Grey Hair

[Coffecake99]

My hair is quite grey which I currently highlight. I'm tempted to let it grow out and see what my natural colour is. I'm interested to see what others hair is like if you have been brave and stopped dying your hair. Do you think it ages you ?? Thanks in advance

Joan Baez is beautiful so would look good with any hair do. But, would she look BETTER with dye? My opinion is she would.

Davina McCall is a very good advert for the youth giving properties of coloured hair - she is about fifteen years older than Sarah Harris.

Ii don't really like doing these comparisons and Davina McCall does look great but personally I'd take Sarah Harris as my style crush. I think she looks more striking and interesting.

It's all personal preference isn't it, and I find it fascinating. Also like seeing make overs and before and after shots.

I suspect I'm boring at heart because I think Davina just looks so much more vibrant, healthy and glowing. I obviously prefer conventionally attractive over striking and interesting .

When I had grey hair I pumped myself up for a while thinking "Yeah! I'm fighting against society's expectations and all that," then I'd catch a glimpse of my reflection in a shop window and think "Fuck... I look really old and really shit." Eventually vanity won. I just wanted to feel like myself again.

Yeah it's just personal preference. I'd probably walk past Davina McColl in the street whereas if I saw Sarah Harris, I'd think, 'hey she looks interesting.' But it doesn't make me more interesting as a person - or you boring

Men don’t pay £££ and spend hours to have damaging - and possibly carcinogenic - chemicals on their hair.

They can if they want to though. Annoyingly most men carry off greying hair with aplomb.

You'd be surprised..idk,if they have this over there, but here there's a whole hair dye line "just for men" and an enormous amount of hair loss advertisements aimed st them.
Of course they're "allowed" to grey gracefully , and can just easily shave their balding heads.

Do most women look younger with dyed hair?
Yes.

But 'younger' doesn't necessarily mean better, and that takes some getting your head around.

I see women in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, who look a vast deal better than a lot of women in their 20s.

I think that whatever you do you have to adapt to looking different.
Dyed hair = adapt to the new colour, maintain the colour, find the £ for dye.
Grey hair = accept that you will look different than with your old natural colour/dyed hair, adapt to textural hair changes.

I think my grey hair looks pretty - it's mostly at the front of my hair at the moment. But in photos I sometimes look washed out - not older than my age necessarily, but just less contrasting and colourful compared to others in the same photo who have highlights etc. I do wear neutral colours and soft makeup though. So maybe it is that.

I see plenty of bad dye jobs around! That can look pretty ageing too. Lots of elements can make you appear "old", not just your hair colour. I hope I look like an attractive woman who just happens to have silver hair.

I just couldn't keep up my old colour, it no longer looked good. I had very dark hair and very pale skin, once my eyebrows faded a little (still quite dark) it looked too harsh. Mid ash brown faded to blorange, light brown/blonde went yellow. My hair grows quite quickly, which was a prize pain when I dyed it, but has been helpful growing it out .

I don’t think Davina mccall is a fair example of the age thing though as she looks years younger than she is. Nothing to do with her hair, just how fit and healthy she is

I think the main reason people think grey hair makes you look older is because for many years we haven't seen women with grey hair unless they are 60+, so we associate grey hair with over 60s.
In reality if somebody of 50 doesn't have any visible grey then 9 times out of 10 it's dyed.

You are right allpizzas. The reality is that actually going grey is quite a young thing, for many women in their 30’s or even 20’s in some cases

I don’t think Davina mccall is a fair example of the age thing though as she looks years younger than she is. Nothing to do with her hair, just how fit and healthy she is

To be fair most women on TV are not a fair example, as they almost all have work done on their faces that the ordinary woman on the street doesn't.
I don't actually think Davina looks that much younger than her age, but she looks good and has lots of energy because she has a very healthy lifestyle and her addictive personality means she puts a lot of effort into it.
I also don't believe her hair colour is the result of her using whatever box dye it is she advertises over her bath at home.

Definitely agree with that Pizza - as if Davina and Holly Willoughby colour their hair with a £5.99 box of Nutrisse or whatever it is .

It's down to the individual, isn't it? OP asked for opinions from people who have gone grey. I've read countless threads on here with women my own age extolling the virtues of grey hair (I never met these people in real life!) and I went along with it for long enough to completely grow out the dye. It wasn't the right decision for me and I feel much better as a brunette.

Just caught up with this thread. I think it's an interesting observation that blue/green eyes look better than brown eyes with grey hair. DH has blue eyes and looks amazing with grey hair. I think he looks more handsome now than when he was younger. I look washed out, tired and not myself at all with paler hair.

I hate it so I'm doing my roots tomorrow with a salon colour. I'm looking forward to feeling like my normal self again. It's very strange but I have lost my mojo recently and I think my half grown out hair has definitely contributed to that.

Kudos to those who posted pictures of their fabulous silver hair. If there was a way to jump instantly to that I would do it but I'm not ready for the growing out process.

Delilah you're right it does say permanent but it doesn't give me grown out roots like when I had permanent colour done in a salon, it just seems to wash out eventually. I have to do it fairly often but salon colours were always either too red or too dark.

“They [men] can [dye their hair] if they want to though.” Why don’t more want to? Because there is little social pressure on them to do so.

“Annoyingly most men carry off greying hair with aplomb.” Implying most women don’t: sexist.

@Dozer
Actually, many men do!

No, only a tiny proportion relative to the proportion of women who do.

I have been going grey since I was 20 and always been too lazy to dye it. Also the first sign was a Cruella type streak in my black hair which I quite liked.

IME it's the menopause which has had a greater impact on my skin condition than the amount of grey hair around my face - I'm 50 now. My solution is tinted moisturiser.

I have noticed that in restaurants where the protocol is to serve the most senior woman first, I always get served before older women with coloured hair. I assume from this that generally society assumes grey haired women are older. It doesn't (often) bother me. And I really really hate seeing roots come through on people

@janejeffer

Ahh okay. I have not tried the Olia range though, so I'm more than happy to give that a try.

Thank you.
X

“Annoyingly most men carry off greying hair with aplomb.” Implying most women don’t: sexist.

Yes, thank you - I thought someone might say that. However, it's true. Look at how women rave about "Silver Foxes" like Martin Kemp and George Clooney - can you name me a single grey haired woman who men regularly fete because of her grey hair? (Of course there are barely any in the public eye. Helen Mirren is regarded as sexy but I would describe her as ash blonde).

I've heard it said plenty of times that men look distinguished with grey hair, and personally I agree but I think, as with women, it comes down to the cut. On women short grey hair looks chic and stylish. Men with short grey hair look good; wearing it longer looks scruffy and unkempt.