To think ‘mousey’ hair is the worst hair colour to have?

[Marnie56]

I am one of these people with naturally ‘mousey’ hair - until I was about 10 I had light golden blonde hair and as with a lot of people it gradually got darker. Since I was about 14 I’ve had highlights religiously every few months. So my hair is still ‘blonde’ but only because I spend so much money on it!

I absolutely hate the fact that without highlights I would be this ‘nothing’ colour - it’s not a nice brown/brunette colour and it’s not blonde. I don’t even know what I would look like if I let my highlights grow out and I never got them again but I can’t imagine it would look nice!

I know a lot of people get some sort of colour in their hair, balayage etc but most people would still look fine if they had their natural hair colour - I think all hair colours look nice apart from this weird mouse/dishwater.

Anyone else feel like me? Am I just destined to have to get highlights every few months forever so I look remotely nice!?

If you have let your hair go ‘natural’ and it is mousey and looks good I would be very interested to see it! I don’t think I can think of any celebs with that sort of hair!

I hate describing hair as 'mousey'. I'd say it's really a 'dark ash blonde'. I wish when I was younger I'd had an icon like Taylor Swift to look up to: she's the same kind of shade as me, but she warms it, lightens it, sometimes leaves it more ashy. It's a lovely, soft shade. Not 'dishwater', or 'boring' at all.

After decades of dyeing and/or despising my hair, I've discovered that it's actually quite a nice colour when it's left alone. I have golden blonde eyebrows, and natural golden blonde highlights framing my face, and if I let it grow, I have a dark ash blonde/golden blonde balayage I don't have to pay ££££ for.

My mother told me my hair was ugly, and boring, and dishwater, and mousey, and she made me use Henara shampoo and conditioner twice a week. I didn't know what dark ash blonde was: I thought I had auburn hair until I was in my early teens! I spent twenty years dyeing it, and hating it, and now... I've finally accepted it.

Maybe we collectively need to start ditching the 'mousey' tag?

My dc have mousey brown hair and I think it is gorgeous. So much nicer than my own flat mid brown hair. I love how many different colours are in their hair.

John Frieda Go Blonder spray lightens hair gradually and you don’t have to touch up roots because there’s never that stark division. You spray it on wet hair and the dryer activates it. I started using it after getting fed up with the expense and faff of highlights. I only use it once a week, if that.
It’s not expensive and a bottle lasts for ages.

Mousy hair can look good if you take care of it. It doesn’t hide damage as easily as darker hair does so you need to style / condition it properly for the colour to really stand out.

My hair used to be Barbie Blonde but has gotten darker as I get older. Some say its from all the crap in our diets (not entirely our fault, just all the chemicals etc in all the food), so I bleach the front. When I let it grow out the top gets lighter anyway as I live in Australia where you can get sunburnt every day of the year. So the sun just bakes and lightens your hair. I also use one of those spray in "weak" bleaches that takes hours and hours to lighten your hair, so that is great for a "natural" sun bleached look.
As for anyone wanting to go darker, or a different colour, is there is wig place near you where you can go and try on wigs? Probably harder now with Covid. Trying on wigs is the best way to see what colours go well with your face without hurting your hair.

Is my hair mousey? English isn't my first language and despite having lived here for years I could never quite grasp what mousey is meant to describe. After googling I think I may be mousey?

Is it something to do with it being a common colour in the UK? And so seen as boring?

In lots of countries it would be really unusual and people would notice etc

Also it's fun to experiment with colours- while my friends were henna-ing like mad I didn't because I had ingested the idea my natural colour would be a shame to change, the colour wouldn't have taken well, and it would have looked bonkers growing out!

Embrace your hair whatever it's like!

I used to hate my mousy hair that looked just about ok in summer with blond bits streaked by the sun. Now it is going grey I would really like my mousy hair back. I have taken to colouring it a warm brown colour but have to have it dyed or roots touched up every six weeks.

Y dad used to cally hair colour 'dishwater blond'.

I hate my mousey hair so much that it hasnt been its natural colour since I was 15. I agree, it is such a "non" colour.

I was white blonde until I was about 8 then a gorgeous light ginger until I was 12/13 and then the Mouse appeared. I dye it to light ginger now as that what suits me best.

DS2, jammy git, was the same as me as he grew up....but kept his ginger! I have 2 blonde DD's, 2 chocolate brown DD's and poor old D1S is mousey same as me and also hates it!

Mousey hair here. Dyed it for a few years but couldn't really be arsed and went back to natural mouse.

However... I always get natural blonde highlights in the summer. And now at age 58 I have a gentle mix of mouse, silver-grey, and golden blonde. It looks better than any artificial attempt at creating highlights, and it is soft and silky.

My son’s beautiful blond hair is turning mousey at 8. It sort of doesn’t have a colour., My brown hair feels like such a blessing...

i have mousey brown naturally, hate it, ugly colour, its literally same colour as wild mice.
I have dyed my hair for the better part of 20 years
The only good point is it takes dye well

@Amimousey I would describe your hair as brunette with blonde highlights. It's not mousey. Is that your actual hair? It looks lovely and thick and glossy, like Rachel from Friends.

I think mousey is quite good, its in the middle you can dye darkercir lighter without much difficulty. Im a very dark brunette, its quite a draining colour and even sparse greys are very noticeable.

As someone who was born with 'ginger hair' and bullied for it, I wished I had mousey brown hair naturally.

If, there is one thing about us women is that we're never happy with what we were born with .

My hair is light mouse, or dirty blonde.

What I hate most is the lack of colour in my appearence. My hair/skin/eye colour are all very similar. My skin isn't really that pale for a fair haired person, so it blends in with my hair. My eyes are pale grey with a hint of blue.

Overall I just look like a beige-ish blob.

My DC have opposite mousey hair - DS had blond curls as a baby and the blond turned mousey and straighter when he was around 3. DD was born with mousey hair but at 3 hers is now a beautiful dark non-mousey blond with lots of natural highlights from the sun, genuinely gorgeous. The definition of ‘bronde’ hair. So jealous

Yep, this is me. Level 7, dark to medium blonde. It’s rubbish. Even my hairdresser agreed that it was a ‘nothing shade.

I spend £1,000 a year on foil highlights.

As I've mentioned my hair is mousey, but it isn't flat. It has different shades, and as I live in NZ and am outside a lot it lightens in the sun. Have quite a few grey hairs, but not too noticeable (I'm 61). I'm not pale either and my hair is wavy.

I think Mousey brown can be lovely! People with Mousey brown hair tend to also fair better with highlights/blonde/ashy blonde etc. My hair is brown and throws off a lot of red tones and blonde generally looks awful on me or if I do get highlights they tend to go orange.

I think it's a lovely colour but it depends on the tones and highlights in your hair and the colour of your skin and eyebrows.

My hair has always been mousey and I've dyed it since I was a teenager. I've been bleaching it and putting whacky colours on the last few years - I've been bright pink, bright blue, vibrant purple and bright orange multiple times interchanging with what I fancied at the time. It's currently a washed out very light silver with mild hints of purple as this is the colour I did last but I'm not bleaching it anymore as the last couple of times I've had scabs on my scalp (I dye my hair myself) and this is obviously not good so I'm letting it grow out...I don't know how this will look and I currently have about 2/3 inches of mousey roots. Should be interesting!

I have mousey brown hair and I've always loved it and been proud of it because growing up my hairdresser complimented it saying lovely mousey brown colour. So I thought it was a good thing. Funny to read so many people hate it!

My was ' mouse ' colour then I used to have blond hi lights with a cap in the 80s ( torture , but it did go blond!) then the much nicer foils! ( I can't use box dyes as my scalp doesn't react that well to the chemicals but I'm ok with the foils these days and I don't have a few days of a itching fuzzy nightmare )

A hairdresser once told me off for calling it 'mouse 'and suggested ' light brown ' instead which does sound a nicer way of describing it. A bit like some people may call it ' strawberry blond' if they have more red or ginger colour hair.
I'd love to be a natural blond but that is very rare apparently: I'd say that most blonde are really light brown.
I hate it when the grey hair shows through as it does look draining on me and harder to manage I think. (My Hair is the Bain of my life as it's curly and wavy and thick too.)