"Menopausal blonde" hair - why do women do it?

[ISeriouslyDoubtIt]

Just been to lunch with a group of friends aged late fifties to early sixties whom I've known for decades. Of course we're all looking older, but none of us are the type of people who have Botox/fillers/tweakments, but we all wear some make up and at various times most have dyed their hair.
I'm a natural redhead but started to go grey in my thirties and then dyed my hair for 25 years till COVID when I grew it out and stayed white/grey, it looks fine and better than dyed red hair with an older face.
Several of the group have dark hair, brown eyes and olivey skin. All of them, as they got into their fifties, started dyeing their hair a yellowy blonde. Without fail it looks awful, it just doesn't suit their skin tones at all. They would look better if they just let the grey come through, or have it dyed a lighter brown.
I see so many women of a certain age with this generic blonde, on people that aren't naturally blonde it invariably looks wrong, why do they do it?

It’s lovely. I think blonde looks great on those going grey, and better than grey (sorry). Most women I know with this look nice in my opinion.

What business is it of YOURS if other women dye their 'greying hair' blonde?

I stand by everything I said in my post to you. You sound jealous of other women, and your posts are very rude. Get on with your own life and stop investing so much time in how other women CHOOSE to look!

Oh and good for you that 'fortunately SOME posters agree with you!!!' Have a medal why dontcha?! 🏅

Well I have no intention of going 'menopausal grey'...and love my 'menopausal blonde'. Have yet to see a 'menopausal grey' woman who looks good with their 'menopausal grey' hair 😉

My friends and I were chatting.
Friend one & I have grey hair.
Friend two dyes hers blonde.
Friend two: “I’ll be the only 95-yr-old lady with blonde hair.”
Friend one: “And you’ll look stupid, too.”
lol

A very simple explanation is that a dark blonde hair dye very quickly changes to light blonde when you get a bit of sun on it. So, unless you're going to dye it very frequently, you will always have quite a long period of light blonde - which I, personally, like on any age of woman.

I really hope that, in order to make things fair, as well as criticising me, you're also going to criticise the many women on here who have said how awful grey hair looks and also the one who actually said men look better with grey hair than women.
In terms of 'inwardly', of course I meant in real life. One of the points of an internet forum like Mumsnet is that you can ask questions of strangers that you couldn't ask in real life.

To be fair I have, I’ve a friend, she’s very tall and slim, and she let hers go grey and cut it really short in a very edgy style, sort of a number 2 at the sides but long and messy on top. She really suits it. I couldn’t get away with it,but to be fair she rocks it,

Yes you can post whatever rubbish you like OP, but as long as you don't mind having your arse handed to you for your unnecessary judgement of women.

The posters declaring grey hair to be awful are just as pathetic and lacking. Your thread though, you deserve to be pulled up on it.

There really isn't anything gained from judging women on their looks. I hope you stop doing that but I doubt you will.

I have a friend who has done this too and looks fab with it, but also wears quite loud lipstick to compensate for the lack of colour. I have really good skin and don't like wearing a lot of makeup so prefer to colour my hair instead and I also like my hair longer.

I think this is why I find your posts a little hypocritical.

You are at pains to point out that you simply wouldn’t dream of discussing anything as pedestrian and low brow as a person’s appearance (clutches one’s pearls) whilst also systematically making comments on people opting for tweakments, the amount of make up people wear and the colour of their hair.

Is that meant to be funny? (I gather it is by the way you said 'lol' at the end.)

It wasn't funny.

HTH.

That is gorgeous.

This. ^ Funny thing is, like lots of very critical people, the OP seems to enjoy dishing out criticism and bile, but can't take it when it's dished back out to her.

One of the points of an internet forum like Mumsnet is that you can ask questions of strangers that you couldn't ask in real life.

But why are you asking such a stupid question, to which the answer is an obvious 'Because they like it'?

Have you also started threads asking...

"Why do people eat chips?"

"Why do people ride bikes?"

"Why do people own pets?"

If not, why not?

What rubbish!

I don't think you can have read my comments properly.
I was talking about a particular friendship group in which appearance isn't ever something we have discussed much if at all.
I didn't say I never talked about it whatsover, because I was only talking about that group of friends. I do sometimes talk about it with other friends and family. So your assumption that I think I'm above such things is wrong, as is your comment that I'm hypocritical.
I do think tweakments don't make people look younger and I can't see the point in them, so if you view that as negative then I'm guilty of that.
I haven't made any comments about make up apart from stating that I have started to wear less and that the women in that particular group wear some.
Obviously I've made comments about hair because that's what this thread is about.

You come across as a smug hypocrite. It's a bit pathetic to moan about people having a go at you when you started a snarky thread sneering at your friends behind their backs.

👏 100% this! ^

This is my hair when I had it dyed blond (before it started falling out due to a reaction between my scalp and the bleach) and then natural. I loved the blonde hair do which was done professionally, but seriously £150 a month and it only looked good for about a week as my hair grows very fast. Quite honestly the blond is better, I'm considering some kind of semi permanent next but I've got to grow it all out first.
I'm not bald in the middle, my hair is just very white and doesn't show up.
I did try balyage but I didn't like it.

It does reek of "grey evangelism" and the "militant grey" one often finds here. The question posed in this thread could have been answered in your mind with a quick scan of possible options. These women could choose to:

1. go grey - but presumably they don't like the look of it on them, etc
2. get their hair dyed in subtle and beguiling multishades of caramel (acceptable!) at the hairdressers - but presumably they don't like the faff or the money or the time spent at hairdressers
3. whack on a box dye in a shade that appeals

How that dye responds to shampoo and time and their particular hair is one thing, and even though you find it an unpleasant shade of blonde, perhaps they like it.

I am 100% sure you and the other grey-is-not-ageing! types would not approve of my hair dye colour choice either, which makes me really happy.

I see a lot of ladies in that age category with blonde hair. I think it usually looks flattering!

Lighter hair, whether it is blonde, light red, light brown, light grey or white is softer and more flattering on an older face, in my opinion and with of course, some exceptions. It is possible that some of the ladies you know have not changed their clothes and makeup since having darker hair, and now there's a bit of a clash.

At the end of the day though, it is just hair. Maybe they just always wanted to try out being blonde and if it doesn't suit them, who cares.

"Menopausal blonde". Really? Your attitude sounds nasty and judgemental @ISeriouslyDoubtIt

Well done on going natural. 👏🏻🙄

Hopefully you'll have kinder friends that OP's friends have ...

It does. I’m grey blending now and can’t wait to go lighter as my hair goes greyer! I’m hoping for an icy platinum by the end of it.

My advice OP , when you're in a hole stop digging.