Going darker in middle age?

[Theala]

My hair is naturally light brown with reddish highlights - or at least it was twenty-odd years ago when it was last natural. I've been dyeing it blonde since then.
I'm a bit slapdash, so my roots often grow out quite a bit before I re-dye it (a friend once thought I'd gotten an ombre thing done to it, but no 😄) and my hair seems to be going darker at the roots these days. I don't seem to have many greys either from what I can tell.
I'm quite bored of being blonde now and would like to get it back to something more resembling my natural colour, even though I'm no longer quite sure what it is.
However, at my age (nearly fifty), I worry that going darker would just make me look a lot older. And after the last twenty years of sun and overindulgence, I don't need any more help in that respect, tbh.

Would this be a terrible idea? Has anyone does this and found they loved it? Or alternatively, found that what "they" say is true about it aging you?

Thanks!

It depends how dark you mean? I always think that going darker in middle age is what ages women. It isn’t just hair colour that lightens (aka goes,grey) but our skin tone also changes subtley alongside the hair colour, and pairing this with darker hair can look false and harsh.

I used to dye my hair almost black for a good decade, but since turning 40 I’ve had to go to a rich dark brown instead with a bit of red, the black felt far too draining. Instead of blonde how about a lighter brown? Again the hint of red might lighten it, if you naturally have some red in your hair. Like a dark caramel sort of colour?

I think roots can look very dark if you have your hair dyed a lighter colour because of the contrast. Decades ago my roots used to look dark because of this. When I grew the dye out there wasn't such a contrast and the roots did not look so dark. My hair does get much lighter in the lengths and towards the ends but it graduates so gradually you don't see a dark root at all. And hey presto I found when I do grow my hair at least shoulder length it is pretty blonde! Not the light brown/ dark blonde I thought it was. Now I have white streaks so just simply stain my hair with tea (made up in a tea pot!). That is enough to stain the white blonde enough to totally blend in.

I'm exactly the same dark mousey hair, had light blonde highlights from around the age of 18, I'm now 62, I haven't been to the hairdresser since the month before lockdown, I put a few in myself along the part line and fringe, but I'm thinking should I go natural, which is a lot darker then my highlights, I keep reading you should go lighter as you age, but I wondered if your natural hair colour should suit as that's the hair we are born with.