Does dyeing hair dark brown in your fifties look ageing?

[seeyouyesterday]

I’m early 50’s and dye my hair a mid-dark brown. I’m naturally an auburn colour but feel a deep brunette shade suits me better, I’ve had it for years. I’ve been blonde before & it doesn’t suit me. But lately I’ve been thinking can dying hair a dark brown be aging? I don’t mean if you’re naturally brunette, that’s different but like for me who isn’t & I dye my hair dark, sometimes I feel am I making myself look older?

Yes it probably is aging. Given that you're naturally an auburn colour (and presumably greying) I think it's unlikely that a dark brown is your best colour. A warm mid brown might be more flattering to your skin.

How on earth do you know? You've never even set eyes on her!

A lot of people laying down the law here about how other women should look and shouldn't look and do actually look - all totally irrelevant because none of us can see each other, and we all suit different things.

Yes. Helmet hair, see Steel Magnolias.

If you dye your hair brown, you need to beware of the “helmet” look. Having a few lighter streaks - either highlights or balayage - makes your hair look more “natural”.

I always think it looks odd (and a bit sad) personally if someone (usually a celebrity) continues to dye their hair, when it’s obviously going to be naturally grey based on their age.

It’s good to grow the hair out and quite liberating as well as financially and time wise (to just get a hair cut) IMO.

I’m 62 and have had to go down a couple of shades as my natural colour (dark brown) looks too dark - which is annoying as all the underneath layers are dark brown with no greys and my eyebrows are very dark and no
longer match
I’ve no idea when I’ll stop with salon dying as DM at 87 is not fully grey and DF died at 94 and still had darker threads

It really depends. A lot of friends who are mixed race have put some highlights (lighter brown, sorry if I'm using the wrong term) in from their late thirties, but one of our friends who has very pale skin and light blue eyes really suits her almost black hair.
So go with what you like, there's no one rule.

I think it absolutely depends on the person. I know someone who is 48 and a professional singer so appearances matter to her. She had been dying her greying hair to her original dark brown for years but then went through a complicated process to lighten it all to blend in with the grey and now is completely grey (ocassionally puts on a purple tint) but looks fabulous and not old at all.

I think you need to understand your skin tone and undertone and work with colour that aligns with that. Cool tones who go blonde to hide the grey look washed out and older. Warm tones who choose cool browns and darker brunette also wash themselves out. You can wear colour but it has to work with your tone.

Have my hair coloured and foils, cut etc every 4 weeks and had extensions this week also. Always brunette shade. Lighter colour washes me out.

Do you think she'd look better with a neat grey bob or some blonde tone with chic caramel streaks or lighter highlights around her face as recommended here?!

I have rarely found a hairdresser who can colour my hair as well as I can. And I would not consider my back bathroom a "top knotch salon." I do shop at hairdresser supplies shops for certain dyes and other products, but most of the dye I use is the MN dreaded "box dye". Even my hairdresser admires my coloured hair achieved with said dye.

If you see a woman who looks too harshly coloured then it is probably a bad dye job with a cheaper brand. But I can get a really beautiful result with a box of L'Oreal (L'Oreal Feria is especially sparkly). It is easy if a bit of a bore sometimes to keep on top of my roots myself, and whenever I let a hairdresser do the job I am always disappointed and relieved of a chunk of cash as well.

Box dyes have come a long way and I find it a bit sad that women have no skills in this area apparently and waste so much money getting their hair coloured.

Grey is very aging. A mid brown rather than dark brown I’d guess will look better

Agree with this.

Also, I dont get the comments implying you are trying to "fool" people into looking younger and failing. Dyed hair isnt really about that - it's highly obvious to me even when much younger people dye their hair- you can usually always tell anyway! I had dyed hair throughout my 20s and it was always obvious as my roots would come through after about 10 days 😆

It's the fact that grey is not flattering on any skin tone really. People say dark dye is "harsh" but so is grey!! Grey is a very harsh colour on most people and it dosnt flatter most skin tones in my opinion.

A lot of people laying down the law here about how other women should look

Er.. OP literally asked for opinions on this topic so people are offering theirs.

I dont recall anyone saying it was "law" that she should or shouldnt dye her hair.

What an odd response, you can’t see the poster so how can you proclaim it makes her look older to dye her hair,

here is a pic from Mel c’s wedding. All spice girls are in their fifties, so the same age as the poster hou said would look older as she dyes her hair, all will have greys, all clearly have their hair dyed, there is no way they’d look younger if their hair was grey. None what’s so ever.

I suppose experience allows an overall opinion to be fairly accurate.

Well this thread is full of differing opinions, they can’t all be accurate if you go by your thought process.

OP speak to your hairdresser, no one on here can say for certain. It’s not a yes/no answer. Some people will look older others won’t.
Im 55, and have naturally very dark hair with some grey at the temples. Even my eyebrows are still dark and quite full.
I have my hair dyed as close to my natural colour as I can. I spoke to my hairdresser about going lighter, she advised me against it because of my skin tone, said it would make me look washed out.

Your hairdresser is the best person to speak to about this.

Of course people will have general opinions, no problem with that. The thing here is that there's no way to work out whether the OP is an exception to the rule (whichever rule, grey or not-grey!) without seeing her. And that's the one thing we can't do, if she doesn't post a picture.

It seems to me problematic that some PPs take their general rules and universalise them - going from "X is true for me and for most people" to "X is always true for everyone". Because then you get people rather rudely telling others that they must surely look bad. Who needs that?

Imo it depends on the grey. The very wiry dark grey can look quite harsh.
My natural hair colour is very dark brown and I stopped colouring it when the roots started to show after two weeks. My hair is now grey and (mostly) silver, in excellent condition, thick and very shiny. I like the fact that it’s made up of different colours whereas my coloured hair (even with highlights) tended to look very blocky.
Does it make me look older? Well it’s clear I am older due to the hair colour, but am not convinced that colouring my hair made me look younger if that makes sense!
The most important point for me is that I don’t care if I look older. I am more concerned about how my body ages, staying fit and strong and being active. My hair colour is completely irrelevant in this regard.

For me, dyeing my hair is not about trying to look younger. I dye my hair because I really do not like the grey on me. For others, grey hair suits them but it makes me look washed out.

I am still dyeing my hair dark brown (3) with a semi-permanent in my 50s. It looks multi-tonal and doesn't have the dreaded helmet hair look. Going much lighter probably wouldn't suit me because of my cool, winter colouring (pale skin and dark brown eyes).

Also I do not care if my hair looks obviously dyed! Most women have dyed their hair at some point - who cares?

My grey isn't graceful. I wanted it to be. Let all the colour grow out, had it cut off, waited another year to see if it looked like it'd go white. It is fucking steel grey. Not shiny stainless steel, but varying shades of actual grey. You know, the colour you get when you mix black with white.

Got a new, cooler cut and it looks silvery at the front & top - in very bright daylight only - and the back's a jumble of monochrome shite.

My previous colouring's bog-standard British blonde. My newly natural hair has zero warm tones and looks ghastly. I'm going back to 'Natural Baby Blonde' this afternoon, as it happens - my trusty box arrived yesterday - and I have toners in 'Pearl' (pink) and 'Sand' (beige) at the ready, in case I lost my touch while growing my graceless grey and need to add shading.

People do talk a lot of nonsense about going grey; I assume most such people haven't yet gone grey themselves. Grey hair looks best on 20-year-olds! Also box dye doesn't have to be block dye. You can phase the timing or use two adjacent shades (lighter on top, the other underneath). Adding a few highlights/lowlights is really easy - apply product with your fingers and twist strands together. Lie them down gently for the desired time. This won't work for a full head, but it's great when you feel you need a bit of dimension.

See you when I'm baby blonde!

For me, dyeing my hair is not about trying to look younger. I dye my hair because I really do not like the grey on me.

Yep- same! I dont dye my hair because I am so deluded that I think it makes me look 20 again 😂

I dye it because grey washes me out and makes me look like a ghost. It's not remotely flattering. I dont want to look young, I want to look good. Big difference.

I dont care if it looks dyed - everyone knows eyeliner, lipstick, or sparkly eyeshadow is not "natural" but people still wear them because they like how they look

I read recently that you can look your age, or you can look weird.

Personally I think dyed dark hair is really ageing, extra points for when it's more than a couple of weeks old and the roots are showing. It gives me Cliff Richard vibes.