When is it time to just embrace the grey?

[MeinKraft]

I know the proper sensible answer is ‘whenever you want to’ but I don’t know if i want to. I think grey hair looks really cool on other people but on me it just makes me look even more frumpy. I’m quite fed up that i’m not even 40 yet (but on the cusp of it) and i suddenly have a head full of greys and arthritis and haphazard periods 😅 I thought this was all about 15 years away!

Anyway. Should i grow out my greys? Keep dying them and risk looking daft? What did you do with yours? I’m not talking about few nice silver streaks, i’m talking a full head of grey and the non grey bits are mouse brown 🤔

And what's wrong with that?

Never. I'm coming up to 60 and will continue to be flame red until my last breath.

Whenever you feel like it! which might be never...my neighbours is 93 and still enjoys colouring her hair.

The people who’ve commented on mine have often said they’ve thought I’ve dyed it this colour.

It depends on your hair colour and texture how it looks but it's up to you ultimately if you can be bothered to keep up with it

As a seriously dark brunette I used to look so washed out in the winter without makeup so always wore it. Finally the grey grew out over lockdown. I now have long grey/white hair with dark streaks. I do use purple shampoo. Have a good cut with long layers and bangs every eight weeks. Get lots of compliments. It's thickened up again since I stopped the chemicals and let it air dry most of the time.

The make up has had to change though. I've had fun learning what colours work best.

I have dark brown hair (naturally, then dye to cover the grey) and started getting greys in my 20s. It was getting to the point where I'd notice my grey roots about 10 days after dyeing.

I'm now 7 months into growing my greys out. It's an individual choice for everyone. What I would say for anyone considering growing their greys out from brown is that, the longer you leave it, the more greys you'll have and the more obvious your demarcation line will be. I wish I'd started sooner but I'm loving the freedom and am also enjoying seeing how it develops.

Not everyone suits the gradual blonding, I’d look better with grey hair than blonde 🤢 Winter colouring, blonde can make some of us look ill!

I started going grey at 21 due to stress. It was the odd one along my parting back then, but now at 30, they’re coming in thick and fast. My hair is very dark blonde/lightest brown with a lot of red and ginger tones, so luckily it does kind of blend in. My greys are also more of a white than grey, unlike my Mum who has naturally black hair so hers are more of a charcoal grey. I think everyone should do what is best for them as everyone has a different relationship with the concept of greys, aging, etc. for me, I think there’s power and confidence in embracing them as they’re nothing to be ashamed of, and for some people, I think they actually look better once they grow out the grey! Grey hairs have this amazing sparkly quality to them that plays with the light so nicely.

I stopped colouring mine when I was about 42 having dyed it since I was 16. Naturally it was a dull mousy brown with a slightly warm red undertone ('rat' according to lovely dbro).

Am 50 now and still only about 50% grey. I stopped doing it as I couldn't afford to have it properly done regularly enough as my hair is really fast growing. Box dyes looked patchy.

Colour stripped it, grew it all out - took about a year I think during which time I looked fucking ridiculous.

It does wash me out. It does age me - I don't really have any wrinkles (thanks flab/genetics) but my hair makes up for it. I go through stages of wanting to get it coloured again but I cannot face the pain of growing it out.

But these days it's grown into some lovely natural highlights. I have a mallen streak on one side which looks pretty funky. It's in good condition and i use purple shampoo/conditioner now and when styled is lovely and shiny. With a bit of make up I look quite nice.

I'm growing mine out. (Late 30s) I have naturally dark hair, so I couldn't pull off being a blonde. I'm sick of colouring it, to then see greys within weeks.
I've had it cut as short as I'm comfortable with. It's in a bob at my chin, then I'm using purple shampoo and conditioner to keep it looking nice. I wish I'd done it years ago, to be honest, but always worried at what others would think (as proved by some comments on this thread)

Go for it! I did at 47 - it’s a relief and you can get in with being you making the best of what you actually look rather than wasting so much time and money trying to change! Xxx

I also toyed with blond but it looked terrible on me. I would much rather stick with the brunette/silver mix. I personally quite like grey hair, I think it looks good on men, so it makes sense it can also look good on women.

at the moment I feel like a bit of a frump with it but that’s more to do with the fact I’ve put on a bit of weight and don’t fit my nice clothes. I’m in the process of losing that and will feel a lot more put together then. I think if the overall package is good, it helps pull off the greys.

For me personally, never!
I plan to be chocolate brown forever and yes, I'm aware that once I'm very old I will be fooling nobody!

I have my roots done every 7-8 weeks and in between use a combination of root touch up spray and glaze conditioner (that has a temp colour in)
It makes me feel like me having my natural colour still and this is why I do it.
I'm generally finding the ageing process difficult, so feeling content & confident about my hair is a big win for me!

No, she looked in her 70s and much nicer than with her natural grey hair . Are we not allowed to look better in later years ?

I have the ash highlights (T shaped ) so I m not blond it just looks a sort of a cool colour with slight dark bits - not blonde . (When I say cool , I mean on the cool colour spectrum , not down with the kids 😂- from which phrase you can probably make a decent stab at my age )

But good luck to all - keeping my dark colour made me look washed out - this is better on me. BUT everyone should make their own choice as to what they like and what makes them feel better - this was mine. I also had a few inches cut off so I am just above shoulder length whereas it was bra length before and I thought that dragged my face down a bit , but I know women with longer hair than me who look fabulous.

I am 43 and I've always looked younger than I am but the last year or so my face has definitely started to age. I still only have the odd grey hair but if I do start to go properly grey soon I will 100% be dying it for the foreseeable future. Psychologically I'm just not ready for it all to happen at the same time. This is coming from someone who has never dyed my hair before...or particularly bothered about it in general (no expensive haircuts etc).

I honestly don't judge what others do though. Although most people I know my age who are going grey do dye their hair.

I only like grey if it's pure grey/white and a statement - otherwise it's aging. I'll be blonde to the end but will graduate to ash blonde

Have a look at the Bleach Fade to Grey I mentioned up thread. That saved my life when going grey, as I'm also very dark haired, by blending out the demarcation a good bit. It's a semi permanent/toner. It darkened the grey a bit and took all the warmth out of the original colour so it blended better and if you leave it on too long you get a purple tinge. I also had the big chop so my pain didn't last too long.

Better vain than bitchy though, don’t you think?

I’m mid 50’s and have shiny brown hair, I use the minimum amount of colour on my hair. I dab a bit of colour on my temples every 10 days or so and colour my roots around every 4 weeks.
I can’t see why I won’t continue to have brown hair, I have chosen quite a soft colour that suits me and is a little bit lighter than my natural colour.
Blonde doesn’t suit me but my friend who used to have dark hair and has gone blonde and it looks like her grey hairs are the highlights and she looks amazing. It actually suits her more than her dark hair did.

Yeah, I think you have to naturally be at least on the lighter side of brown for it to work.

I always think it’s true that brunettes look better in the morning, but I guess blondes can hold onto their hair colour more easily in mid life..

Having Started to grey in my teens and being completely white by the time I was in my 30’s, at 37 I’d had enough and ditched the dye. I found the dyeing process only for the white to be coming through again in less than a week thoroughly depressing. I hated how my hair looked in the mirror with constant roots. I think that looked more aging than my current undyed hair. At 42 maybe I do look older than my age but I’ll take that over looking like I couldn’t be arsed with dyeing it when it was a constant miserable cycle.

It is very easy for those who have the odd few greys to say they’d never give up the dye but sometimes you really are fighting a losing battle.

Yes I agree with this. I seem to have gone grey a lot younger than most of my friends and combined with being dark haired, it just seemed there was no good answer except just going with it.

Interesting thread - I'm fair but got darker as I aged but have been going grey for 30 years - no idea really how much grey there is as have had full blonde head colour for so long now! My mum was a very soft white in old age.

Am thinking I might switch to some blonde highlights and try and grow the white/grey through a bit so I can see what colour it is. I panicked during lockdown when I couldn't go to the hairdresser's for months but in reality it never looked obviously grey and I am not really sure why I went back to full head colour - partly I think loyalty to my hairdresser of 35 years!