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?

Which is a pretty good example of what I was meaning upthread about dyed dark hair being ageing. I didn't know who she was until I just googled her, but I think her colour looks much better on the left than on the right....

Yes I think so

the other tv person was the actress in Doc Marten who worked in the supermarket and was after Bert (what a sad life I lead😂)

That woman isn’t 50, she’s about 70!

She’s 78! She looks great whatever her hair colour but she’s knocking on 80! And you’re on line saying her dark hair makes her look older, what 90?

She’s 78!

I'm completely grey at 55 but luckily it's a rather nice salt and pepper grey with several tones in it. I used to get my colour done at the hairdresser but my hair was getting more and more resistant to taking the colour, and it was giving me a migraine the next day from the smell. I've got a really short pixie cut, and wish I'd done it years ago.

Indeed - but they are neither lighter in colour than in her youth and nor are they a "suitable for her age" grey. And she looks fabulous.

I saw her with her natural hair, just pulled back into a ponytail, and wearing no or minimal makeup cleaning her windows during lockdown in some short film, and she looked amazingly good (and her hair was dyed dark brown then too).

I don't actually think she looks younger with grey hair or older with brown. She looks better with the grey because it's a much better hairstyle and the brown was a bad dye job, but she doesn't look younger.

At 78 is anyone really trying to look younger, I’m sure she’s just trying to look a way she likes,

it’s like a parallel universe when women start speculating on how octaganarians should wear their hair to look younger, it’s utterly insane.

I'm only responding to the poster who put those pictures up as this: Which is a pretty good example of what I was meaning upthread about dyed dark hair being ageing.

I agree she should look however she wants (and she looks great), but I disagree that the brown hair is particularly ageing in and of itself. My point was that I think it's the hairstyle that the pp is reacting to more than the colour.

God forbid anyone actually looks better but - the horror - still looks older.

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

That sentiment refers to cosmetic procedures, not hair dye. Those procedures include excessive fillers, botox, facial resurfacing, buccal fat removal, and partial or full facelifts, to name a few, most of which are far less reversible than a bad haircut or a - in your eyes - bad dye colour.

Personally, though I am normally too polite to say so on these threads, I find 9/10 women who go grey look washed out, tired, and 10 to 20 years older than their actual age. YMMV.

It’s the box dyes that look Matt and all
one colour - you can spot them a mile off - old lady dark brown, old lady light brown, old lady blonde, and occasionally old lady ginger (which is more of a little puff of orange).

What a sad way to look at other women "old lady" this and that

@JackieGoodman i have mid brown eyes!

i don’t have much grey, well not that I can see when my roots come through. I only colour my hair because, I think I look like Drop Dead Fred with my natural colour! I know I can carry off a darker shade as I’ve been quite dark before but nowhere near black that’s too harsh. I like colouring my hair, it makes me feel ‘better’ about myself when I’ve done it, even if it is a faff on & annoying when it fades after a couple of weeks. Maybe when I’m a bit older I’ll stop & just let my natural colour come through when I can’t be bothered to do it anymore. But yeah so I think hair colour(ing) is definitely a personal preference & I don’t think it’s down to a particular shade that will make you look older, it’s what suits you or/and what makes you feel good about yourself? Iukwim? I think that’s what I can take from this!