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!

Every single man has mousey hair. And hardly any women do.

Bit white centric no?

Oh god I agree. I had light blonde hair up until I was about 30 and then it just started going a mousey colour. My mum told me it was mousey and I can't keep on saying I'm blonde. So I've been dying it back to what I think is my natural colour - blonde. Mousey is too dark for me, my eyebrows etc are all light blonde still.

DD has this sort of hair, exactly the same shade as her father's, and I really hope she doesn't grow up to hate it like so many of you do and feeling that she needs to dye it. I love it, it changes with the light and really suits her in my biased opinion. She's only 5 so maybe it will darken further, though (used to be really golden blonde as a toddler).

I love the colour (Mine is almost black) because most brown/dark hair has warmth to it and like a PP said, I think it’s nice/different to have such cool toned hair.

I’ve posted a pic further up in this thread but just a quick search on Pinterest shows some gorgeous pics!

@SharonasCorona

Every single man has mousey hair. And hardly any women do.

Bit white centric no?

Guess so, yes, sorry, I'm in Ireland. It is more white here. I shouldn't have made the post I made. It is my observation in my OWN world/life. That's all.

I have mousey brown hair and translucent skin with freckles and grey/blue eyes. I've always felt my natural look is a bit non-descript and wishy-washy. In the mid-80s I started to highlight my hair and have done so ever since. I've been doing it so long now that when I've tried to grow it out, I don't even feel like me. I don't tan either, just go different shades of red and burn. I've stopped having bleach highlights now; I have a high lift tint so it looks more natural and hair is in better condition.

Every man has mousey hair? My dad had jet black hair, my brother has blond hair and my husband has dark brown hair...,three men disproving that point!

@WiserOlder no worries! I know what you mean.

When I have been in Ireland lots of the Irish men had really dark hair.

I have "mousey" hair and I like it. I didn't love it as a teenager so decided to go darker but found it washed me out so I am back to my natural colour. I like that it is quite unusual to leave it mousey, the only celebrity I can think of with similar colouring to me is Barbara Palvin. However it is also getting more popular, just browse Pinterest for "bronde hair".

Sometimes I do think I look quite washed out as I have pale skin and grey eyes so sometimes I think I look like when you lower the saturation too much on a photograph. However wearing some blush and bronzer and sticking to colours that suits me help. I love wearing blues (pastel blue, cornflower blue, navy blue) and pinks.

I like my hair colour and colouring. I have green eyes which are the most unusual. And warm skin that tans nicely. It also means that I have fair hair on my legs which means I just wax every couple of months and never really need to shave. I have fair hair on my arms too which I like. I think of myself as a dark blonde that gets a bit of extra help with highlights. I have grown it out after my first child and it was lovely and chesnutty and shiny. But I missed the blonde and eventually went back to highlights. You don’t need to wear tones of makeup with this colouring either I think.

At the risk of sounding like Yoda, there is no best or worst, hair colours just are. Mousy is no better or worse than black, brown, blonde, red or others. You might want to embrace your hair colour and change your way of thinking, if you can.

Also now that I am in the age range that are starting getting greys the real brunettes are struggling more. I just shove a few highlights in and they blend in.

I am just like you OP! I had blonde hair throughout childhood that darkened to mousey brown from around the age of 11. I've been pretty much every colour under the sun ever since but I always go back to blonde as it's the most natural colour to blend with my hair and skin tone. I hate the time and expense of regular salon visits but I can't abide the natural shade my hair is.

I did let it grow out some years ago, I went over 18 months without colouring my hair to see what it really would look like on me as an adult. I desperately wanted to learn to love it but in the end I couldn't fight the realisation that I hated it. It made my face look dull and strangely I either looked drab, like I wasn't wearing makeup or I looked too heavily made up in photos. I have the exact same basic makeup routine everyday so I concluded that mousey brown hair is very unforgiving to my skintone.

Funny thing is my best friend has gorgeous white blonde hair and she hates it! Well she hates how white her eyebrows and lashes are specifically. I guess we are never happy with our natural looks.

I hate mine with a passion. It's proper mouse. I have quite nice eye colour (basically grey which changes between greeny and bluey) but hair has always been really bland - my brother used to call it rat coloured (with his shiny chestnut locks. Oh how I laughed when it started to thin......)

I started dying at 15. I stopped just over 40 as the greys were coming thick and fast I thought and I thought I'd let them come in. I'm now mid 40s and am still only 30% grey and I look awful. Dishwater and washed out. I need contrast to brighten me up and my hair just does nothing.

I can't bring myself to properly recolour though as it was hell growing it out so once every couple of weeks I sling on a copper colour coloured shampoo which puts a bit of warmth under it.

I had white blonde hair as a child which went quite suddenly mousy when I was about 12/13. I hated it and dyed it blonde when I was 14 and have had it highlighted every 2 months ever since.

I hate having noticeable roots so at the start of lockdown I dyed it mousy. I must have done a pretty good job as the roots completely blend in with the rest of my hair.

I am sort of having a love hate relationship with it. I miss my blonde hair and sometimes feel a bit drab and not like myself but I sometimes I like it and I like not having to go to the hairdresser and pay so much money each time. When I do my hair and makeup nicely I do look nice.

I don’t currently feel safe sitting in a hair salon for 3 hours so I’m not going back yet. I’m going to keep my mousy hair for a while I think.

Every man? I know very few men with mousey coloured hair. Loads of women, though.
As a person with many many physical appearance shortcomings but brunette hair, it was my lame and slightly pathetic "at least I don't have" when I was a grumpy teen.

Agree 100% OP, my hair is narurally mousey colour and also fine & greasy. Lucky me [hmm

I too have highlighted it for most of my life. I did try going a darker brown but I think the mousey roots look even worse with a darker colour than blonde

I did go natural for a while in my early 30s and stopped getting it highlighted but I just looked so plain/invisible

I'd swap your mouse for my grey, any day.

all mens hair only ranges from light mouse to dark mouse

Um, Boris Johnson? And his brother?

@foxtiger

all mens hair only ranges from light mouse to dark mouse

Um, Boris Johnson? And his brother?

Plus all the black, Southern European, Hispanic and Asian men who almost always have black hair.

@WiserOlder

Oh well just my observation, it seems to me that all menns hair only ranges from light mouse to dark mouse, while we women have every hair colour from blonde to chesnut to red. Personal observation.

Sigh. Not everyone is white!

Just realised I already replied to that! Sorry for repetition.

I also have mousy but it lightens to blonde in the summer. When I was 30 my hairdresser told me my hair would blend in with grey really well. I’m 56 now, stopped coloring two years ago and wished I never started. My grey isn’t grey, it’s platinum silver so I look really ash blonde. People always say I have no grey...it’s mostly grey! I absolutely love it!

I have the mousey hair too. Sometimes I wish I could wear it naturally and have a sort of french vibe going but I only think that works if you have perfect skin and cheekbones etc. Otherwise it's just a bit meh.