Greying hair - pros & cons of colouring?

[1000piecejigsaw]

I'm 53 and my dark brown hair is just starting to go grey at the temples. My hairdresser says that in these early stages she can match my colour and paint dye just on the grey hairs, but as it spreads I'd eventually need to decide whether to grow that out and embrace the grey or dye the whole head of hair. I've never dyed my hair before, so need to decide whether the ongoing maintenance is worth the hassle. If you've gone down the strategic hair-painting route at a similar age, how much time did it buy you before you had to go for a whole-head decision and, whatever you decided, what have been the pros and cons?

I'm a couple of years younger than you but already at the whole head stage - I was where you were about 15 years ago.

The problem with any method of dying is regrowth; once you start dying you are in a cycle of constantly fighting the regrowth. I would defer getting into this as long as you can, but obviously it depends whether you're happy with a small amount of grey showing.

I tried growing it out, but just felt that I looked washed out. And I didn’t want to go blonde. Nowadays I have quite a lot of grey and have found a box dye I like that matches my colour. I dye it all over every other time, otherwise I do the edges. I probably do it every ten weeks, but I should probably do it more frequently.

I am in my sixties and dearly wish that I had never coloured my hair. It was such a pain when I finally took the plunge to go 'grey'. In fact, my hair isn't completely white, it's a cool dark colour shot through with white hairs and I love it.

Once you dye it, you are on a treadmill that is very difficult to get off and as you lose more hair pigment your roots show much more quickly. By all means try the targetted painting but think carefully about whether you want the amount of maintenance you'd need to do when you start having to worry about most of your hair - especially if you have never dyed your hair.

If you have warm brown hair, you might also consider rinses/semi permanents that cool it down a bit so it blends better with the white.

I should also say that my hair is very thick and grows quickly so keeping the colour maintained was a pain.

I stopped dyeing my hair at 52...now a full head of grey with subtle blonde (natural) still in... Took 20 months to grow it all out..

Colorherbe semi permanent every 6 weeks. No nasty chemicals - takes 20 mins - the most realistic colours I’ve found.

Depending on how much you mind roots showing you might need to dye every 4-6 weeks. At home it's difficult, messy, and the results might be underwhelming. At a salon mine cost around £80 a time at a local place. More for added highlights. And then when you want to stop dying it and go grey it will take 'a year to the ear' to grow out the roots. Saying all that, I did like having mine done regularly and it definitely made me look both better and younger. Up to a point.

I use Nice n Easy. Have been since age 30. Now 61.

I find it very easy to do and have an old towel and shirt for using each time.

Not at all messy. Surprised anybody finds it hard to do.

I have a plastic jug and rinse it out over the bath tub with the taps running. By setting your mobile alarm I never keep it on too long.

Simple.

I'm 54 and blend my greys with highlights which softens the look and I use a coloured shampoo which is lots more gentle than an all over colour. The Plantur 39 anti grey is the best I've found. I found it horrendous using an all over colour as the roots came back in 3 weeks and without sounding rude, you can tell an older woman with dyed hair a mile off.... menopause mahogany anyone

I think it all depends on how much maintenance you are prepared to tie yourself into. If you are the kind of person who regularly gets your hair and nails done it might not be too much of a problem but personally i couldn’t be arsed, even though i tend to put a lot of effort into my appearance in general

I’d recommend not going down the dye route. I’m 48, and stopped dying my hair about 6 months ago. I dyed my hair for maybe 20 years - first to have highlights. So I was battling brown roots showing through and then when I started to go a bit grey, was battling grey roots! I think when you dye your hair, especially if you dye it a dark colour, the greys are much more noticeable when they come through and you are constantly battling them. It becomes time consuming and expensive. I haven’t got much dyed hair left and my hair is ok…it’s probably also in better condition now and I’m not spending a fortune covering myself with chemicals every few weeks. It’s about 70% brown still but quite grey at the temples. I saw a lady with beautiful brown and grey hair in the supermarket today and I wish I had told her how nice it looked!

I would have been delighted if I had got to my fifties. I started dying my hair at 35 as I had a lot of grey, my poor sis was 19! I used a box dye for a couple of years but then it just didn’t last. Spent from 38 to 50 going to a hair salon every 6 weeks. They did a really great job better than a box dye but it was very expensive. Then during menopause I became allergic to hair dye so had to stop. It took about 18 months to grow out.

I am now salt and pepper, the salt is silver, it’s far healthier now I don’t dye it.

Highlights twice a year is your best friend.

A 53 year old friend of mine has hers with no fringe, just bob style neck length and uses black henna....I have never seen grey or white in hers. Haven't tried it but might when decide that highlights have been overused. Also another lady , 60 has hers completely short, like Annie Lennox. Grey, going white. With a red lipstick. She is so beautiful and fine in the face that nobody cares about her hair

I'm 50 and starting to get lots of greys now. I've never dyed it before and I figure that if I got to 50 without bothering, I really CBA to start now. My hair is very dark and I really don't want to go (artificially) lighter, which tends to be the hairdresser route and I'm far too lazy to do it myself at home.

Can you use a sachet of colour that washes out in 5 or 6 washes? I do it for a colour boost if I want to go redder or darker and they do wash out (plus about £3 and you can get 3 washes from 1 sachet).

You're probably more conscious of the greys, than it is noticeable to others. Absolutely nothing wrong with going grey gracefully.

I grew mine out to silver a few years ago (60 now) after having blonde highlights and brown lowlights for several years.

'Menopause mahogany' made me laugh out loud. I'll offer up 'badger stripe'.

Do you highlight it yourself?
I started going grey in my mid twenties. I used henna for a while then had to start colouring it as the grey got worse. Years of roots, box dyes etc. My hair grows quickly so roots would show on three weeks. I started getting it done in the hairdresser and highlighted and that was more years of expense. In lockdown I just looked at the inch wide roots and thought ‘enough’. I cut it all off leaving short hair in a crop. Amazingly it actually looked quite nice . It had completely grown out very quickly saving me the hassle of months of embarrassment. Because it was lockdown I didn’t need to go out apart from for walks. I like it now but it does make me look older. I’m thinking of having highlights put in but my hairdresser isn’t on board. I’m also sick of it being short but what else do you do with grey hair? It’s not thick and is quite frizzy if I let it grow.

I'm 50 and I started dyeing my hair 10 years ago. I don't want to let it grow out it because when I do (eg during covid) I get semi circles of white around my temples and the rest is still dark, which looks odd. I don't mind a bit of grey showing though, so I only get mine dyed once every 3-4 months which isn't too bad.

I started getting greys at 24!!! I'm now mid 40's and use casting colours, which is a semi permanent box dye I do at home. Unlike a permanent colour, it doesn't leave a harsh line when growing out. A semi also means that if you don't like the colour- it will eventually wash out. I get several shades lighter than my hair, because they come out dark.

Grey can suit some people, but others looked washed out and far older than their age. Several ladies I know went blonde overnight and get highlights- in an attempt to hide and blend the grey. The contrast between darker hair and grey is less, but they aren't hiding the grey regrowth at all and it just screams 'woman of a certain age' to me.

I started to dye at 39, I'm 56 now. I have continued for two reasons 1) my face hasn't caught up yet and I look 10-12 years less than my age 2) my mum is 78 and her hair isn't grey yet so I don't feel mine can be My plan is to semi retire and relocate the summer after my 60th and then I'm going to cut my hair into a shorter bob and let it go grey.

I think a lot depends on what type of grey it will be.
I had light blonde hair as a child which darkened in my teens. I had a lifetime of blonde highlights but around my late 50s I realised I didn't need them any more as the grey was lightening my hair. I am now in my 60s with probably 60% grey but it's silver / white and at a glance just looks blonde. It looks better now than most of my life.
However I have tried a few times to colour it darker and it really didn't work very well.

If you are blonde the grey will be barely noticeable. Dark brown hair is trickier. I reckon do it the edges for a few years as very easy and worry about it another time

Semi permanent every 6 weeks, as light as I can get away with and colour conditioner every other wash.

I've recently started dyeing my hair. Mid 50s, had about ten percent grey in very dark (almost black) hair. It didn't really bother me too much tbh but I decided to I'd give it a go and I love it.

I've had it done a few times now and I can't imagine stopping. I have it done with my regular cut, the regime seems to be an all over colour once followed by roots twice and then all over colour the next time.

I don't mind the time it takes, it feels like a nice afternoon, I usuallt have a 'natural' pedicure while the dye is on.

It looks great, matched to my natural colour. My hair has always been in fabulous condition and still is with the colour.

I couldn't be bothered to do it myself.