What does everyone think of grey hair?

[SilverDoublet]

Over the last 2 years I grew out my hair, it's quite grey but I just couldn't handle the regrowth reappearing every 3 weeks and didn't have time or money to deal with it. My hair was quite dark so I had been dying it dark brown. But now it's pure white in places, salt and pepper on top and still dark underneath. I asked a hair dresser if I should go blonde to hide regrowth but she said Im too dark. And I can't stand the regrowth with brunette. What do people think of grey? Or what does everyone else with hair like this do? I'm 45, don't like looking so old...

I think blending it is the way to go. At some point it is ageing to have dark brown and it looks very fake. I like grey. I do use henna to blend.

40 and yes, brunette. She started to go grey very young, but if I remember correctly, she dyed her hair until she was 30 and then just let it grow.

Which silver sparkle do you use please? I might have to do the same!

Ignore this..I see you’ve answered! Thank you.

I’m mid 30’s and the greys are well and truly coming in now.
I always intended to embrace the grey but rather hoped I’d be older when it happened.
But it’s coming through as bright white hair that’s very fine, my hair is currently very thick brunette with lots of natural coppery bits.
So I am slightly re-thinking it, I guess I’ll have to see what it’s like when it’s more than a handful of greys and if I can afford for it to be dyed!

I love mine. It's silver with a few dark patches. When I get fed up, I occasionally dye it blonde. It's extremely short so doesn't take long to grow out.
It may or may not make me look older, I tend to think it's my neck that does that though!

I had light brown hair and started having blond added into it in my forties . In my 60s I started dyeing it blond myself at home which always looked ok . I decided to grow it out after covid and now have totally white , quite fine , hair . As I’m now 72 it looks fine .

I'm nearly 41 and have never dyed my hair. It's dark brunette and I'm letting it do it's own thing. I have quite a bit of grey / white now, and a badger stripe. I'd say it's pretty noticeable now. I have mixed feelings. The colour doesn't bother me, it's more the texture of the grey - it's coarse and frizzy. I'm going to invest in some good hair products to make it look more polished. I don't want to dye it. Box dyes might be OK for a bit, but sooner or later they start looking really harsh against your skin - unnatural, and like you're wearing a wig. Salon jobs are much better, but time consuming and expensive. I don't want to tip a load of chemicals on my head every few weeks. It's grim. Grey may be aging, but I am getting older. Hair dye isn't kidding anyone. I'd rather spend the money on some nice hair stuff, some colourful new clothes so I don't look as drained. Ultimately, it's just social conditioning. Men don't have to deal with this madness, so why should we?

Box dyes might be OK for a bit, but sooner or later they start looking really harsh against your skin - unnatural, and like you're wearing a wig.

So people keep saying on this thread. And yet they are shocked - shocked! - by others saying that they think pretty well everyone who goes grey looks much older, and find that very cruel.

Salon jobs are much better, but time consuming and expensive.

I dye my own hair better than any salon I've been to. It isn't that difficult. I use salon products and tools bought from a salon supply shop. But I've also had good results with box dyes, from particular brands that suit me.

It's not one or the other, ie.

So people keep saying on this thread. And yet they are shocked - shocked! - by others saying that they think pretty well everyone who goes grey looks much older, and find that very cruel.

I'm not shocked by some people saying they think grey hair is ageing. I'm curious as to why it's seen as the most important factor in deciding to dye or not dye. My own view is that 'looking younger' and 'looking better' aren't necessarily the same thing.

White steals all the animation from my face and eyes. I look so much brighter and prettier with coloured hair, so there is no way, I'm letting it go white.

Those of you smugly proclaiming that "you can always tell" or that coloured hair is "flat" and "harsh" (preferred word on this forum). I don't care. I've got lots of lovely coloured hair and it's staying that way.

I'm not joining you.

My point is there have been multiple foul comments degrading the looks of women who have dyed hair, and many little whimpers about how cruel the thread is for saying grey does not improve a woman's look, for the most part.

Here are a small smaple of some dye comments:

I think a harsh dye job is more ageing
Badly dyed dried out hair and stripes of grey root growth usually looks far worse than naturally grey hair!
box dye looked crappy
I think grey hair in most cases looks a lot nicer than tinted hair, especially when it's dyed quite dark. It can jar then with the skin colour and look very unnatural and harsh.
A few with obvious box dyes that looked quite harsh and unnatural

Here are some upset anyone would say anything negative about grey hair ones:
What a depressing thread. I have grey hair, so obviously must look like a hideous old hag. Thanks. Sheesh.
I know! Brutal.
Why are some women so ashamed about ageing they are trying to shame other women too?
I'm really surprised and saddened by so many comments on this thread about women looking 'older' with grey hair.
Of course it’s acceptable to sat that you don’t like grey hair. It’s the comments such as it looks witchy or it shows that you have let yourself go which are frankly both unpleasant and unnecessary.

Insulting women who dye their hair for whatever reason is also frankly both unpleasant and unnecessary - but always deemed perfectly acceptable on these embrace the grey threads.

I do tend to agree that younger women are more likely to be going grey naturally compared to our mothers for example. I'm late 30s and many of my friends in their late 30s and their 40s are now going grey and leaving their hair to do its thing. I'm one of them. My SIL is in her early 40s and now quite grey and my best friend is 38 and has a mallen streak that looks amazing. I have a 40 year old friend that is completely steel grey and is my style inspiration! I'd say it isn't at all unusual for women my age to be "embracing the grey" even as our mothers in their late 60s and 70s are still dyeing theirs.

Personally, I like the move towards embracing how how we naturally are and not having to faff about with hair dye. A bit like how in my 20s my friends and I used to go out clubbing in ridiculous stiletto heels that killed our feet and now Gen Z are embracing the trainers....and good on them! Fashions change and I think we're going to see more women going grey younger than we have previously.

Totally agree with you about feeling duped!! After covid I looked around and realised the majority of the mothers at my kids school were dying their hair, like 95%. The only ones that weren't were the people with hardly any grey.... What a massive, costly, time consuming, planet polluting charade.... So I stopped.
The other thing was that my mum and aunt never went grey, never dyed either, into their 70s so it was completely shocking that my hair is so grey and white in my 40s, didnt see that coming. Funny thing was, after growing it out using the coloured spray and then stripping that out, my mum and kids assumed I was dying bits of my hair white 🤣. My mum said, 'I don't know why you would want to dye your hair like that' Thanks mum, it's all natural.

"Planet polluting". Yeah right

Of all the things I do directly and indirectly to harm the environment, the hair-dyeing is way down the list.