Has anyone grown out the grey and then gone back to dyeing?

[balzamico]

My hair is completely natural now, it's virtually white, but I have a suspicion it's really ageing me. I'm only 52, and I don't want to look like a well preserved pensioner!
I dyed it for years as the greys started early but the recent years ended up with some gingery/ brassy colours that were terrible.
I've been with my hair salon for 20 years and I love them but I wonder if I need to change. I've tried and failed to attach a photo, I'll try in a new comment box

Another one to say your hair looks beautiful, but needs a sharper more modern cut to look younger/fresher. Not even saying go super short or anything. But I think the colour is lovely. You may also consider if you wear makeup to change it up if you wear the same colours and style it could be aging. Maybe watch some tutorials on YouTube for your colouring or look up style images to see stylish looking women with grey hair and emulate what you like

I think it's your style that looks older. The colour is lovely!

Me!!! I’m like a new woman! I had let it go white and it looked quite nice. But I’ve gone back to blonde and feel a LOT more like myself.

Dubbe, l think your hair looks gorgeous when it was white!

Thankyou. I think it aged me though. The back was darker, more of an iron grey.

I did, turned out it was patchy pepper-and-salt and looked messy in a pixie cut. . I’m 51 and will try again when there’s more silver. I saw my sister today for the first time in ages, she’s younger than me but already has much more white and it looks great on her. For those of us with dark hair it’s like a chance to be a platinum blonde.

I've grown mine out and just cannot imagine undoing all that effort to dye it again and have to go though the pain again. I agree that it's the style that needs sharpening in some way, OP. But, eventually, maybe even grow it longer?

I think Dubbe' looks amazing with white hair! Really striking.

Yes Dubbe looks stunning. It suits your colouring.

Op, you could try a new hairstyle as pps have suggested and see how your looks then?

I think if you just got a couple of inches off in a blunt cut it will make all the difference, I keep forgetting that people haven't got to the hairdressers because I cut my own hair.
Most people have darker hair towards the back. When I first grew my dye out it looked very patchy because I keep my hair short. It had lightened a bit more this time.
Mine is very white at the front

I grew the length a bit last year and this is the colour after using Head and Shoulders, sorry it's a bit blurry.

I’m 57 and went grey during lockdown. I have had a short crop for a few years anyway but was dyeing it. I think I look ok.

Thanks for the Head and Shoulders tip BTW. Funnily enough I used it yesterday as DH always uses it and had left it in the shower.

I had my hair cut and coloured last on 26th November and have about two inches of growth. Because I have three colours put in and it's coloured to an ashy blonde/light brown it isn't stark. If I was silver/grey all over like the op or Cocolapew I'd go for it but it isn't, it's a nasty patchy salt and pepper affair.

Have had highlights to liven up my "natural rodent" since I was 16. Oddly, my eyebrows are really quite fair.

Lovely colour... but a restyle would lift it. Snappy short at back , longer at sides and longer on top. Ask for younger styles in hairdressers.

A lot depends on your colouring. I used to darken the grey around my face to match my natural colour but in my late 40s it suddenly looked too dark and made my skin look papery. My colouring is cool and I can't just 'go two shades lighter' as you're instructed to do as you age, the tones are too warm. So I grew it out.

It looked great short (with a quiffy top, like Tilda Swinton) but when longer it looks faded, dishwatery and stringy. I'd put white highlights at the front (where most of the grey is) and darken the rest if I was sure it wouldn't go brassy (which it will). I'm not eager to get back on the treadmill of colour but I can't leave it as is, it looks awful.

@Cocolapew, I love yours. I especially love the slightly longer length.

Op, your hair looks lovely!

Dubbe your hair is gorgeous when it’s natural- you looks stunning!

I think natural grey/white hair suits everyone because our skin tones change as we get older- dyed hair next to old skin isn’t a great look and I wish more would embrace grey hair

@Dubbe, you look lovely both ways.

I agree that it matches your skin tone. Mine is white round the temples and hairline. I used to love bleaching my hair when l was a goth, and it’s the same effect now ( well not quite- no back combing or hairspray!)

I also have cool colouring and have suffered from the 2 shades lighter thing.

But I’m stuck for a hairstyle. I have a very long face, and these are meant to avoid short hair. Although l suited a quiff in my younger days, l feel the quiff moment has passed. I have a little head so need a lot of hair. It’s really thick. But l showed dd some hairstyles and she dismissed them all as Grandma styles😁

Dubbe you looked great both ways but now I would say you were in your 30s.

I think grey/white can sometimes age you, but that depends on the cut and your style. If you had a very classic style before, then the grey could be the thing that tips you over into matronly.

However if you have a funky style before, then it can look "cool Art Professor".

But it never ever ever makes anyone look less than at least 55. That's cool if you don't care, but I dont want to look 55 until I'm 65!

And some people have really young faces and dye will literally fool people. I have a colleague at work who is 50 but went pure white almost overnight in her 20s as the result of the shock of an accident. She looks about 38 now because she has a young face and brown hair, but in lockdown her white roots have begun to grow out and the disconnect is quite surprising! You can see how if she let it go that she would look an awful lot older overnight. She's very self conscious of her roots too and desperate for hairdressers to open.

What would be a funky style though?

I’m a design teacher so nearly an Art professor!

But l did the Terry Hall hair at 18. Not sure l want it again...

Thanks Gertrude
You're never too old for a quiff @ArseInTheCoOpWindow

No l know!! But l had one first time round. I do like them!

But it never ever ever makes anyone look less than at least 55. That's cool if you don't care, but I dont want to look 55 until I'm 65! grin

What a ridiculous blanket statement! A 40 year old does not look 55 just because they don't dye their grey hairs.

@DietrichandDiMaggio

But it never ever ever makes anyone look less than at least 55. That's cool if you don't care, but I dont want to look 55 until I'm 65! grin

What a ridiculous blanket statement! A 40 year old does not look 55 just because they don't dye their grey hairs.

I don't understand why people insist that if you have grey hair you automatically look so much older than you are. I can think of plenty of women I work with who look older than they are and not one has grey hair. I'm not saying their hair colour has any bearing on it, some people just look older than they are. I'm not one of them

I think you need to have defined and probably quite dark brows. I have light coloured hair (70 years old) but dye my brows, makes my face more defined. And a fashionable cut. Though yours is nice but hair seems to need to be long shoulder length or below, or chinlength or shorter. (At 70 you can imagine I'm a real fashion whizz so ignore if you want)