To embrace the grey at 37?

[CherryGarcia23]

So I'm going grey. I'd say looking at my parting only, I'm at 25%.

I haven't dyed my hair since February this year. I'm considering going to a professional hairdresser to start dying a silvery grey to blend everything in.

I do not like the mousey brown / blonde/ grey that seems to be to go to in your 40's / 50's when a haiirdresser does a professional cover up.

AIBU to do this at 37? Everyone I have spoken to says wait until 50's??

I don't think I will ever embrace the grey which started in my late teens I'm now nearly 40!

My grey - as I said about 15% of my hair is grey - doesn't start to show for maybe 6 weeks after I dye it. Could be because I am blonde-ish anyway. (Dark blonde.)

Takes half an hour to do it. 8 times a year. £4 a time.

Not exactly 'too much cost and aggro.'

I started becoming sensitive to dyes at 42 ish and then decided to stop using them not long after. It took me about 2.5 years in total and I had some wobbles, but I love it now. Here it is. I’m lucky because it’s still shiny (though this picture is poor quality) and I do think it being shiny helps overall.

Fair enough if you are happy with not being amazing - me I love it !

That looks absolutely gorgeous.

Thank you, you are all very kind. The reaction in real life is not as positive. I have strangers, patients and family commenting telling me I ll look younger if I colour my hair. As pp said above it's the association of being "past it" and letting yourself go which is hard to overcome. But I love the freedom that comes with grey hair, also the acceptance. I am getting older and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

I did at about the same age. It's now mainly white at 47 and I love it and get so many compliments.

P.S I didn't know I was a winter, thank you for that 😊

I am nearly 37 and no greys yet (dark blond/light brown hair - my friends with dark hair all seem to go grey much earlier). The second one appears I’ll be down the hairdressers faster than you can say “hair dye”. I don’t feel remotely ready to be grey I’m afraid. It’s such double standards though - DH is 44 and has gone very grey in the last 2/3 years and I think he looks great, so unfair.

I would love to have a full head of white (a la Christine Lagarde) or silver hair. It’s the badger look I am not keen on for myself. So until I am fully white or silver Ishall continue to dye.

Same, it's that in between stage. Mine is going on forever!

OP I think the upkeep for artificial grey hair would probably be more onerous for you than something like highlights.

“Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked female.” Think about it, and then also think about the effect your judgement has on everyone else.

Started going grey in early 30s and coloured my hair for years. Stopped 4 years ago as white roots could be seen after only two weeks and it was clear that my original dark colour no longer suited my skin tone. I don’t care what anyone else thinks- I love it.

Honestly op. I'm in exactly the same boat in that I'm Irish. Very pale skin with grey eyes. I'm almost 100% grey now I reckon. After covid I splashed out and went to a top colourist near me. He told me that as my hair was pure white as opposed to silver and given my colouring; he couldn't agree to it. He said it would be awful with my colouring.
Remembering my covid roots I'm inclined to think he was probably right.

Iris looks amazing but her skin is olive and her grey is silver not white. I just don't think that it's for everyone .

That's fab but that's a very expensive hair dresser job with toning and bleaching. If that was pure white it would look awful on her.

GreyRooted
I agree about the shininess, often the colour grey is nice but it’s the wiry texture of the hair that doesn’t look so good. Your hair looks fab.

My best friend (late thirties) announced the other week that she'd decided to embrace the grey. I was a little bit surprised tbh, as she's always been quite image-conscious, and has been regularly dying her hair various shades of brown and red since we were teenagers.
However, her mum embraced the grey in her late 40s after cancer treatment, and it really suited her! So I can see her hope for it looking good.

I've got good genes for grey hair. My dad passed at 62 without hardly a single grey hair on his head. HIS dad was mid-80s and hardly had any either!

I currently dye my hair from time to time. Mostly because my natural colour is a very dull dark blonde, and I think being lighter suits my complexion better.

I'm sporting my natural grey in my 30s. I get told I look younger most of the time. But even if it makes me look "older" why should I care? Men generally don't have this conundrum so why should I? Women should be only choosing to dye if they really truly honestly prefer the chosen colour for themselves, not out of fear for looking old or their age because society deems grey on a woman is unacceptable. If we want to see society become fairer we have to cast off those norms and be the change.

Give it a go

It has to be very well kept to look good, but the main thing is it is aging on most people. You might notice is less now and you are still young, but in your 50s grey hair can make you look old as apposed to middle aged.

I am looking forward to being completely white at 80 though..

She isn’t - she’s fully white - but she also has a lot of expensive subtle highlights to vary the colour and texture and catch the light. It’s not a natural look, great though it is.

I started going grey in my late 30s and by the time I was 43 I'd stopped dyeing it completely. I'm now 50, wear it in a very short crop and get regular compliments, including from total strangers.

I genuinely don't give a shit if some randoms think it's 'ageing'. This is the natural colour of my hair, I'm not going to pretend otherwise for fear of transgressing social expectations of how women 'should look'.

@cardibach I like to take care of my appearance because it makes me feel good.

If you don't want to, or pretend not to don't care, that's up to you.

I take care of my appearance in that I'm clean and tidy. I don't think my grey hair is worthy of judgement, nor do I think it means I'm not taking care of myself or my appearance.

I don't care about what anyone else is shallow enough to think about my hair and your passive aggressive use of the crossing out feature doesn't change that!

I had very grey hair for years but at 38 have recently started dying it bright colours with semi permanent dye. Had dark hair so would have had to bleach it in the past. Am enjoying playing with my hair and not relying on a salon. Will go full grey/white when I have full head of it

Why would you equate not covering my natural hair colour with me not taking care of myself?