To embrace the grey?

[DifficultSituation19]

I’m 38 and have been going grey for 15 years now. It’s got to the point where the top half of my head is all grey, but I think the bottom half is still mostly my natural colour (medium brown).

I’m getting proper sick of having it dyed...really it needs doing every 2 weeks as I have annoying little baby hairs around the top of my forehead which are the first to need doing again, but after three weeks I have noticeable regrowth all over the top half of my hair.

I tried highlights, as I thought that would make the regrowth less obvious, but I don’t think it did make it any less obvious, and blonde really didn’t suit me.

I am so bored of going to the salon/doing root touch ups at home in-between/covering any greys with the powder stuff before I leave the house. I’m wondering if it’s time to just give in.

The thing is, apart from the grey I do look young for my age, people normally guess my age at around 10 years younger, I don’t really have any wrinkles and I’m (vainly) worried that if I went full on grey I’d start looking really old.

Also, I don’t know how to go about it? I have quite long hair and the In betweeny stage could last for years! Or maybe I could get it bleached and dyed grey? Short hair looks awful on me so chopping it all off isn’t really an option.

This is what mine looks like so far...

I’m growing out my blonde highlights at the moment - I’ve got a few greys, not many, mainly around my hairline. I’m leaving them for the time being. My mum and mil both still dye their hair and it looks dreadful on both of them tbh (both in their 70’s with dark hair). It reaches a stage where you need to let it happen - I guess that’s probably a different time for each individual. There is something carefree about letting it go, which is somehow quite youthful!

I stopped dyeing my hair a couple of years ago, in my mid-40s. I was bored and irritated with the constant, expensive palaver of trying to cover up what was, after all, my natural colour. So I had my chin-length bod cut into a very short pixie cut, leaving me with a silvery-grey crop.

I love it. I get compliments all the time, including one today from someone who'd not seen me for almost three years and told me I was looking 'chic' and 'glowing'. No 'whey-face' (wtf?) for me, I guess.

Just do it, OP. Instagram does have some great inspiration eg: #grombre. I love my silver sisters

*bob not bod!

I choose not to be grey. I do an at home root touch up every 2-3 weeks . same shade every time.
Very happy with results.

I'm 45, I stopped dyeing my hair 6 years ago. Best thing I ever did. I went cold turkey. I look awesome, not fuckjng whey faced

I love my life without hair dyeing faff, drove me up the wall. I've been going grey since 17yo and started dyeing at 25. Ten years of total ballache was enough for me, and roots would show after two weeks.

I've had one idiot friend make rude comments (or 'honest' comments, as she is German and is 'honest' about everything). The rest have been nothing but encouraging.

I have pale pale skin with pink undertone and blue eyes, so I changed my glasses for dark-rimmed ones and wear shocking red lipstick - a walking cliche for find po-faced posters, I suppose.

Here's me in "pinkface":

I've embraced it. Love it. Lucky to have more white than steel and am experimenting with layers and undercuts.

All the photos posted genuinely look amazing and I’m even more determined to go for it now. First hairdresser consultation tomorrow, fingers crossed they can help.

This is what I’m dealing with at the moment...4 weeks after last having it dyed. It looks worse in real life

I'm going to embrace white (ex brunette)

Men don't
I don't
I'm not a lesser person, for my choice
I spend my time & money doing other things that I enjoy

I find hair colour fascinating. Nobody will ever have exactly the same natural hair as me so I want to see how it keeps changing over the years. I don't want to get older and realise I never knew what colour it really was at any point because I had it dyed.

Currently in my early 40s my hair is chestnut with silver and white bits.

MIL can't understand as she dyes her hair religiously and is terrified of looking older which I find very sad because she spends a lot of time, money, worry and effort on her appearance by way of hair and skin products.

I am struggling with this at the moment - I am very grey (judging by my roots) but have been dying my hair a red/brown for years and my hairdresser just can’t seem to figure out how to get me off the dye :/ ..... the colour is too hard to lift apparently, although following a holiday with lots of pool swimming it did lighten and so we tried a few highlights which went yellow and I had to cover them up

What can I do? My hair is just past shoulder length and I’m not sure I can face years of just growing it out 😱

I have very dark hair and pale skin. Previously I'd been dying my roots, but then I started working at a very arty place where all the very chic and stylish women didn't dye their hair. Being around many women who looked so stylish and embraced their grey made me realise I could do the same. They inspired me.

I'm only about 15% grey but it's clustered around my temples. I'm also very shiny white in these areas! I'm about 4 months in and going to stick with it.

I have been dying mine dark brown forever. I am 55 and tempted to go cold turkey. It is white when it comes through and really needs doing every 2 weeks .
My adult dc are saying it is time to embrace the grey but I am worried about the grow out. Working in a school, I don't think I am allowed to wear a headscarf to cover it!

I love these threads - the same people pop up all the time . I went grey and, to be blunt, looked like shit; I'm back to brown now. I'm very 'autumn' coloured, my hair was a steel grey and it just looked rubbish.

@shylo

I had to get colour out of my hair and I used a hair colour remover
It's a last resort
U have to dye after using it if u have had any kind of lightning dyes as obviously they strip the colour out
Also it makes your hair very porus so any colour that goes on after really takes and usually really dark
I did this as a last resort thinking we'll I won't be dying it again anyway so if it makes my hair a bit dry or whatever it doesn't matter
It worked out fine for me I didn't have alot if grey anyway so I put a colour as close to my natural as I could then just grew it out
Depending how grey you are u could find something similar and put it on then just leave it to grow out
But be warned to keep an eye on the colour as it can go darker after the treatment
Do a strand test for best results

An allergy to due forced me to stop dying mine. I love it. Naturally dark, I know look like I have silver highlights.

I embraced the grey 18 months ago and have no regrets.

Such a relief and I don’t much care what others think.

I was much amused by a friend who was initially pretty rude about my decision has now also given up dying her hair.

Noticed my first grey at 12.
Dyed it lots of different colours, until one day, a Home dye didn't take. I thought, fuck it.
It looked awful at first but I grew all the colour out.
My hair is naturally mid-brown but I have a lot of grey at the front and sides. It looks cool when I plait it, like a Viking!
My mum still dyes her hair yellow blond and has a severe bob. I think it ages her terribly.
My hair is long. I am 41. I'm a chubby person, pale, but the grey doesn't put years on me. It just tells the world I'm 41. I am thinking about cutting it shorter to show off the grey and white bits.
It's a personal choice, but because I'm too lazy and too skint to keep up the dye, I gave it up.

If you are still trying decide follow @grombre on Instagram. Women in their 20s and up rocking their grey.

My hairdresser tried to sell me highlights etc constantly when I was growing it out. He kept persisting. I know he has a business to maintain. But it annoyed me. So I have started going somewhere else that doesn't.

I went back to my natural colour 3 months ago. I'd got to the stage that I was sick of trying to gather the money together to keep on top of my dyed colour so had my shoulder length hair cut into a pixie cut to get rid of most of it. It's now the most gorgeous iron grey which suits my skin tone.

I've had comments from friends that I look younger and more alive! Loving embracing my grey

Maybe if more women did this we would get away from some of the quite offensive comments on here and move us on from the 1950's attitude that women have to suffer to stay 'youthful'. Double standards much when men are 'silver foxes'

Well said. I’m embracing the greying process and I think you need to worry less about what (some) other people think and focus more on what works for you.

I’ve had a few women be quite rude about greying - that’s ok, I’m confident in my choices and actually I think their heavily dyed hair doesn’t suit them. The difference is that I’m polite enough to keep my opinion to myself because that’s all it is - an opinion.

I've been greying since mid twenties. I'm too lazy to dye it. I'm just embracing it.
I don't think it looks bad.
If you have had enough of dye just let it go!

I am also embracing the grey! I am 3 months in and have a good inch of grey. Probably about 9 months to go and then I plan to get some silver highlights depending on how it looks. One of the teachers at dd's school has amazing silver hair, all natural - looks absolutely stunning.

Do you reckon dying it grey would work?! My hair is dark brown/half dyed half natural. Perhaps using a colour remover then dying grey?! Has anyone done this?!