To go grey?

[sandytoes84]

Mid 30s and I just feel too young to be this grey! Currently as soon as the roots appear and my mother starts looking back at me in the mirror I quickly dye it.

But it would be so liberating to ditch the dye and let it go natural...I see women with lovely long grey hair but am I too young/ not cool or brave enough to pull it off? Will I look much older than I am? (I have otherwise dark hair and dark brows, so the greys really show!)

Has anyone taken the plunge?!

It really is, talk to your hairdresser about accentuating the grey, silver shampoo etc. because you are so young it will look great

Difficult to say without knowing you.

It suits some people and doesn't suit others.

I started going grey mid 30s. Did have brown hair. Started having blonde highlights on th advice of my hairdresser. Only needed them doing every couple of months. By the time I hit 50, I had more grey than blonde, so had it cut with quite short layers and stopped colouring it. Took about. A year to go natural. It's now completely grey and I love it. Much better condition, looks fab with an edgy cut.

Grey hair with a young face is awesome. It's incredibly fashionable now too.

@confusedbeetle I can’t get away with going lighter (dark brown always goes orange) and have never found the one when it comes to hairdressers...perhaps time to resume the search!

@WorraLiberty - you’re so right though! I look at these gorgeous silver foxes but I think I might just be that person who looks ill - you know, colleagues say ‘ooh you look well’ the day after I dye it

I did it. It looked shit. I'm back to brown .

I turned 40 last year and dyed my hair just before my birthday, however the grey was showing within 3 weeks. I decided I couldn’t face colouring that often so stopped. 9 months later and my grey is round the front and underneath.

I think your other option would be to give up on dyeing it to the dark colour that it was pre—grey. Getting subtle highlights through the top, where the grey is most noticible, would take you to a slightly lighter shade of brown overall and would look more natural than trying to dye dark brown all over.

It would also require less maintenance, because a month or two of regrowth would blend in with the highlights.

I'm 37 and have been grey for a year. I started going grey when I was 19, now I have dark brown hair with about 10% white over most of my head, but with a mallen streak at the front and white at the temples. When I make an effort with my unruly curly hair it looks awesome.

I was dying my hair every 3 weeks to hide the roots - to be honest I had about 1 week when it looked great, then 2 weeks of more and more grey showing against my very dark hair. I felt so self conscious as it looked awful and was driving me mad. The constant dying also took its toll on the health of my hair and it was thin and lank.
Then last year I shaved my head for Macmillan's Brave the Shave campaign and I just let my hair come back through in its natural state. It's now shiny, healthy, thick and everyone has commented on how much younger and healthier I look as a result.
I've got it in a short, easy to manage, but funky looking style and I feel so much more confident as a result. It's like I've finally embraced the real me and I feel fabulous - I really wish I'd done it years ago.
I use Provoke A Touch Of Silver Shampoo to keep my greys nice and shiny.

Need pics of you grey ladies - contemplating this at the moment!

Ive just started finding grey hair (33 now) and was wondering this too op so will be watching this thread.
My hair is really long and dark brown, lovely condition after years of regular trims and taking care of it.. Ive only JUST got it how I want it and now it's turning grey! 😭
I've got olive skin too so I don't think I'd suit it fully grey?? But HATE the idea of constantly dying it. Gah!

I'm a bit older than you, but I got so fed up of the roots showing every three weeks, that I have gone grey. I actually think grey hair looks really nice, but the bits in between - not so much. However, I still think some grey hairs throughout look better than roots and I just don't have the time or money to be dying my hair every three weeks (my original colour is very dark brown - almost black)

I stopped dyeing mine when i realised how much time i was spending trying to hide it!

All my colleagues and my sister were horrified that i was going to go grey.
My hair is styled in a long bob and i think it looks amazing!
Embrace it, instead of fretting over grey hair showing at your roots it turns into wanting it to hurry up and go all grey!
At the moment mine has lots of “streaks” of grey and looks quite sparkly rather than flat but using the touch of silver shampoo helps.

I have always worn makeup but now feel i really look brighter wearing it as grey hair can make your complexion look dull, imo

For those of you that have let the grey grow through (and sorry op for hijacking)
How long did it take?? I seem to be finding long strands so I think it'll just turn grey over time rather than just suddenly starting to grow all grey from the roots. I always imagined if that happened id just cut it short and let it grow in but don't think thats going to happen with mine.

I have done it but i am mid 50's. Several people recently have admired my hair colour not realising it is entirely natural. I love it.

I just paid $180 to go grey
Wish mine was grey, go for it I say

Mine went completely grey when it grew back after chemo. Before that, I had a grey streak at the front which looked pretty cool, but now I just look old, not trendy. I'm only 55, and always looked younger than I was, so it's a big change for me, that I really hate. I haven't been able to dye it though, so I have to live with it.

I just try not to look in the mirror.

I've had to dye my dark brown hair since I was 22, such a faff. My sister is the same and she's just gone blonde / grey. She looks like our mother now so I'm sticking with brown.

Sorry to chuck a spanner in here but my experience has been to definitely fight the grey!
If you are attractive with good bone structure you can get away with being grey, bald etc
If you are like the rest of the human race grey hair will only make you look OLD.
I pay a lot of money to keep my hair looking reasonable, when the time comes to decide
“Grey or nay?”
I’m going pink
Or blue
Or purple
ANYTHING but GREY!!!

Motoko why can’t you dye it?
Sorry you’ve had chemo, it’s a bastard

If you go grey, it is really liberating to not spend $$$ and hours at the hairdressers every three weeks. You will get people making comments about it.

As for looking old, (HORRORS!!!eleventy!!) actually, you'll be timeless. 20 years from now you won't have changed a bit!

My hairdresser lightened my dyed dark brown to a really lovely gold blonde that worked tremendously well with the white/grey roots growing out. I liked it so much, I nearly decided to stick with that.
But in the end I went grey, and I'm really happy with it. My hair is in really good condition, and to head off any "you look OLD" comments I wear a really light foundation or CC cream and nude tone lippy to look fresh.

It felt scary to go grey - but if you try it and don't like it, you can always go back to dyeing it.

I have a friend who embraced the grey in her 30’s. Pretty radical at the time but it has always suited her. Now, 15 years later, quite a few friends are letting the grey emerge and seem to have aged because of it whereas original grey woman is still ‘her’ and ageless.
So from that experience, I would do it sooner rather than later.

Not in a million years would I ever have gone grey in my 30's. Don't know a soul who ever would.

On these kind of threads, you always get the posters who say 'embrace your grey, there is nothing wrong with it, it's natural, more women should do it, it will probably suit you yada yada,' and there are always a few people who say 'I started letting my grey grow through at 29, and was as grey as a badger's bollock at 35. I didn't care what people thought, and have had it grey since.'

Load of nonsense. No woman will let their grey hair grow through in their 20's or 30's. Not a chance. I have never seen a woman under 45 letting their grey hair grow through. Not one.

People say embrace it and all that jazz but they don't. Not in their bloody 20's and 30's especially. As a person said earlier in the thread, you let your grey grow through in your 30's, and you will look like your mother!

Sorry, but it IS unflattering, it IS ageing, and it doesn't look great, on women under 45. Even on women in their late 40's and 50's, it is not flattering. I started to go a bit grey at the temples, and at the sides of my ear, when I was in my early 40's (several years back,) and I started to put dye on straightaway.

I have gone a bit more grey now - around 5 years on, (maybe 15% of my hair, and I do it every 6 weeks.) Just a dark blonde dye from the shop, costs 2 or 3 quid. It is not 'a faff,' and it takes half an hour, 8-9 times a year.

If you were 100% grey that may be harder to maintain, but many women aren't, not til they are past 45.

I would definitely dye it if I were you. The vast majority of women do. Go look around the shopping centre, or your town over the weekend, and see how many younger women you see (say, under 40,) with grey hair. I'll tell you how many you'll see - none.

And I'm sorry but it does suit men better. Going grey looks OK on most men, (even over 30/35,) but is very ageing and unflattering on women under 50.

Also, oddly, some women on here tell other women that they're just spring chickens at 53, that they can leave their DH and find someone else in a heartbeat, and can retrain for a new career, and wear nice trendy clothes and so on, because they are still sooooo young. Then in the next breath, they promote going grey at 35, which will ultimately age you by 10 years! Bit of an oxymoron!