anyone fancy going grey next year?

[notactuallyme]

so, i've been toying with this idea for ages (am nearly forty) but always end up dying it. i thnk i'm going to go for it - anyone want a support thread for intermittent updates?

[soupmaker]

I love my grey hair. I went grey in my 30s. I've never dyed it as for years I had it cut in a French crop. I then decided to grow it and now have a curly grey graduated bob. I get loads of folk asking how I manage to get such amazing colour in my hair! The best advice I got was to use conditioner regularly and get a hair cut every six-eight to weeks.

[yuleheart]

I was talking to DH about this the other day.

I have quite long dark brown hair and dyes are just not covering the grey anymore.

I would love to be silvery grey but don't want to cut it short, think I might have to go lighter brown, then even lighter brown then grey.

I too would love to wake up tomorrow with gorgeous grey hair.

[bonzo77]

No fear! I tried it for 4 months last year. Did all the right things: went lighter first, short chic cut, purple shampoo. I looked washed out and old and shite. I was 34 looking 54. DH hated it but was too polite to say anything at the time. Today I am pillar box red.

[notactuallyme]

That may happen! I suspect I may hate it more than I hate dying it. I'm going to go cold turkey, and will post a non identifying photo asap (ie after xmas)

[KnittingChristmas]

An interesting thread. I am 40 and have been dying my hair for 20 years - last time I went to the hairdressers asked to go back to my original colour, knowing I would have a lot of grey, and the hairdresser had to break it to me that I was entirely grey .

I am not slim and couldn't get away with a chic hair cut and I fear that being completely grey would age me very badly but I would love to stop dying it .

Hmm . . . .

[twentythirteen]

I last coloured my hair September 2011. I have long hair so it took a while. I did have to change shampoo and conditioner, and it was hard the first several months when it was in the in between stage and looked straggly colourwise. Really had to grit my teeth. But am so pleased now, it's healthy and cheaper, interesting and hairdressers praise me! (I'm only 40!)

[Loveleopardprint]

I have been grey for about 4 years. I am 42. Always on here saying how much I like my grey. Just a word of warning re purple shampoo. Don't use it every day as it starts to look like you have had a purple rinse!!

[wigglybeezer]

I went for the pixie cut. to be honest I am not very grey so didn't have very noticeable roots anyway as I just had crown and parting lowlights. I wanted a chic style to make it easier to go grey in the future. treated myself to really stylish new glasses frames too. I haven't persuaded my greyer friends to follow suit yet although one is wavering.

[niminypiminy]

I've been grey for about five years now and never - or hardly ever - looked back. At one stage I tried having ash highlights in my grey hair, and that looked ok, but not so very much different from my silvery streaks on dark, now anthracite hair. I spend money on getting my hair cut - now in a crop inspired by stunning pictures of grey-haired Jamie Lee Curtis - and aim to get it done every four-five weeks.

Funnily enough I had a dream last night in which I dyed my hair purely-brown (the last dye colour I used), and then was filled with panic and regret about having got rid of my lovely grey hair.

[niminypiminy]

Not purely brown - bloody auto-correct- purply-brown!

[3b1g]

I last hennaed my hair in June and am now making a positive decision to grow the grey out, so it'll be good to have some company! I have about three inches growth of scattered grey in my shoulder-length hair plus a grey/white streak at the front.

I will be forty in a couple of weeks and now have enough grey that this is my last chance to grow it out without it looking really bizarre in the interim.

DD (8) asked me a couple of weeks ago: "Have you decided to let the silver bits grow because you remembered how nice they look?" which has helped me keep going.

[Chippychop]

Love the thought of having classy silver hair. Quite cowardly about doing it. I used to have a silver 'Mallon" streak am now v grey underneath the hair dye. Good luck you have my admiration!

[drownangels]

Not a chance if I can help it!!!

[Isabeller]

I've got some grey but still mostly dark, have never dyed so here to support but I am not all that glam.

My very very glam friend however used to self dye and it started looking less great then got professional dyes which were brilliant for a good while then, in late 40s I think, decided to go grey and WOW!! Looked and looks amazing, very glam cut and she is always beautiful anyway. Still WOW 10 years later. Go for it!

[TheFarSide]

I am 50 and would love to get away from the tyranny of touching up my grey roots but my hairdresser says grey wouldn't suit my colouring! My original colour was auburn/brown and my skin is pale and sallow and aged .

[FellatioNelson]

I think I will put this off until i am 50 too. 3 and a bit years to go then. Phew! Although I agree about the tyranny, and the bloody COST!

My fear is that, the same as TFS, after the purgatory of looking absolutely shite for 18 months it turns out that it really doesn't suit me anyway, and I just look worse, and older.

[cafecito]

I found my first grey hair at 21... then I went throuh a very stressful time when I was 23.. and they just proliferated rapidly. I now, at 26, have to dye my hair every 2 months or I look awful (naturally very dark hair, but my grey hairs are bright white!) I'd love to look like Carmen Dell'Orefice when I'm old enough to get away with it..

[Aquelven]

I did it years ago, started going grey in my teens, after dying it all through my twenties. Best thing I ever did.
I suppose I'm lucky that it is that bright, white/silver, in fact it's the same colour & style as the link cafecito gave to Carmen Dell'Orefice, though I'm no where near her age yet!
It suits my skin colour so much better than the dye job ever did & I get loads of compliments on it.

[notactuallyme]

yes, I'm quite excited about it: although am also extremely fickle and may decide to dye it red again. At the moment I have wings and threads, going to stick it out anyway.

[twentythirteen]

Just googled "athracite" - lovely word, lovely colour!

I'm still mostly dark too, but the grey is clearly in there, with some streaks around the face which I particularly like. I'm auburn brown (more brown than auburn), Thefarside, with brown freckles and pale skin. Do you know what sort of grey you'd be naturally? I'd always worried about what sort of grey I'd have. Some are a faded yellowish colour, I'm not thankfully, I'm white, I wish I was silver! I have thought about getting some highlights put in but am very happy being natural after ... 20 years off and on so will wait a bit longer.

[MamaWomanAha]

My mum went totally grey in her 30s. She got fed up of dying it so wore a wig for a few months whilst it all grew out. Apart from the fact it was the heatwave of '76 it was very successful

She does have the most beautiful white hair though and looked much, much younger when she had it cut very short.

[drownangels]

But Cafecito even Carmen Dell'Orefice doesn't look like that picture of her. It's photoshopped to high heaven!!

[doglover]

Please could someone link to a suitable 'purple shampoo' for me? Many thanks

[JRsandCoffee]

Thank you for asking the shampoo question Doglover!

Would love to join the thread, last dyed mine in April and them didn't want to dye it while pregnant. Started out with long dark hair now have a mostly grey bob! Am being driven slightly mad by last bits of dye and dithering for the first time but reading this has made more determined!

[CMOTDibbler]

I use Touch of Silver weekly treatment 2 or 3 weekly, and the Trevor Sorbie shampoo for platinum hair in between. The Lee Stafford Bleach blondes stuff is good too