To be worried about grey hair at 26?!

[Lolabirdy]

Hi everyone. I’m 26 and have very dark hair naturally and now have grey hair sprouting all over my head. They’re not long enough to be super noticeable yet but they’re coming in everywhere. I have very fine, straight hair but the greys are coming through coarse and wavy.
my parents didn’t go grey until their late 30s/40s but my brother is 30 and is very grey too so I assume it’s genetic.

I’m quite torn on what I should do about them. Part of me thinks I should just accept them and not commit to a life of dying my hair every few weeks. Another part of me wants to hide them away at this age. My mum is extremely image-conscious and has always complained about her greys. I grew up watching her constantly dying them and plucking them out of her head. She’s got very dark hair too and has now resorted to chopping her hair into a bob and bleaching it blonde to hide them. I don’t want to be like her and worry about this, I want to love myself.

when did you start greying and do you manage it or just leave it?

please can someone help me accept that I’m going grey at 26 and it’s beautiful!

It’s really normal with very dark hair. My friend started going grey at 19 and has always dyed her hair. A friend of mine is 27 with noticeable greys. She doesn’t bother dyeing it. Totally your choice

I use the tinted shampoo… I use it once a week when I have a bath and leave it on for 20 minutes while I soak… it blends my greys in without having to keep up with it too much… I’m at the same stage as you, not too many greys yet, so not sure if there will be a tipping point where it gets harder?

I got my first greys at 27. I still don’t have masses now at 48. Having a few doesn’t mean you’ll be all grey in a year or two.

Both my parents started going grey young , my dm at about 25/7 my Dd at 19 so I knew I'd go grey young I think I was about 18.
My Db was about 20ish

My Dm started dying her hair straight away but by the time she was in her late 30s her hair was dry and brittle even though she used good conditioners .
I decided not to dye mine at all apart from the damage it could cause the cost and faffing is more than I can be arsed with .

I got my first greys at 16.
However, I started dying my hair at 11 (bloody Sun In; the curse of '90s hair), only stopping this year (nigh on 46).
I don't have dark hair - it's an insipid brown (or was, as I seem to be almost totally grey/silver) - but I still felt very self-conscious (not helped by my Mum insisting she 'help', but plucking out the little grey fuckers).
I wish I'd stopped dying my hair before now, as my waves are going back to the curls they used to be.

And, just wanted to say, yes grey IS beautiful; it really is lovely.
However, at 26, you might not WANT to go grow and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to dye it.
💚

I had very dark brown, almost black hair. Noticed my first ones around 16, now early 50’s and I expect I’ll be pure white by the time I’m 60, just like my maternal grandmother. I’ve never dyed my hair after watching my DM pay thousands over the years. She only gave up during lockdown in her mid-70’s. It helps that my greys are evenly distributed throughout my hair so the look like individual highlights that would cost a fortune in a salon.

I started dying hair at home to cover greys this year. I found I didn't get on well with permanent dye, the colours seem to come out really dark compared to the box, the roots start growing out virtually straight away, and it made my hair dry. I tried the tinted shampoo plantur39 recommended on here and it did nothing. I'm currently using semi permanent dye. It seems to be kinder to my hair. I prefer it fading out rather than having roots regrowth lines. And I'm getting 2 months between colours at least. I'm hoping when I don't want to colour anymore it'll be an easier transition.

My hair is long and healthy and I have no interest in covering a bit of grey plus I have a silver streak in front that I like.

Wear it with confidence! That’s the secret.
If you start to doubt whether it’s right for you( it’s natural, so it is!), people will feel your concern and question you.
Give off ‘I love it vibes’ and no one will care. Embrace it

I noticed my first grey hair when I was 18. It was only one and not noticeable, at age 26 they really started coming in thick and fast so from 26 to 46 I dyed my hair every 6 weeks at some points. Last year I was very unwell and in and out of hospital for 6 months. By that point my grey hair was a good 6 inches down but because I had thankfully gone blonde just before I was unwell they didn't look that bad, bad enough but I just had no energy to get it coloured or even cut at that point. Then in March/April this year I went to the hairdresser's to get it tidied up and she asked if I wanted the last of my colour cut out so that's what we did. So I'm completely grey at 47 and my once poker straight hair if I don't blow dry it goes very curly and sticks out all over the place.

It's just conditioning, OP. I grew up with a mum who couldn't wait to go grey/white, she's been looking forward to it for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately for her, she's now late 60's & barely has any lol, she's well pissed off about it 😂. Someone commented just the other day about her dying her hair - she's never done that once in her life.

Anyway, it means I have no qualms about going grey & neither does my sister, I wasn't (inadvertently) taught that it's something to be embarrassed of - I think it's gorgeous.

It's totally up to you what you do though! It's your hair 😊

I've been dying my hair since I was 14 (I'm 56 now).

Somewhere alone the line it started to go grey - think I was about the same age as you?

Anyway, I've always loved myself but I just happen to love dying my hair too.

Whether you decide to dye or not, won't necessarily be a reflection of whether you love yourself or not.

I hear ya. I’ve had them from a similar age. I’m 45 now and they aren’t ‘too’ bad yet but have become more numerous and noticeable. I’d say you have a while before you have to worry. I dye mine- my head all over every few months and a top up of the roots and the hair around my temples a few times in between. I’m not quite ready to embrace grey yet. I’ve always loved my long thick dark hair 😞. I’m not sure what I’ll do. My hairdresser suggested starting to have it dyed a lighter brown and possibly highlights so it’s a more gradual transition. Not sure how I feel about that. I’m gonna keep doing what I’m doing for now. But some people look absolutely stunning with grey hair!

It depends also on the people you associate with, friends and job. In my job every women who is in a leadership position has Botox , fillers and dye their hair. It is not acceptable to look old basically. Not dyeing your hair is considered being untidy and unkept, and while there are no written rules of course, you can see that you can’t do a career if you are “unkept”. I obviously disagree as actually keeping grey hair well requires much more care than dyeing them, especially if you want a uniform colour you still need to go to a salon and use specific products, plus need a very good cut that needs to be kept well, but being in such environment influences people choice. My mum went grey and now it is white, I am 45 trying to maid partner and I am dyeing my hair every 3 weeks, started a bit of Botox and considering if to do more. I am not going to get promoted if I look old unfortunately

I've been going grey since my early 20s. Started as a little patch just off centre, and it just started to grow...

However, as a natural blonde, it wasn't very noticeable. I used to get highlights before I found the grey, and just carried on doing that. However, the grey started accelerating quite rapidly in my mid 30s, and my natural hair colour started getting darker. I started having it toned grey and at one point was spending around 6 hours at the hairdressers (my hair is usually very long and I have a LOT of it which didn't help)

I'm now 42 (nearly 43), and I stopped colouring it about 3 years ago. I absolutely love it! The front is pretty much white, and it gets gradually darker the further back it gets, although the white is creeping back now too. This photo doesn't really show just how white/grey it is. I get a lot of compliments on it, and people are generally surprised it's natural.

My grandad and my dad both had / have snowy white hair, and my grandma on my mum's side did too, so I have high hopes of it eventually all going white.

However, don't feel bad if you feel like covering it. You do you! I think greys in dark hair look really cool, but unfortunately, society still seems to associate grey with old 🙄and there's nothing wrong with wanting to avoid judgemental idiots x