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.

Like this kind of colour:

L'Oreal Colorista Paint Smokey Grey Permanent Hair Dye https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07J6ZD5QX/ref=cmswwrcppapiii_ImnEDb6JD01RJ

Oh I just read the small print and looks like you have to be blonde to start with

I think it depends on your hair and how you are greying.
My MIL for example, was blonde and is now a natural white all over which looks fabulous.
DM on the other hand is in her 70's but is still a messy mix of (natural) dark brown and steel grey, it's not great.

I fear I'm going to go the way of my mother and am not sure what to do. I can't afford a dye habit but at 39, I'm starting to find the odd grey hair so it's on its way....

I'm 38 and I've never died my hair; I just couldn't be bothered with the upkeep (and I hate going to the hairdressers anyway).
Luckily my grey is concentrated around my temples, so it creates a streak at each side.

I too would like to give up the hairdye but am too afraid!

What annoys me is when you see pictures of women in their 30s, 40s and 50s who have grey hair and look amazing, but they only look amazing because they are have beautiful faces and frankly would still look beautiful with a dead rat on their head.

For us mere mortals I think it does take guts these days, sadly.

A lot of women look fab with grey hair. I know I'm white now at the front but I've used this change to go a completely different colour which I'm loathe to give up despite the maintenance needed.
It's a personal choice but not one for me.
I reckon I'll be a purple rinser later on...

One of the best things about my hair colour is I can wear black near my face again It had started to make me look washed out.
I'm very pale with brown eyes and dark brows and very bright jewel colours also look really good now.
Though I'm more inclined to wear black or navy.

I'm lucky at 40 to not have many greys but I'm planning to embrace it.
I think Sarita Choudhury looks great going salt n pepper when I saw her on TV recently.

@DifficultSituation19 Grombre is a great page on Instagram!

I’m following the grombre page now, and through that I found the lady in America whose photo I posted and messaged her to quiz her about how she made the transition, and she’s messaged back so I’m clued up now about what I need a hairdresser to do :)

Do share, I'm seeing a new hairdresser next Tuesday

OP, and other lovely ladies - old and young, yes please embrace the grey. In fact, I would change the name of that to just - Au Natural. Why do we women worry so much about what others think? Who cares what our "friends" or some random's opinion is on whether we should or should not be hiding our natural hair colour, wearing too much/not wearing enough make up, dressed to old, dressed to young and the upsetting thing is, it's always usually in such derogative language - mutton dressed as lamb, etc and this is how women to speak to and about each other all the time. Half the time I don't even think we realise how derogatory we sound, even to ourselves.
You never hear men talking like that to or about each other!
I think you should do what you want with your hair, irrespective of anyone else's opinion. When is the last time you looked at a man, young or old and immediately thought, wow/jeez/eeuugh, his hair is so grey he really should be dying by now? How many times was that? Sorry I couldn't quite hear you there? Aye, that's what I thought - NEVER!! lol. So why do we put ourselves under that pressure?
It may not be any consolation to you younger ladies going/have gone grey so early, just now, but actually you will have the last laugh - cos the earlier you go grey reflects how much hair you keep once your much older/an elderly person. You will keep a head full of lovely thick hair, compared to us that go grey much later in life. I'm late 40's and only have a smattering of grey hairs, but from seeing my Grandma, Aunt's, my Mum and other relatives who all kept their dark, or natural hair colour into their 40's and 50's - their hair all really thinned out and you saw more scalp that hair, so I know that's what awaits me. I know which I'd rather out of these two choices, same amount of hair when older having gone grey young, or cold baldy headed whispy baby hair cos I kept my natural colour into my 50's? Which one would you choose?

I like my au natural/white/grey colour.
Sadly I had some (not much) blonde highlights put in a few months back. They're spoiling the look as they have gone yellow. No amount of purple shampoo or head and shoulders will shift it.
Yes embrace it I say

There's heaps of YouTube videos of people getting grey as a colour - usually with a bit of toner through it. That's probably the route I'd take when mine is too grey and gets bad regrowth.

Go to YouTube and google "hair colour grey ombre". Some absolutely stunning styles and colours.

Mine has gone more white than grey. Due to a close family bereavement this year in May and then gazing at the sunshine in a daze. (No irony intended).
I don't want to enhance the grey.
I prefer white. 😊

I am mid-40s and embraced my grey a couple of years ago. Like you, OP, I was just fed up of needing to colour it.

I was nervous about how it would look but I have zero regrets.

The front of my hair is very white and the back is patchy grey/silver. It looks surprisingly good! I have had people ask if I dyed it like this, I have had strangers who realize it is natural telling me how good it looks. No one ever commented on my hair when it was dyed.

It was liberating and the gamble to do it paid off.

Try it and good luck!

No way I'm going to go grey any time soon - and I'm in my 60's. I just think it's so aging . Instead of fighting to keep your hair mediaum brown, why not dye the whole lot a shade of blonde instead. When the roots show on the top half, they'll be hardly noticeable in the blonde hair. The only visible roots will be in the lower half which isn't anywhere near as obvious. I've been doing that for years , and I'm still happy with the result. The more grey I get, the less obvious the roots are. Good luck !

@10MayLeaveADentInYourSofa me too. Loads of compliments.
I regret the yellow highlights.
Now in 50s
I was brunette in my younger days and I'm loving the natural colours.

@Monty27 this is her blog post which explains what she did www.lizkamarul.com/blog/2018/2/20/going-gray

The good news is...my hairdresser thinks it’s possible to do what I want done, although she said it may take 3 or so full heads of highlights before I can get it as light as I want.

The bad news is...they couldn’t fit me in for another 2 weeks so I’ve got to walk around looking like this a while longer. I may need a hat

I'm going white not grey, but I embraced it a year ago and couldn't be more pleased. I'm 38 and found my first white when I was 16 and come from a family of men and women who go white early and all embraced it. I look like I have a head of expensive highlights right now and that's fine with me.

I'm trying to convince my 65 year old DM to join me, but she's too scared.

I'm in my 40's and went from waist length blonde hair to short (natural) grey hair - best thing i ever done! i no longer pay a fortune to keep the colour up, just a trim to keep it tidy every few weeks.

Loads of people have commented on the colour and asked where i had done and it's so lovely to reply "nature" lol

I’ve got waist-length grey hair, silver on top, shading to black at the tips, brighter at the front. It’s in good nick, and plaited and twisted up it looks interesting. I like it, and to me that’s all that matters.
I have no problem with being/looking 60 either.

I'm 6 months in to embracing my grey hair too. Was so fed up of dyeing it every 3 weeks.

My hairdresser also said it will probably take a few sessions of going lighter to blend in highlights better with my natural steel grey and silver.
It's going pretty well so far but the highlights do go yellow and make my hair look a sandy colour which I'm not keen on ( due to years of colouring previously)
Each session I also have my hair cut a couple of inches so I'm growing old colour out too.
It's a slow process but think it will be worth it eventually

Wow @whattodo999 your hair is an amazing colour and it does look like you spent a lot of money to get it like that!

@indietara yes I’m not looking forward to the yellow highlights, the hairdresser said she would use a toner to keep it as ash as possible but it’s probably going to be a good few goes before it’s the colour I’m after. Ah well, winter is time to hibernate, hopefully by next spring/summer it will be getting there!