Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Women who let their hair go grey

836 replies

CJ2010 · 13/09/2012 10:36

I don't understand why women, except the very old, say age 70 plus do not cover their grey hair?

I know a couple of women who have just turned 40 who are letting their grey come through and are just leaving it. It makes them
look so much older and washed out. I don't understand it really. I appreciate that some women are into the 'natural' look and are not fussed with make up and hair dye but I think by not having colour on your hair you age yourself dramatically.

Grey hair looks so wrong on younger women. AIBU?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
user94567433 · 15/05/2017 12:14

The expression they give you when they give you a wedgie is incredibly ageing

Yeah, the constipated look is very wrinkle-inducing ExConstance - you wouldn't want that Grin.

chantilly70 · 15/05/2017 12:15

I'm mid forties and have some grey hair at the sides but the majority of my hair is still natural blonde. I have not started dying it yet as I do not want to lose the nice natural colour that is left.

I also worry about the chemicals in hair dye and possible health effects. I also think grey roots on dyed hair look far worse than a whole head of naturally grey hair.

When I did start muttering about dying my hair once my parents and DH complained and said it looked very nice as it was ie. mainly blonde with a few grey bits.

AnArrowToTheKnee · 15/05/2017 12:17

I'm not even 30 yet and starting to go grey, should I spend the next 30-40 years and god knows how many hours and how much money on dying my hair? Fuck that, I have far better things to do with my time and my money.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 15/05/2017 12:18

Mines going grey at 35 and tbh I don't care. I also don't care what superficial bitches like CJ2010 care about it either.

WhatTimeIsItCuckoo · 15/05/2017 12:19

I know a lady, I'd put her in her sixties, who had admired my cropped hair and went to have hers cut like it. Whilst there the hairdresser asked her why she dyed her hair (highlighted blonde from grey) and encouraged her to embrace her natural grey and enhance it with a lilac colored mousse. When I next saw this lady from a distance I didn't recognise her at first but thought how much I loved her hair. As she approached me I realised who she was and she looked absolutely stunning and decades younger too. The grey looked so beautiful and stylish on her, I hope I can embrace the look half as well when it happens to me!

DarylDixonsJockstrap · 15/05/2017 12:22

Im 34 and have been going grey since my mid 20s. It's probably about 25% grey now, the most being at the hairline either side of my forehead (iyswim?!) So when its up I've got white cruela de Ville stripes! Grin i bloody love it and won't be dying it. Too much money and faff! I don't look or feel old in any way.

BiddyPop · 15/05/2017 12:26

I have had grey hairs since I was in my late teens - it's a thing in my Dad's family.

I have lovely thick dark hair. I am very happy to let the grey show most of the time - at one stage when I had an older lady to manage who really didn't want a "young girl" managing her (and felt, totally wrongly!, that she'd been passed over for a much-deserved promotion! (as she had seniority but was actually really not that good at her job)), it was really useful to show the grey as a sign of not being about 20 at the time (I was quite a few years more, but she used to treat me like I was a teenager).

I have got temporary colour put in for a few family weddings in recent years - as eldest, I had a long gap between my wedding and some siblings weddings and had a few periods of serious stress adding to the grey before then.

I also have a habit of getting "candy cane stripes" of red highlights put in for Christmas (I am a Christmas lover, and also as a respectable senior civil servant, it's a time when such frivolities can be allowed Xmas Grin!!). But they fade out quickly enough most years (this year, we went for bleaching out the stripes first for getting good impact on the red - so the dirty blonde parts had to get a temporary brown over them for a while but even those have now grown out again).

It's only hair.

I am still young at heart, and have often had people asking me if my parents were at home if I answer the door not in work clothes (I am living away from them longer than I lived at home at this stage!). I keep my skin well, I have a good cut to suit me, I do wear makeup....but I like the look of the grey and I don't necessarily think it is ageing, actually. Instead, I like having the confidence that I can wear my hair as I want to. And not have to conform to society's expectations of me as a woman - I am a person in my own right and can make my own decisions about things like hair colour, body hair removal, levels of makeup, etc - to suit me and my personality.

I am NOT Spartacus!

CoolioAndTheGang · 15/05/2017 12:28

ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2012
ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2012
ZOMBIE THREAD FROM 2012

user94567433 · 15/05/2017 12:29

Pages of interesting discussion since it was revived though!

WaitingYetAgain · 15/05/2017 12:31

Anyone worried about hair dye chemicals, especially PPD , then www.danielfieldmailorder.co.uk
is quite good, but you cannot use it to lighten. It grows out very naturally unlike Nice and Easy (in my opinion).

WhatTimeIsItCuckoo · 15/05/2017 12:47

Yes hadn't realised it was a zombie thread either! I do think it shows how much more accepted grey hair is at present though, it can look great and doesn't have to be associated with being 'old' at all. My husband went grey in his thirties (he's now fifties) and it's always suited him and I saw a photo of a lady recently who'd had hers dyed from very dark, which is my colour, to a lovely lilacy grey (not the lady I mentioned before). It looked great and has actually tempted me a bit....

DarylDixonsJockstrap · 15/05/2017 12:48

Oops!

user94567433 · 15/05/2017 12:57

Be careful if you have a severe dye allergy with Daniel Field. They use:-

p-toluene diamine sulphate
Lowest cancer risk
Moderate allergy risk for people previously sensitised to PPD

It's enough to put you in hospital or worse if you have this allergy.

www.danielfieldmailorder.co.uk/support/?q=1014

ExConstance · 15/05/2017 16:44

Whilst I can't understand this "grey is great" line and the desire for posters to go on about how slobby and unkempt they enjoy being of course it is their right if they really want to look like that. I just couldn't face the world looking like that. I've never used the rather twee and MN expression "Judgeypants" so my bottom is quite comfortable thank you.

delshwragon · 15/05/2017 17:31

I'm going grey. Aged 46. I dye mine purple.

Jane17 · 15/05/2017 17:34

Hmmm why have I stopped dyeing my hair? Probably because I no longer wanted the hassle, no longer wanted to waste the time, accepted that grey hair is what I'm meant to have at 50?! Maybe because I no longer wanted to have hair that did not match my skin tone? Maybe because I am not ashamed to be 50? Maybe because I know that I can still be totally myself EVEN with grey hair? Maybe because I was inspired by women like Yasmina Rossi? Take your pick. Grey hair is still grey whether you dye it or not. It's just that mine is now soft, shiny and healthy. I am not interested in 'anti ageing' it's a myth. With dyed hair I would not look younger but just a 50yr old woman.....with dyed hair.

ddh · 15/05/2017 17:35

I do apologise for being mid 40's and grey hair appearing
I am allergic to hair dye

Maireadplastic · 15/05/2017 17:35

I think dyed hair usually looks awful! Unless you have a lot of time and money, it generally looks brittle and...well...dyed.

I have long, wavy, thick hair that has gone from having dramatic silver streaks in the front to gradually getting greyer. Friends say 'but it's okay for you, you have great hair'. Maybe that's because I don't dye it.....

Turquoise123 · 15/05/2017 17:36

slightly confused as to why this is any one's business other than owner of hair who can do what they want ? It's not something to "get" or indeed "not get"

MCMLXVII · 15/05/2017 17:36

What's wrong with 'ageing'? Stupid insistence on looking 25 forever.

Blakes8th · 15/05/2017 17:37

Hair colour is a simple anti ageing tool.
No it isn't, you won't live any longer, .... but you will end up with less healthy hair and possible dermatological issues with your scalp.
To be honest I am 55 with waist length dark brown hair that sports some fabulous full length pure white streaks and I love it.

MyheartbelongstoG · 15/05/2017 17:39

I'm sorry, I can't believe that the majority of women would not dye their hair.

Nousernamefound · 15/05/2017 17:40

I started going grey at about 18 and dyed my hair for years. It costs a small fortune to get it done properly so it looks natural and you don't look like a Lego person. My hair grows incredibly quickly so the roots would show through within a couple of weeks and I just couldn't be arsed. You don't have to look washed out and old. I still wear nice on trend clothes, have a good haircut and wear makeup. I definitely don't thing I've aged because of my hair colour. I doubt anyone would say that about Sara Harris fashion features editor at Vogue? (See photo) Her hair is naturally grey/white too! Why not embrace it? In my opinion it looks worse when people dye their hair for too long.

Women who let their hair go grey
Toooldtobearsed · 15/05/2017 17:41

I lost every strand of my blonde (dye assisted) hair because of chemotherapy.

It grew back in thick, lush and stainless steel grey. It looks fab and i would never go back to dyeing it.

Smudge100 · 15/05/2017 17:41

I'm 61 and have stopped colouring after god knows how many years. The grey is almost all the way through now. Yes, it does make me look older but my hair is much healthier as a result of not being exposed to all those chemicals and I'm on my own and not trying to find another partner, so who cares really? The days of trying to look attractive to men are over, thank goodness. I'm happy to become invisible. I admire women who try to keep up appearances but after a certain point it is subject to the law of diminishing returns: more and more effort for less and less result. Each to his own, I guess.

Swipe left for the next trending thread