Going grey in your thirties...

[catswipe]

Has anyone else done this? I am beyond bored of colouring it. The dyes aren't cutting it. Inspiration needed.

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. Am 37 and have a significant amount of grey hair. I was almost considering the idea that maybe I should just embrace the greyness but I'm just not ready to do so yet - I don't think I'm one of those people who could pull it off without looking twice my age.

I shall watch and wait with interest to see if anyone has any bright ideas...

I have been looking at a 'going grey gracefully' website with transition pics.....wondering if I can pull off bandanas as a buzz cut would leave me looking like a butterball! I'm really jarred off with looking like I have bald patches when regrowth appears within a ruddy week. Grrrrr.

No way... Salon every three weeks for me!

Watching with interest too. I'm 30 and have an increasing number of grey/white strands, it's starting to get beyond the point where I can just pull them out when I see them (which has been my strategy for the last few years). I have black hair so they're very noticeable.

Always thought I would let nature take its course - but expected it to be another 10 years at least before I was in this position, and just don't feel ready to be grey!

I started going grey at 18. Hair coloured every 4 weeks, have noticed they blend in more when I'm quite a light blonde though. Currently red though

Best way is to get highlights and go blonder if you can get away with it. The grey is much more disguised and blends in with it so you don't need to colour so often. Darker colours fade so quickly on grey hair and the regrowth so much more visible.

My 11yo DS has a patch of white hair, only appeared in last 6 months.

Grey hair is rubbish, on me anyway. On my mum it looks lovely! I currently get it coloured every couple of months, but would be interested in what people think is most effective - semi, permanent, different brands etc.

I am 37 and have a number of grey hairs. My natural colour is brown so they are noticeable ! I get toffee/ caramel / honey (hair dresser speak for blonde) put through. It's fine & I can't even see them anymore.

I get hair done every 6-8 weeks x

Well going lighter doesn't suit me unless it's very cool toned. My hair will not bleach down enough after all the dyes, it goes gingery toned. I'm a Winter so I think I will be able to carry off grey but I'm 36. I would probably think I'm 3/4's white now. It's the growing out phase that makes me shudder. Has anyone let nature take it's course around my age?

My DH has been silver (note not grey ) since his late 20's. Men can carry it off much more easily, although if it gets too long he resembles Don King .

Nothunberlandalss - my dh has been greying for a long time too but being blonde he can carry it off too.

I was quite happy getting bonder & blonder too in my 30s but in my 40s (since being told that the highest number of woman asking for blonde highlights was women in their 40s) I have home dyed it (whilst surreptitiously pulling any grey out in the mirror to the amusement of family) & feel so much happier with it.

I have debated with myself about just going with the grey though.

I started going grey at 19, and decided I wasn't going to dye it for the next 80 years, so never have. I have a natural 'caitlin moran' now... getting a bit fedup of it now though, as I am starting to look my age (late 30s)

I've had a lot of grey since my mid 20s, wouldn't mind if it was a funky silver stripe like Caitlin Moran but it's random, wiry, course hairs all over the place. Looks awful so I dye it myself.

Yep - 37 and going grey gracefully. I rather like my silvery streaks and think it looks distinguished, but I have wondered whether I shouldn't try slowly dying my hair towards ash blonde over 20 years or so...

Nah. What a faff. Just make sure you have a fantastic grown-up cut.

38 & wrestling with the same issues here!
Why are the grey/silver ones always wiry, coatse & generally awful?!
I pull the more noticeable ones out, but need a plan before I start getting bald patches!
I'd love to go grey gracefully, but I'm not elegant at the best of times & work prevents a 'good grown-up' hairstyle.
I'll be watching this thread with interest too!

The reason I get 3 or so colours put through my hair rather than a block of colour is so the silver (I am going with silver now) doesn't show as much.

It is a bit of a faff and £££ but, so be it.

My mum is 68 and still has real salt & pepper hair, not totally grey. I remember my aunty going a bit grey in her 40's and taking the option to colour it silver !

When I was in my 20s I used to henna my hair - with the real stuff, that my dad brought back on his travels, not the weaker, sanitised European stuff. I used hibiscus flowers in tea to mix it. My long dark brown hair barely showed a change, but the white hairs would come out a gorgeous titian ginger. I loved it!

Now I can't be bothered, and no longer have access to real, hardcore henna, so I am pretending to grow old gracefully, with a short cut that disguises the wiriness of the white hairs. What I would really like is a product that colours only white hair, but in unnatural colours - aquamarine, emerald, scarlet, purple - so that I can grow old disgracefully!

I've know many peoPle with prematurely gray hair. The men carry it off with ease (it's rather attractive ) but the women only ever carry it off if they have poise and elegance. Otherwise it is sadly ageing. As I definitely lack poise and elegance, I have taken the first step of cutting my hair short, which is a somewhat more elegant look than my previous 'windswept' mess/BHD ponytail.

I'm almost totally silver at the front, and half and half at the back, and according to the DDs it doesn't make me look any older than the 40 I am. I stopped dyeing last summer, and it's almost totally grown out now. It needs a short choppy cut though, otherwise we reckon I'd look a bit witchy .

Meeting up with family I haven't seen for a while at the weekend, none of whom are backward about coming forward with opinions so we'll see how the dye-less-ness goes down.

There was a barmaid at one of the local pubs, she had long grey hair down to her waist - she looked amazing.
I know that I would never be able to carry that off. I'm going to have my hair coloured soon - am developing a badger streak - I'm sure most of my grey hair is developing at the front.

I'm almost 38 and have decided to stop having it coloured. Have grown out a very short white blonde crop to shoulder length (dyed) brown hair. Now have about two inches of grey roots coming through.

Am waiting to get a chin length cut. TBH I wear make up, nails groomed, am slim etc so not sure why I feel so strongly that i can't carry on with the hair dye. Possibly because i don't want to be 80 with un natural hair. My alternative is to cut it to chin length and have high lights to be an interim thing.