Congratulate me, I have not dyed my hair for a whole year!!

[seashore]

Hi all,

since it turns out I'm allergic to hair dye I have now not dyed my long hair for a whole year. It has been hard sporting a two tone look. A very helpful person here put me onto the going grey looking great website which completely turned my views around about grey hair. I can't remember your talk name, I think there was a moon in it? but thank you, you really helped me out. I am soon about to get a chop as I am close to half and half at this stage but it has been a long year. I'm 42 and thought I thought I would dye my hair until 50. My mum never dyed her hair at all and she always looked great. I think I have about another 6 months of growing to be completely dye free.

The sites seem to be American. Are there any british ones or is it just not the done thing. The Gray picture one reminded me of Colour me beautiful.

I feel heartened to see this discussion - I thought I was on my own. I'm going grey and not dyeing my hair. I have very dark brown hair, I'm 40 any minute now, and it's going rapidly grey. My granny's hair was just like this, and she was raven haired at 40 and completely white by 50. I'm rather happy about it actually - I think it will suit me. I'm hoping for hair like the link above as short hair doesn't suit me at all!

What I hate is all the pressure to dye - every magazine article, hairdressers. I think it's horrible. I am still upset with my hairdresser and haven't been back since my last appointment when he told me that I should start dyeing my hair. He knows that I haven't done so and don't plan to - so why push it on me that way? What he is really saying is 'you are not acceptable'. I don't know a single woman in real life who doesn't colour her hair, and to be honest I find that really depressing.

Nah, what he's saying is "I'll make even more money"

I must admit it's really tempting to grow the grey out (which I've got lots of). But scary too - my natural colour is very dark so grey would be a BIG change.

What I don't understand is that there isn't a hair dye (that I've found anyway) which can cope with gently toning in charcoal grey salt and pepper hair. You can get blacks, browns, and various blondes, but they all fade to ginger, which clash with a lot of people's natural charcoal base colour, making rootage much worse.

I'm constantly on the lookout for a proper violety mink shade <a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=www.tophattaxidermy.com/images/ebay/silver-mink-taxidermy-image-2.jpg&imgrefurl=www.tophattaxidermy.com/taxidermy-silver-mink-2.htm&usg=__z96vrl6DnGsx5tVTHEXH-mjjakM=&h=754&w=566&sz=27&hl=en&start=20&sig2=jI_jWXXZNqEaG7YxDeYZ0w&zoom=1&tbnid=GD7Yhs9oDmYAtM:&tbnh=142&tbnw=114&ei=W1s_TcP-AoK74AaB4LH3Ag&prev=/images%3Fq%3DMINK%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26biw%3D1344%26bih%3D596%26tbs%3Disch:10,773&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=633&vpy=85&dur=9&hovh=259&hovw=194&tx=93&ty=137&oei=T1s_TbW0OMmBOp7cqJcD&esq=2&page=2&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:17,s:20&biw=1344&bih=596" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">something like this - somebody make one please!

This is inspiring. I'm 27 and getting my first crops of greys now - pretty sure that in 5 years I'll need to make a choice between staying natural and dying it. Thanks for the website - I think it features some utterly beautiful women. Well done to those who have decided to go grey, I can imagine that it takes a fair bit of courage to buck cultural trends like that.

started going grey at 16 yrs old. my mum was the same, and her mum.

i am early 40's now, and feel about 30, so there is no chance i want to go natural yet!

I have olive skin and very dark eyebrows/hair (the non grey bit!) so i would look ver strange imo!

i thought my mum was blonde when i was a kid! Had no idea she dyed it. I was shocked when i saw pics of her as a teen and she had chestnut brown hair.

Another one here who was inspired by the GGLG website. My natural hair colour is very dark brown, so the grey hair is starting to show. Previously, I'd been dyeing regularly, but the website caused me to have a bit of a rethink. I had my hair cut short, several times and now what I've got is all mine, completely undyed. I love the fact I don't have to worry about roots or regrowth or any of that malarkey - it's great.

And also, it's my small cultural blow for a greater acceptance of the natural and beautiful ageing process. We live in a youth obsessed culture (unhealthily so IMO) and seem to be worried about accepting older people/anybody who isn't Botoxed to the hilt.

I'm 46, proud to be middle aged and looking forward to embracing my inner grey goddess look.

Wow thanks! My greys have just started to come in, and I had been toying with the idea of dyeing them; my aunt was pewter silver by the age of 40. I am fairly sure now I won't go down the cover-up route.

I have dark brown hair & a few greys.

I occasionally use a mousse type dye with the result that my overall colour (which I love) stays the same & the greys go a paler brown.

It all fades out after a few washes & you end up back where you were.

When I get more grey I´ll just leave it.

I never want to dye completely grey hair & then decide to stop & end up growing that out.

Would rather not dye it at all.

catinthehat, that hair does look lovely but what about when she turns round. the hair i was admiring yesterday looked shiney and healthy but then the woman turned round and she looked washed out and old. its great if you don't mind looking older but i don't want to

Here here scuttlebutter

Congrats OP! Interesting topic - the number of women (and it only ever is women) at work who spend vast amounts of time calculating perfect times to get their roots done so they'll be fixed for xmas, new year, big night out, etc etc then trying to get appts sorted, plus the cost..... I am agog. Personally, I've never used hair dye - ever. An' I'll be 40 veeeerrrry soon indeed. Then again, I'm a ginger (clue's in the name) though not carrot - the type of shade that no dye can match! . First grey hairs when I was in my teens but they've come and gone, wierdly enough. [bgrin]

Hmm, liked the first couple of pics on the site then got scared - the packet of Natea/Nutrisse/whatever they've re-named it this month is in the bathroom!

Perhaps I'm lucky, I found a £4 hair dye that is v similar to my old colour at its best, just a hint more redness (though that could be the brown on the grey). And I don't have allergies. the problem is that I'm 10 years older than most of the other mums at school (most of them are early 30s) and at the moment I get people who are surprised when they realised I've already been-there-done-that with 40. If I let my colour show, I've instantly matched myself to my age. I don't have a problem with my age, but it is a hell of an ego boost when people think you're in your mid 30s and you're actually 42 :)

I have naturally dark hair and two mallen streaks right at the front either side of my forehead! I was looking through some pics a while back and thought it looked a bit unnatural as I dyed it to match the dark. In order to grow it out so the two tone thing is not quite so pronounced (because the mallen streaks are so obvious) I am using a daniel field mineral dye in a much lighter shade than my own. (I too am allergic to hair dye).This washes out after about six weeks so soon I will be able to just not reapply. My hair is quite long and naturally wavy and I no longer fight this either. Again looking back on pics of me a while back it looks odd and unnatural. I am 43. I never thought I would even consider letting the grey shine through so early but actually it works rather well. My mother has never dyed her hair but neither does she have the mallen streak!

I am 43 and dye my hair at home every three months or so. Cannot afford hairdresser costs. My mother is 66 and still dyes her hair as did my Grandmother, therefore, it has just become normal for me. I have one sister that does not dye her hair and has it quite short but for work I think I would have to be brave to let it go grey as am worried about job prospects if it ages me too much, especially with the obsession with youth at the moment. I did work with a woman with white hair who looked brilliant.

My mum never went grey.

Trust me to take after my dad!

Well done. I so want to stop dying my hair and go natural (=grey) but my DH is reluctant. I know I shouldn't give a fig about what he thinks but it's such a big decision that I'd love to give in to grey as I think it looks lovely. I'm 40 but look much younger and most people I know (not family) don't realise how old I am. Going grey would give it away but I would find that liberating! I need to work on DH.

that website is a revelation. They all look much better grey. Just so much more natural, and actually sexier, i think, probably because of it.

and has anyone yet thought of a female equivalent for 'silver fox'? or we could just claim that one for ourselves i suppose?

"but my DH is reluctant"

That´s awful.

Know you shouldn´t care about what he thinks.

Why is he so bothered?

Wow, just had a look at those women on the GGLG site - they look stunning. I have dark brown skin (I'm Indian) so I figure my skin can take grey hair. I'm not fully grey - judging by my roots there is still a lot of black hair in the mix so I guess I will look salt and pepper if I take the plunge and stop dyeing my hair.

I had a thought - perhaps when I'm next at the hairdressers I can talk through my plans with them and ask them to dye my hair so some of the grey still shows through then I can ease out of dying it slowly.

I used to work in an office in an industry where youth is key, which is why I ended up dying my hair every 6 weeks. Now I work from home and am self-employed so really I can create any image for myself.

Thanks so much for posting this thread OP - I am feeling inspired and now need to start gearing up for a change.

I will show the GGLG site to DH (who has salt and pepper hair himself and never dyes it!!!!).

diddl - I agree. It shocks me that I said that about my DH - he's terrific in so many ways (equal partner and looks after DD equally with me and does 50/50 housework even though he works 50+ hours in the City) but when it comes to my long black, quite nice, hair he comes over a little cave man (he finds my hair very sexy). I will work on it....

I know my husband would rather me be grey than have obviously died hair.

Diddl - you are lucky. DH finds my existing hair (which is dyed plain black as my natural colour used to be) very sexy but then again he's never seen me with salt and pepper hair (neither have I) - I am sure we will both find it very sexy too but I need to try it out...

Instead of the half n half look, surely it's better to just go for a really good short cut (Judy Dench stley) and go for au naturel straight away. Must say mid-length half n half just looks like you've run out of money and are letting self go a bit.

I'm an unnatural blonde, actually mousey with grey strands, if I had naturally white or salt n pepper hair, I'd deffo go for the short crop, white hair is esp stunning.