While reading this thread I noticed people complaining about grey hairs. Plus of course all those ads on the tee-vee for hair-dyes. I, for one, am hoping to have inherited my mother’s genetics (greying at 30, white by 50). I think white hair is beautiful. Is it just a fear of getting old, or what?
Grey hair is quite attractive and I don’t see the big deal about going grey. Men with salt and pepper/grey hair are sexy as hell, and it looks nice on women as well.
I’ve inherited my mother’s hair (which she inherited from her mother) - so I can invision radiant grey hair in my future.
It would be more accurate to say that I’m afraid of half-grey hair than I am of grey hair. How does anyone handle the conversion process, especially with long hair, when you’re going to wind up with a head full of locks that are grey on top & colored on bottom and racing stripes?
I don’t like my gray hair because it’s way more transparent than the original brown, and it makes my hair look very thin on top (okay, perhaps my hair is also getting more thin on top). And I dealt with the half-gray look by having it “low-lighted”, a process in which the hairstylist puts in streaks of the original color, making it look as if I’m going gray to the degree I think I should be. A lot of the long-haired women I know give up and cut it when it starts to go gray.
I dye mine because I started going gray at 14. I’m 27 now, and a couple months ago I let my roots grow a little further out than normal so I could see better what was going on up there - it’s about 1/4 gray up there, now.
I stick closest to my otherwise natural red colour (though admittedly, sometimes I “enhance” it for a nice fire engine red, for fun 
) but I just don’t feel that gray is the right colour for me right now. Eventually it will be, but I don’t know when - I suppose I’ll know when I get there. My grandmother and my mother do the same - dye until they feel the time is right - my grandmother let hers go white about twenty years ago (she’s 72), and my mother is toying with the idea now. She’s 47 (but good Og, she looks 30). She’s thinking it would help people treat her as the older person she really is instead of like a wee stump.
As my post suggests, early graying, at least on the maternal side, is genetic.
I’m not overly concerned by grey hairs, but my hair hasn’t been its natural colour since I was approximately fourteen, so I can envisage myself dying my hair for years to come yet.
I have facial hair and there is one evil little streak of grey hair I have had since I was much younger. I have used dye on it for years. If all my hair ever goes grey, fine. Until then, I can tell you how to get rid of it, and have many tricks of the trade if anybody is interested.
Yes, some men look great with the “salt and pepper” look. Others look like they should lower their sodium intake. That’s me.
My husband is well on his way to the all white hair his dad sports. Apart from being a topic for teasing (he give me grief for being older than he is) since I’m not greying at all, I don’t see it as a big deal.
Maybe a little deal - one of my sisters, also younger, has accused me of coloring my hair. While I did a few times in the past, I’ve gotten bored with it, so my thinning tresses are their natural color. I’m wondering if said sister is getting grey herself??
Really, the only thing about it that may concern me is the perception that women of a certain age cease to exist - that is, society at large doesn’t want to notice them. Then again, I don’t think that’ll be a problem for me. As I’ve aged, I’ve become more assertive. No, I’m not a bitch, but I won’t go quietly away just because you want me to go. So watch it, you whippersnappers! 
I’m 50, and my dark brown hair is about a quarter to a third gray. It grows in streaks – I like it. Good thing, since I’m just not the type to color my hair (hell, I can’t be bothered to blow dry it).
hee
Agree with FairyChatMom’s remarks on assertiveness as well as what Twickster says about blow-drying.
I suppose the grey thing is very individual. My husband had distinguished grey temples at 25 and has more grey now at 52, but not a full head. There is a big difference between that beautiful white color, and grey.
It just dawned on me that I have inherited my grandmother’s hair. My dad, her son, inherited her coloring/texture as well but died at 50 and never got grey (that I saw).
I used to be a natural towhead, now have dark blonde wavy hair.
I get it partially highlighted, and in recent years (I am 50) some grey hairs have sprouted from the center, but they are not easy to discern because of the few highlights I have. I also have white hairs in one of my eyebrows, have not plucked them. Got a couple ‘down there’ as well.
I am just figuring out that my grandmother must have gotten her hair colored in some way, I suppose it was the 80’s version of highlighting. I always thought it looked so pretty, that swirly/curly mixture of dark blonde and grey.
I do not want my golden years to be too high maintenance, but I loved my grandmother’s 'do. Hmm.
I’ve dyed my hair for years, my sister has not. When I saw her last year and saw how unflattering and old-looking the grey hair made her, I was glad I’d made the decision to color. It just makes her look more tired. Add to that the fact that I’m single now, and I don’t think many men would be attracted to the salt-and-pepper look when they can find a younger-looking woman.
And one day I looked around my church choir and realized that only one woman there didn’t color her hair, and you knew exactly how old she was. The other older women…you couldn’t guess accurately. Two of those women are in their sixties, but their hair matches their vibrant personalities, so it’s always a shock to realize just how old they are. I don’t have an “old” personality, so I don’t want “old” hair.
I was 29 when my first child was born and I had a lot of gray in my hair (I’d started going gray a couple years earlier). About the third time someone asked me if my baby was my grandchild, I decided to start coloring it. Now I’m 39 and have been completely gray for about five years. I color it so that I’ll look more my age, not because I’m afraid of gray hair. (Hell, now it’s starting to turn white in places!) The idea of looking 50ish isn’t so bad–if you really ARE. But I’m not quite ready to look that age before I even turn 40! 
I’m in my middle thirties, and getting a good amount of grey hairs. My only real concern is that when I have to look for a job again it might hurt me a bit, so I’ll start dying it out then.
I started slowly going grey at 17 (my mom says it’s hereditary, but I prefer to blame a nasty unrequited love affair I had that year). 21 years later I’m decidedly S&P and about halfway bald on both vertex and crown. I’m firmly agin’ any cosmetic ameliorations, but I am flirting with the idea of a Princeton cut, to decrease the obvious hill-and-valley look of my head and lessen the contrast between S hairs and P hairs. Then again, I have a 17 neck, and with too short a haircut I look like a lager lout from behind. Decisions decisions… :dubious:
I’m 24 and get two grey hairs: one on the left temple, and one in the right eyebrow. I’ve plucked both of them recently and it will be a few months before I notice them again.
On the one hand, I feel too young to be having grey hairs, so that’s why I pluck them. On the other, well, I’m lucky. My aunt was already very grey at my age.
i’ve had a few gray hairs since i was 14 … so i’m mostly used to them.
it seems lately that the little buggers have started breeding :dubious:
I’ve been going grey forever. I’m not about 50/50. I would prefer at this point to go all white, but in the end, I don’t care too much, I guess.
I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure that a head of shining white hair is only to be had with the aid of the kind of chemicals you are decrying.
And while shining white hair is pretty to a lot of people, there are very few people who look good with steel grey hair. Even worse, steel grey hair mixed in with your natural color.
Not so. My mother and my uncle and I all have hair that skipped the gray stage and went straight to white. I’ve never been concerned about it except when my beard started to turn very unevenly. A couple years later, I wasn’t concerned about it anymore.
I thought my hubby was handsome when he had dark brown hair. Over a period of time, he has gone entirely silver-grey, and it looks wonderful on him. I, on the other hand, checked my scalp this morning and found exactly seven grey hairs. I am five years older than my husband. Go figure.
I would love to have grey or white hair, but it may not happen. My dad kept his natural hair color until he died, and I presume that such things are hereditary.