward white, though. I’m 41 and increasingly gray, I’ll guess about 30%. I quit dyeing my hair a few years ago in hopes of eventually getting the gorgeous silver that my mother and her sisters have (but my aunts dye theirs!). It’s looking like I’ll go gray/white before Mr. S does, despite being 11+ years younger. His oldest brother, who’s 73 or so, has black hair with maybe 50% gray. ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/17 "2009-01-27T14:57:42Z")
Another brown haired 60 year old checking in with a lot of white in the beard but only a couple of strays at the temples … maybe not even temples, probably sideburns would be more correct. Seems more common that I had realized. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/18 "2009-01-27T15:02:11Z")
While these anecdotes are both interesting and entertaining, they do little to definitively answer the OP’s question. But, if you can’t beat 'em, join 'em: 43, no gray. ---
**Author:** ![jimpatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b9e5f3/32.png) [@jimpatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimpatro)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/19 "2009-01-27T15:50:33Z")
My dad is 85 and just has a hint of grey. I started greying at 15. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Shroud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@The\_Shroud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Shroud)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195/20 "2009-01-27T16:52:23Z")
> [@Q.E.D](#): > > While these anecdotes are both interesting and entertaining, they do little to definitively answer the OP’s question. Well, I expected more anecdotes than cites, anyway. But these answers are fascinating. I don’t think I’ve ever come across an octogenarian without gray hair, aside from TV personalities with bad dye jobs (why Bob Hope decided to go red, I’ll never know). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-upper-age-limit-for-going-gray/483195.md?page=2)