Look how grey I am!!!

[EyelinerQueen]

Story so far:

Have always been darkest brown. Started going grey at 24. Spent a fortune covering it.

Decided in January to bleach it and dye pillar box red. The bleach ruined my hair so I shaved it all off and decided to let it grow in grey.

I'm (only?) 33! I was recently diagnosed hyperthyroid due to Grave's Disease and have read a few articles that say there might be a connection between my premature grey and my thyroid.

Anyway now I just have to wait for it to grow grow grow. is my glamorous grey idol .

Anyone else embracing the grey?

I've been reading The Highland Fashionista's blog but her knock-kneed poses and dodgy outfits have put me off. Any other grey bloggers I should know about?

Ooh this is my favourite topic!!

I started going grey at the age of 17 - very obvious in my almost black hair. I dyed it for a number of years and stopped at the age of 30. Now at the age of 38 it is approx 75% white at the front but darker at the back.

My hair is curly and I work hard at keeping it in good condition to avoid my nightmare scenario of grey frizzy unkempt hair.

I try and dress nicely and wear make up so I don't just look like someone who has grey hair because they don't care how they look (if that makes sense!)

Since letting my hair grow grey I have had several compliments from strangers on my hair, once someone just walked past me in the street and said they loved my hair!

I really feel that it can be such a positive thing - take the bourgoise blog linked to higher up in the thread - Lauren on there looks absolutely beautiful with her grey hair but looked dreadful with the red dye.

I'm not much of a feminist but having grey hair is my one feminist stand; there is so much pressure to conform and dye your hair and I like to think I'm showing that you don't have to dye your hair to look good.

I'm also a convert to having your colours done with House of Colour if you are going to go grey, this really helps you make sure you look your best, and I look better with my grey hair now I'm wearing clothes and lipstick that are right for me.

She is beautiful I aspire to that too

Are you silver/ in the process of going silver Noddy ?

What products do you all recommend to keep it looking shiny? Provoke Touch of Silver seems to help tone down the brassy bits a tad and is very reasonable.

Now my hair is coming through I can see pure white,black and mid grey are going to be my colours with silver jewellery along with red lipstick.
I wish it would hurry up and grow now :)

Not yet still red! But I will never cut my hair and long and grey and still glam is what I will be hoping for :)

What colour clothes do you think work for silver hair?

You stay within the colour season you're in even if you go grey.

I used to wear a lot of brown when I had brown hair ... not so sure now if it goes with my silver locks.

TheFarSide are you an autumn? If so then brown would still be right for you.

I don't know what an autumn is, Myrtle. I have brown eyes though.

TheFarSide an autumn is one of the colour seasons people talk about on here in the House of Colour threads

Brown hair and brown eyes could be any season really! I have brown hair and brown eyes and am a winter, brown clothes don't suit me at all.

Interesting thread. I'm 40 and going very salt and pepper; still have the remnants of some ginger dye on the ends, though it doesn't look awful. My hair is naturally thick andbouncy, and I'm tempted to grow it longer (it's been v short - like 4cm short - for ages). I've been cogitating the dye question for a while - I'm really lazy and stingy and not bothering would suit me fine. But I'm wondering if grey hair is easier to carry off short than long?

It looks fab, EQ!

I'm 44 and my salt & pepper is still definitely more pepper. I'm quite liking the effect that one of the john frieda brunette shampoos has on it - it makes it sort of shimmer, especially when it's freshly cropped.

Fish - my hair is very much like yours in every way and it took me about 3 cuts to completely get rid of the red. Glad I've done it, now, though. I did most of my growing out during the winter, when it was hat season.

I've read this thinking I agree very much with what has been said, but for myself I really don't want to go grey. I do spend hours and a lot of money having the finest of high and low lights put in my hair which, as I'm naturally brown/mouse looks very natural. Yes there are a few greys that show but as Im 57 that is to be expected. I get it done every 12 weeks, and as it is so close to my own colour and I'm not really very grey it looks fine. I'm lucky that the greyest bits are underneath and not on top. My mother isn't grey yet ad she is 88 this year. She has stoped dying her hair but uses a mousse tht gives a blondey effect and looks rather nice.

Last year I went to a Bach concert in Bath one evening, part of a big festival. The audience were mainly couples of 50+ and there was a sea of grey heads, hardly anyone had coloured hair. Some wre frumpy types but most were very elegant, you couldn't deny that but somehow I really didn't want tobe part of that scene.

I think if more women were authentic with respect to their hair there wouldn't be a 'scene' it would just be the norm. We would see all the different patterns and tones of silver,pewter etc at different ages.

There is a real lack of grey high profile women under sixty. The automatic assumption seems to be that you must dye it. A lot of women are left with that obvious beige monotone thing,bright red, coal black or striped bleached look that is so generic. This is fine if you like it but how many women are tired of the constant upkeep and expense to look 'fake but at least not grey'?

When was the last time you saw a woman with natural hair that wasn't obviously processed ( grey or not)?

There is a lot said about grey hair ageing women but it might suit some individuals more to be natural -hair dye might actually be ageing them because it isn't working with their skintone. They may not realise just how beautiful their grey hair is because of the pressure to conform.

Also wanted to add that depending on your natural colour hair left in amongst the silver-some women find they turn a natural vanilla/cream blonde, others a beautiful taupe and others high contrast streaks in darker hair that usually frame the face.

Milminge I totally agree with your posts. My skin looks so much better since I gave up dyeing my hair - pinker and softer - and I actually do think I look younger.

I do believe the reason we think grey hair is ageing is because we associate it with people in their 60s and 70s ... yet if we all let ourselves go grey naturally, we would be used to seeing 30 year olds with grey hair and it wouldn't be such a big deal.

myrtle TIGI fashionista is a sulphate free violet shampoo. It is marketed at blondes but I am sure it would have the same effect on greys as touch of silver etc.

Interesting ouryve, I might give that shampoo a go. My hair does have a slight tendency to ginge so I might try a red one just to see what happens!

Right, I'm feeling brave & I could use some encouragement. I've posted a couple of pics to my profile. My last dye job was in late November & I'm at the 3 inches of grey roots stage.

At the one inch of roots / is that deliberate or has she let herself go stage & I had it chopped into an inverted bob. It's much shorter than I like & I've been feeling a bit frumpy. Everything's a bit patchy - remains of old dark dye which is a bit orangey at the ends, white mallen streak, salt & pepper elsewhere.

I'm about to turn 40 so having a bit of a mid-life crisis - I don't want to be grey yet! I think I do look older now but my hair is so dark, dye jobs were looking terrible all fake & dull. Have to add, DH does not like the new look! Please tell I'm doing the right thing?!

Can't see your profile Kahu.

I will say the growing out phase can be really painful and doubt-filled.

Maybe some of these could give you something to aim for ... ?

www.pinterest.com/deecoz/going-gray-looking-great/

P.S. My DH isn't keen and I think that's because having a wife with grey hair makes him feel old (even though he is grey himself) but I've had a very positive reaction from pretty much everyone else.

Arrgh! Should work now.
I could use a few positive reactions. The other day some random lady in a shop said "Oh! look at your hair What happened?" And a 4 year old asked me why I have white hair. DD says it's a bit like Anna from Frozen

I'm sorry I don't understand the negativity.
Your hair is absolutely stunning. Really beautiful. I love that face framing streak and the colour looks so much better against your skin.

You are so lucky to get that patterning.

kahu I genuinely think your hair is amazing!! I would love a streak, but maybe that's the old teen goth in me. And lets face it, who hasn't been insulted by a four year old- its what they do. Maybe we need to get a list of witty retorts together for the random, but inevitable comments embracing grey before sixty seems to provoke. I bet a lot of people love it, but have to resist the urge to dash up to you frothing at the mouth with enthusiasm. What sort of colour were you putting on it before?

Something I noticed a few years ago, I live up north, the young and grey are a very rare breed. A fare few in their fifties but no younger. when I visited Devon and Herefordshire I saw several women about my age (41), with greys. I liked the individuality, the bucking the trend of dye til you die and the fact that we all grey in our own unique way.

I have one box of nice n easy left. Ive said this before, but I will try to make it the last. Might as well use it. Its medium reddish brown. Looks too dark the first week, just right the second, then orange until I get round to re-doing it.

Wow! Thank you for the kind comments.

The dark brown colour is pretty much my natural pre grey colour. Pre-dyeing days it had lots of natural tones but dyeing it made it blocky, dark & dull. The best dye I ever found to match my natural colour was Daniel Fields Watercolours in Oak. It kept some nice tones & I got back some shine. But it fades fast & I'd have the white tideline at the front within 2 weeks. Like you Darkhorse I would get one nice hair week a month.

It's crazy, I objectively I can see that my greys are a nice texture & colour but it's so hard to get past the connection with grey hair & ageing. All the those beautiful women on the pinterest page linked to upthread - they all have amazing grey hair yet I think "but they are all much older than me!" I wish we could see more 30 somethings with their natural hair colour.

Your hair looks great Kahu - shiny and healthy with the white bits framing your face as Milminge said.

Here are some younger women with grey hair if that helps:-

www.pinterest.com/pinstepho/young-grey-hair/