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?!

I think the point is more about the condition of your hair and whether it 'goes' with your skin tone than it's colour. I've always dyed my hair, since I was a teenager, but now I'm mid-40s and several women I know of a similar age are allowing their grey to show and tbh grey hair which looks healthy is much better than coloured hair that doesn't. I also think that people who insist on keeping the hair colour they had at 20 when they're 50 or 60 or even older look absurd. My MIL (aged 75), dyes her hair really dark and it just looks fake, not young.

I got bored with paying shedloads for roots and highlights every three months, so bit the bullet and had grey highlights put in. As my natural grey has come through, I haven't needed to get it dyed again, nor will I.

I’m glad someone mentioned the horrors of curly grey hair! If I had that sleek silvery hair I might consider it. In addition to looking like a crazy hippy, my hair is an ugly combination of grey and brown so will be dying it pretty much forever.

I stopped dying my hair in my early 30’s because I stared getting allergic reactions after pregnancy and just couldn’t be arsed with the discomfort and/or trying eleventy million products to find one I didn’t react to.

The key to going grey and it not looking like wiry shite is to ditch the sulfates and get a conditioner that really suits your hair type. That and a good cut that makes the grey look like highlights (if you’ve enough grey to do that with - when it’s just a couple here and there there’s not a lot you can do). Soft highlights are a good transition.

I always get read younger than I am at first glance (at second and third, it’s obvious I’m a middle aged women), but that’s because I have a baby face and my hair is honey brown and curly so the grey looks more like blonde highlights until you look closer. Black hair can be trickier until there’s a decent enough amount of grey through, I think.

I saw a youngish women in the supermarket the other day with the most amazing silver hair, really breathtaking.

I'm going grey atm, Im 50 but have done it before in my 40's a couple of times.
Im sick of dyeing it and regret not keeping the grey from the last time.
It actually makes my skin tone look much better, Im very white around my face.
I don't give a shit whether anyone else likes it.
I have a short pixie cut do it should only take a couple of months.

Jackstini, this is mine

I am in my forties and have -horror of horrors- curly grey hair
I regularly get compliments on my hair from strangers. Only the other week I had a stranger (who apparently is a tailor) ask to take a photo of my hair. She wanted to show it to a client who is getting married as an example of how she should have her hair on her wedding day.
So based on the opinion of strangers I reckon my hair looks fab

The grey in my hair looks like silvery highlights. I love it and can't believe the fortune I spent getting it coloured.

I started going grey (and colouring it) it my mid thirties and I'm kind of glad it did- my hair was naturally very dark, and I had it coloured dark blonde instead which, I think is, so much more flattering on me.
But it took going grey to push me into taking the plunge.
I have no plans to ever go grey.

Men are considered silver foxes with grey hair because for a man in his 40s/50s a full head of hair is an achievement whatever the colour. Silver foxes are never balding.

Personally I think dyed hair is incredibly aging and given the choice of going grey or putting expensive and unnecessary chemicals on my skin I'd choose grey.

I started going gray before I was 20. I coloured it for years, when I turned 40 I went through a stage of fun colours but stopped colouring it once I turned 50. (My DD1 had leukaemia and both my DD2 and myself shaved our heads so she wouldn’t be alone. I never coloured it again when it grew back)
I was originally a ginger, this is me now

Wow, how gorgeous is that? Every picture's worth 1000 words.

I have black curly hair which is going white. I'm a goth so it's spoiling my aesthetic but I'm far too lazy to dye it. I've never dyed it. So far, it looks like little silver sparkles dotted in the black.

Nice to know so many people will think I look shit with grey curls though.

I'm 43. My hair is due a trim. But I don't think I'd look any younger with dye tbh.

I love curly grey hair! The wilder the better. When I grow mine out I'm seriously considering a perm - I've got a slight curl but it could do with some oomph.

@Decormad

My experience of women in their 40s with grey hair who say ‘ its awesome’ is - that it isn’t awesome and it ages them! How can getting a packet of dye and sticking that on your head once every 6 weeks be problematic?

Well exactly! I do mine every 5-6 weeks and it takes half an hour! Also, I agree that it does absolutely age you having grey hair, and do bore off accusing me of 'internalised misogyny' (Bloody drama queens!) It's not misogynistic to state a fact. Grey hair looks better on men (under 50) than it does on women under 50. It just does!

I don't mind looking my age, (indeed the vast majority of people do, and no-one looks more than 7-8 years younger than their age,) but I don't intend to look 10 years older!

@bluelady (end of page 2,) that's a very nice picture you posted there luv, but that lady is at LEAST 70! We are on about women letting their grey grow though under 45! Do keep up.

@MaggieandHopey, I don't know who that lady is, so I will be careful what I say. She is very pretty, but I'm sorry, that wiry grey hair makes her look like a scarecrow! It looks dreadful on the middle pic.

They're three different people, newname - I think you might need new glasses as well as a new name.

(and you don't need to apologise for stating your opinion! Just don't get stroppy when other people don't agree)

Go for it!
Lipstick is your friend, it brightens you up loads. And make sure no frizz, and grey is great!

I also stand by what I say that I NEVER EVER EVER see women in their 20's and 30's letting their natural grey grow through. I know a few of them have silver streaks put in, but no woman I know, or have ever met, lets her grey grown through. No way.

Some people seem to be offended and sniffy at people commenting negatively about it. If you are THAT cool with your natural grey in your late 20's, your 30's or your early 40's, then why do you care what people think?

I don't think I am the one getting stroppy maggie sweetie.

Bless you. Hit a raw nerve didn't I?

Calm down @bluelady, why so angry ?

I have a friend whose pulled it off. She was a blonde and has let her hair go grey and it just looks stunning, beautiful silver blonde hair cut into the most elegant short bob.

I've a cousin whose a redhead and she has also pulled it off and has silver & copper hair, which looks beautiful.

I'm salt & pepper and highlight every 8 weeks as I look a million years old with grey hair!

You're a funny onion, newname. I'm not sure why you're so bothered about what other people do with their hair - what a strange hill to die on.