Age 41 & all my hair regrowth is grey. What can I do to reverse this?

[Janesygal]

I can't afford a root touch up every 6 weeks. It's seriously depressing, all my regrowth is grey, I have dark brown hair... Can this be reversed naturally?

I’m 42 and this is why I’ve now got blonde high lights with dark roots. I use the L’Oréal mascara type wand between appointments just on the roots.

I went grey about that age. I see more and more people doing it than. I used to. I no longer tjimkn"70" when I see it as lots of people go grey in their 40s...

I hadn't realised how many die their hair is a huge marketing spin.

Do men who go naturally grey at 40 look 70? Give women a break fgs. This is a natural transition of hair colour. The societal pressure on woman to look forever young is awful.

Woman who continue to dye their grey hair brown as they age look unnatural against their skin tone. It can look very harsh. Embrace the grey, it’s much gentler.

This. No man is judged like this.

Cheapest way would be to just embrace the grey. The only problem is that greys are such a different texture. I genuinely think natural grey hair which is looked after looks lightyears better than dyed greys.

Couldn't you go a lighter colour so that the regrowth isn't as obvious?

Hopefully OP has looked after her skin so won’t look 70. Does/did your 41-year old skin look 70? Yikes!

I don’t know any 40-somethings with any colour hair who look anything other than 40-something.

Me too. I dye my hair at home every 3 weeks. I just do the roots.

There are lots of factors that will influence whether you choose to embrace the grey. I've been greying since I was 18. My roots are white. I'm brunette. I look so washed out with light hair but some people get great results ( and really reduce the amount of dying they do) by just keeping their hair a lighter colour so the greys don't show. I dye my roots every 2-3 weeks and a full hair dye every few months. My hair is in pretty good condition considering. 'Going grey' looks awesome in some people ( there are brilliant guides on you tube suggesting good ways to go about this. My older sister bit the bullet a year ago and looks fab now). Try some Facetune type things so you can see what you'd look like with the different hair colour options.

I can only imagine the mess I would make in my bathroom with dye.

I've tried salon dying but it goes orange (it's long & mainly the ends went orange) very quickly and despite trying different blends/types of dye, (my hairdresser tried everything) it just didn't stay brown! So all to no avail. I decided just to live with it. But it's mainly around my face & makes me feel
old.

I have a new hairdresser now (my old one changed career) so i might give it another go.

I was dying my hair for years as prematurely grey. Started getting it gradually lightened mid fourties’. But the upkeep was awful. My hair grows really fast and was constantly using sprays to cover bright grey roots. 3 years ago I went blonde, one off session at hairdresser. This was much kinder for regrowth. But I soon thought, actually the grey isn’t that bad…and I never got it dyed again!
I do have very good hair, it’s shiny, not coarse. It’s a sort of ashy blonde. If I use a good purple shampoo it makes it a sort of metallic grey/white.
when you go grey you will just have different options, that can work with the natural colour. You can go ashy, blonde highlights, grey blending, pink toner…it isn’t a case of brown dye or just plain grey.
do it, honestly, it’s the best thing I did for myself in ages. I’m still in my fourties’ (just!) and often get asked how do I get my hair that colour.

I have been debating this question of whether to continue dying or not…I only have a few greys coming in around the temples. It’s not really worth dying just for those, plus I don’t like the chemicals. I tried henna + indigo but it’s a massive faff. I’m considering just letting my hair go grey naturally but my hair is nearly black so it really stands out. Maybe I’ll start thinking of them as silver instead of grey, they are actually a very pretty colour but with just a few it doesn’t look right.

No, it's grey because the hair shaft has aged. The colour is gone for good.
I'm 42 and about 35 per cent grey now. I've gone for ashy blonde highlights - can go much longer between hairdresser visits now

I’ve embraced the grey but am booked in to have some colours put in in a few weeks.
I do think it makes me look my age, not necessarily older. I just look drab tbh so to a certain extent you have to ramp up the make up, sounds a cliche but a bright vibrant lipstick does wonders as does some cream blusher, think more carefully about the clothes you wear etc. I had mine cut into a sharp bob and loads of people said it looked great, in the mirror close up I liked it, but catching my reflection inadvertently was a shock and not a nice one.
You might find your grey isn’t as extensive as you thought once it’s grown out. It does look more obvious against coloured hair but once it’s grown out it’s not that grey. Highlights might be the way to blend it in ?

Box dye, 25 mins just on roots, 5 mins on all of it.

I grew out my hair years ago and I liked it but some of my friends and my DH said it washed me out so I went back to the dye. I regret it now. Wish I had ignored them. I don’t think I can be bothered growing it out again.

This is what I do - root touch up every 3 weeks as my temples/hair line began to grey/ go white in my forties. Over the last year have been experimenting with slightly warmer/lighter browns to ease myself into a time when it all needs colouring (my natural shade is very dark brown, I hate when women in their 60/70s have dyed jet black/chocolate hair as it looks so jarring and false and actually makes them look older). Am 55 and it’s still just my temples really - though once a year I’ll do a full head job to catch the handful of thick, wirey white strands cluster around my nape.

If there was a ‘natural’ way to reverse hair turning grey, nobody would have grey hair.

For grey hair inspiration have a look at pintrest. And Sarah Harris, one of the vogue editors went grey quite young and her hair is beautiful! Although she can probably afford the best treatments.

Fellow brunette here and I have started to embrace my grey hair now at 45. I don't have a full head of grey yet, just strands mainly at the front. There are so many women who looks fantastic in grey and seeing them made me feel brave enough to just ditch the hair dye. Queen Letizia is a great example, also Andie MacDowell and Jenna Lyons.

Thing is, people only 'look 70' with grey hair because we are all so used to most women dyeing their hair till they are old ( or sick of the bother) to do it.
It's overwhelmingly women who dye their hair. Nobody accuses grey haired men of 40 of letting themselves go/looking 70 etc

I wish you could reverse the grey! Grey hair looks really nice on some people, but on me I just look ancient! My grey is a dull steel colour which does nothing for my face. Luckily in the summer, my hair naturally turns much lighter (from a mid brown) on the top and around my face (leaving a fair few greys at the back but hey, I can't see them)!
This leaves me thinking lighter highlights would be the way to go if you want to "maintain" it. I just use Color WoW Root Cover powder - in dark blonde, mostly around temples area. It's really good and the colour matches my hair colour (on the lightened areas).
My hair is also curly, so those lovely grey, sleek pixie cuts are not an option, otherwise I think they can look very nice.

Embrace the grey! Natural grey hair looks so much better than dyed hair with roots showing. My greys are pretty evenly distributed (in dark brown hair) so the overall effect is just of a lighter shade. I have a grey streak at each temple which I like. It's bonkers that women feel they have to spend so much time and money on pretending they are not the age they are.

Exactly. Let’s try and turn the tide on women having to look forever young.