I started going grey at 19. Now, at 45, my once dark (almost black) brown hair is almost totally silver. I dyed it for a few years but I got really tired of having a skunk stripe down the middle of my head every three weeks. The hairdresser and I lightened it and streaked the hell out of it so the grey wouldn’t look so obvious growing back in.
Now, a year later, I am back to my silver hair. Amazingly my SO likes it much better this way and I get alot of compliments from strangers (both male and female). I do try to keep a “young” hairstyle to contrast with the grey hair. I like the juxtaposition.
Mine hasn’t been it’s natural color in about 23 years. It’s just a lighter brown than natural right now, but it’s been ruby-red, auburn, mahogany, red and blond streaked, black, and purple.
Nowadays I’m mostly just trying to cover and mask the grey.
A woman stopped me in the park the other day asked me where I get my hair done,* and I just gave her a blank stare and said, “I don’t.”
I have a lot of hair, and I’m too lazy to do more than wash and condition it every few days. Sometimes I braid it. Had my husband cut about 6 inches off of it this summer because it was driving me bonkers; I was thinking about going to a salon, but I realized I had no idea what I would ask for. I feel kinda bad that someone with more hair acumen, as it were, didn’t get my hair, because I have really nice hair. Thick, shiny, grows fast. Both of my sisters have thin hair, like my mom, and if I could give them some of mine, I would.
*She was selling something; I didn’t stick around to find out what. She couldn’t even see my hair, since it was in a bun.
I was born platinum blonde but like the others in my family who had that color, it faded. By the end of college it had turned into an ugly muddle of pretty much every color of hair, including platinum, black, red, and brown. The closest comparison was a brownish-auburn, so I said screw it, I deserve red hair. And so I have it. It’s a lovely-looking auburn red, not carroty or brassy, and works very well with my pale skin. Few people who met me since going red didn’t think it was natural (and fewer believe I was ever platinum blonde).
My sister had the same thing happen, but she went back to blonde. Too much maintenance for me; if my roots start showing, you can barely tell, and only if you know what to look for.
For many years, my hair was very long, and I didn’t do much to it besides wash and dry.
My skin colour is very light though, so as I got older, I found that gray hair just didn’t suit me. As soon as I see a bit peeking through, I colour it. I don’t do that for anyone in my family, just for me. It makes me feel better to see my hair looking good.
I also use a blow-dryer and occasionally a ceramic hair straightener.
I have dyed my hair in the past. I liked the color I chose, but didn’t want to put up with the rigamarole of touch-ups and highlights and all that. So I’m just letting it grow back out.
Generally, it’s shampoo. conditioner, towel-dry, and go. If I have something “special” going on, I’ll put in a light serum and blowdry to get it straight. I used to hate my almost wavy but not quite hair, but now that I’ve got a good cut, it works to my advantage. I have body and movement without a lot of fuss.
All I do to my hair is brush it daily, wash it 1-2 times a week, and get it cut every 2-3 years (yes, I wear it long). I have never died my hair although now that I’m in my 40’s many people refuse to believe that as I have no gray at all. I seem to take after my father, who didn’t even start to go gray until his 60’s.
Nope, nothing. I brush it every day that I remember to, wash it once a week, and wear it in a pony to keep it out of my face. I only blow-dry it when it’s cold out because I get bored standing in one place with a hairdyer. The one thing I care about is length; I like long hair, and have been trying to grow it since first grade.
And the funny thing is, people keep coming up to me and asking what I do with my hair to get it so nice. They sound suprised when I say, “Nothing.”
I wash every two or three days, maybe four or five in winter. Otherwise, I brush it, and maybe pull it back. Oddly, I don’t even own a hair dryer. I’ve been growing it but it isn’t anything like to the point where I can just get a yearly trim but I’m not getting it trimmed more than every three months or so, except for my bangs which have to get whacked every month or so. I have thought about growing those out but have had them for my entire life and wouldn’t look like me without them!
I’ve dyed it for the heck of it but never regularly. It’s been over a year since I did. I’ve found two grey hairs in the past couple of months, but that’s all right. If I did dye it again it’d be because I felt like it, not because of that. Someday I want to be one of those hippie-ish ladies with really really long grey hair. It’ll be awhile, though.
Hairdressers go nuts over my hair. It seems that the less attention I pay to it beyond clean and brushed, the better it is.
Fuchsia highlights on dark hair (not bleached)-- the result is actually more subdued than it sounds and looks just right. The brightness of the dye is muted by the darkness of the hair it’s added to, resulting in a medium shade of wine. A nice deep burgundy dye on my dark hair is hardly visible, but fuchsia turns out just right. So I went with “color not found in nature” although I don’t sport the screaming punk rocker color that this phrase suggests.
I have very Irish coloring, so I’m sure God really meant for me to be a redhead, but there was a screw-up in Manufacturing.
I was very, very blond when I was very young, but it gradually darkened to a shade of brown I didn’t like as I got older. Then, horrifyingly, it started graying. I found my first gray hair at 23!:eek: Now, if my hair had the dignity to go silver, or something ‘nice’, I’d probably let it be. I’m all about the low-maintenance. But no, it’s gotta be Battleship Gray. Ugh. So, at 24, I dyed it auburn/copper, and never looked back (well, except for one brief time when I went ash blond, but then I discovered that blond, while it suited me, would require touching up the roots about every two weeks. . .)
Sometimes (rarely) I have it colored professionally. Usually I do it myself, at home. Other than the hair dye, though, it’s rare I do anything to my hair. I have it in layers, which has a ‘volumizing’ effect (it’s thinned as I’ve aged; oh that my waist would follow suit. . .). At it’s longest point, it’s a little below my shoulders. I keep bangs to cover up the “ladder lines” in my forehead. I trim the bangs myself, and get the rest trimmed professionally about every six weeks (probably not as often as I should). I wash it approx. twice a week, with a volumizing shampoo and conditioner. The only time I blow-dry it is when I end up washing it in the morning before taking my daughter to the bus stop and it’s freezing out.
No mousse, no gel. Can’t remember the last time I put anything besides leave-in conditioner into it.
Other: put product–gel or something in my hair, scrunch it and let it air dry.
For the record, I have brown hair with some wave–I can influence the amount of curl significantly by adding product, scrunching and generally paying attention.
Other days it is practically straight and limp, because I brush it at the wrong point of the drying process.
I dye my hair frequently. Usually unnatural colours, or if I’m looking for work (which I am right now) I’ll dye it a work-acceptable colour that still has a bit of fun. Currently it’s sort of a mahogany colour with dark/bright red (but not fire-engine) highlights. Work-acceptable but still has a little splash of colour. I’ve been messing around with my hair colour since I was first allowed to dye it at 16. It’s sort of like I just get sick of looking at the same thing on my head all the time.
Other than dyeing I don’t do much to it, so it remains pretty healthy despite the colouring. It’s naturally curly and I like it that way. Wash, condition, whatever product I’m currently testing to keep the frizz away, then air-dry.
The only things beside covering the grey that I do are condition a couple of times a week (rinse out), use leave-conditioner daily and go. I get a trim every few months, but use no gels, mousse, product or hairspray. I don’t even own a blow dryer, flat iron or curling iron. Just wash and wear hair for the most part.
I had natural light red-brown hair when I was young, but began to grey when I was about twenty. Believe me, redheads don’t grey gracefully. Now, in my mid-forties, there are huge white streaks and the remainder is about the color of an apricot poodle if I would let it go. I don’t. I do stay pretty close to the natural coloring though, and go with strawberry blonde.
Other than that, it’s very naturally curly, so there’s not much that I have to do to it style-wise, except get a good cut.
My hair is pretty awesome right now. When I was growing up it was nothing but a white girl’s afro. Now I have a great cut and a great product (leave-in conditioner) and all I have to do is wash it and leave it be. It’s all curly and cute. If I sleep on it, all I need to do is spritz it with water to re-activate the conditioner.
I put “other” as my answer because I don’t dye it to cover grey, I highlight it to “perk up my face”.
Ok, and to cover grey now. Just a few little whisps…but not full-blown color all over like my mom.
I’m young, so I don’t dye it - I used to highlight in high school, which, combined with heating tools (blow drying and straightening DAILY) and swimming (also daily!) didn’t totally kill it. Still, it’s not good.
I straighten a couple a times per week and put some spray gel in and “scrunch” it a few times as well. I may pick myself apart for other perceived physical faults, but I have really beautiful hair - every single stylist has always told me so - and I’m very grateful for it.
For those who say they only wash their hair once a week, how does that work? I’ve never understood that. Especially if you have long hair. Do you have to put your hair under a shower cap? Doesn’t it get, you know, dirty?
Suicide redhead, here and I’m really sick of dying it. I’m probably only about 10-15% gray and I’d let it grow out if I could figure out a graceful way to do it, but I hate that root line, so red it stays.
I’m going to wind up looking like Ida Morgenstern, aren’t I?
I do stay pretty close to the natural coloring though, and go with strawberry blonde.