To dye or not to dye

[Faceforradionamechanger]

My hair looks like this .....

I am 50 and have a few greys appearing. It has never been dyed before, ever.

I had the same thoughts ten years ago when my grey hair started to appear but never bothered. I am not very high maintenance. I wash it twice a week and don’t touch it in between washes. It’s very curly naturally so I dry it with a big round brush and run the straighteners over the top layer when I wash it.

Part of me quite fancies having something done (is due for cutting next week). I have it cut every six weeks.

Part of me thinks regrowth could be a pita. What if I don’t like it (see virgin hair comment above)?

I definitely don’t want anything ‘red’, have always quite liked my natural colour and always loved my hair.

What would dyeing it do to the condition of it?

I know I need to make an appointment with my hairdresser to discuss it but don’t want to get sucked in before thinking about it more myself.

Sorry for rambling .... advice from those less clueless than me will be very much appreciated 😎.

Sorry, I didn’t ask my question. Can you have ‘highlights’ in a similar colour to your own hair to cover the grey so you don’t get regrowth ‘lines’, maybe with a few lighter (but not much) ones or is that mad?

Suspect I will end up doing nothing again!

OK, I can only give you my personal opinion but here goes. Your hair is lovely, well-cut and looks to be in excellent condition. It's also a beautiful colour. I would leave well alone and just continue with the regular cuts.

I'm in my fifties and dyed my hair throughout my 40s until about a year ago. I stopped for various reasons - it's a faff but also because as skin tone changes, dyed hair begins to look mismatched iykwim. I don't have too much grey (but more than you) so the growing out phase hasn't been too painful. I feel strangely relieved. I think well-cut grey hair in good condition looks absolutely right on everyone - it's the natural colour after all, and seems to change in harmony with skintone changes.

Your hair colour now is right for your skin tone, and by the look of it, it isn't going to go very grey any time soon. Do nothing and, in particular, don't try to pluck out any of the greys

Thank you Franke, you see most of me thinks leave well alone but a tiny part of me is curious (but I am quite lazy and a bit of a 🐓)..

Your plucking comment made me 😂. They aren’t just grey, they have the texture of pubic hair 😳 .... and I do pull the odd one out at the front!

Yes, my first greys were a bit pubic and I plucked them relentlessly but that doesn't solve the issue. Part of the reason they look pubic is because you have curly hair, so they are short and curly. Once they get beyond a couple of inches they grow long, silky and beautiful. Honest.

If you only have a few greys I would leave it for now. It looks lovely.

By the time I was 50 my hair was almost totally grey. I as dyeing it its natural dark brown colour but the faff of keeping up with the roots got me down so 18 months ago I stopped and just let it grow grey.

It's not true that everyone's natural grey hair suits them; mind doesn't suit me. I am warm-toned and my hair is cool toned. It doesn't work. I think grey hair tends to look better with cooler or neutral skin tones.

So I am now trying to decided what to do as I don't want to get into the same trap as before but I cannot live with it this colour.

I wish I had your problem instead! lol! As said, I would leave off colouring until you absolutely have to.

Thank you! I will probably leave it then.

I have ordered bumble and bumble’s clear gloss treatment, I would like it if my shine came back properly (have had a few health issues recently and my hair seems duller to me).

OMG if i had my time over i would just leave it alone.

Started to go grey at 15 so could have got away with just being really young with grey hair but I started to dye it. I now have a base colour and highlights - costs about £60 a month to get it done and i do it every 2 weeks in between myself - never ending root growth - wish to god i had just left it alone.

now I am nearly 50 with dyed hari and I want to just let it go but would be a real shock.

I'm thinking of starting to have grey highlights put into it in an attempt to go grey gracefully. PITA.

If I could turn back time I'd never have coloured my hair.

The only way to get colour out of your hair is to grow it. With your length that could take around 2 years........ I'm nearly one year into growing my colour out and it's horrific.

Even highlights/lowlights are the same. Your hair is gorgeous.... leave well alone

I think a few carefully placed highlights and a glossing service would look good on you.
However, not all hairdressers are good colourists, many are mediocre so only go ahead if you know your hairdresser knows her stuff.

Franke, you give good advice, can I ask what you think about a mousey coloured hair, I had very light blonde hair until 10 or 12, now mousey brown, had highlights for 35 years bleach, I would like to grow them out, it's just I keep reading you should go lighter as you get older not darker, not sure what to do, would love to go natural.

and a glossing service

I don’t actually know what this is, have looked it up on my hairdresser’s price list £49 with my hairdresser. Him, my hairdresser is a him and yes, great salon with lots of staff development. £££ for where I live but they are very good.

OP I’m in a similar situation. I started pulling them out but that’s a full time job now. . I’ve been using one of those temporary dyes that say “lasts for 28 washes”. I use one very close to my natural colour and it covers my grey. I don’t want to start dying and get tied into keeping it up.

I like your hair!

If you decide to do anything, I think some "cool" colours would look amazing. Some streaks of purple / pink etc. But obviously not if that's not your style!

😂 Absolutely not my style firesong and definitely not appropriate in my professional life .... but thank you.

It's lovely. I think if it does go greyer it will be a great colour. I wouldn't bother - and I can't even remember when I started colouring my hair - like a lot are saying I wish I had never started.

Your neck looks like that of a 30 year old.

Thank you Greyhound! If only I looked like my 30 year old self from the neck down (or up for that matter) 😂.

Must be 95% lighting combined with the fact that I have always avoided the sun, always been ‘pale and interesting’, in my dermatologist’s words. Have had lots of atypical moles since childhood and a few lopped off here and there hence sun paranoia!

I have resigned myself to continue being just me. In addition to all the advice (and very unexpected lovely words) on here I googled the cost of colour etc at my hair salon 😳 when I was trying to find out what a glossing service was. None the wiser apart from price but I pay £65 for a cut and blow dry which would virtually triple with colour.

I don’t need anything enough to pay £180 at the hairdressers.

I think condition is more ageing than the colour of hair.
Colouring seems to wreak hair over time.
You have such lovely condition hair, I wouldn't touch it, maybe a few low/highlights at the most.