To keep colouring my white hair or not?

[Ang69]

Help please! I'm 57 and have been colouring my hair since I was a teenager. I haven't used bleach for around 3 years now and normally just get a dark blonde tint to cover my roots. I am almost 100% white now. I've faded brassy which I know is normal. I haven't coloured my hair since May this year as I wanted to see what my white looked like. It is very bright and does look nice but I'm so unsure of going the whole hog.

Skin tone wise, I'm fair with light blue eyes and have a neutral to cool leaning skin tone. The best colour I ever had was a cool chestnut brown. Hairdressers are telling me to just keep it white and have been advised to have a bleach bath to strip all existing colour to get a clean canvas. I was shocked when she showed me what I will go to! The tints she could apply didn't seem to add much depth.

Has anyone been in this position and continued with full on colouring or did you embrace the white and love it? I'm scared I'll look washed out going white and also scared it will age me.

Chat GPT just telling me what it thinks I want to hear so wanted to ask some real life people what their thoughts are.

Any ideas welcome!

My mum embraced her silver hair years ago and the best thing she ever did. Gets lots of compliments, as it's natural so of course suits her. Go for it :)

Could you post a picture? Not of your face, just the hair.

Bright white hair with a cool skin tone and blue eyes sounds lovely. Imagine yourself in a sky blue shirt and dangly silver earrings... If you can bear to let it happen naturally you will know for sure whether you want it tinted.

I'm the same age as you and I went from darkish brown, to highlights, to more highlights to white, over about 18 months . I have never been complimented on my hair in my life. Until now. Complete strangers comment on it. Definitely give it a go. After all, you can always change it back if you don't like it!

So, this is my current colour, you can see my roots are bright white!

I think the advice might vary depending on other factors. Is your hair luscious, thick, long and shiny, or short, frizzy, dull, thin? Or some other combination of the above?

I've posted a couple of pics but awaiting review. My hair is fine but I have a decent amount. Dry ends but overall good condition.

Chat gpt gave me this when I asked it to show me with a bob and a light blonde tint over my white hair. It did my makeup as well!

… don’t add blonde just let your natural white come through. Blonde will be will go all yellow and yuck. Use purple shampoo to make your white hair less yellow.

Ok. Looks great but let's see you?

I went from dark brown to mid brown with highlights to dark blonde highlights to light blonde highlights then bit the bullet and stopped the highlights completely. I’m completely white now. This took around 2 years.

Here us my original photo. Hair is completely white at roots. I asked ai to show me with a bob but not change my skin tone. It piled make on and gave me some botox. Trying to figure out if the white would suit me or I'd need to trowel on the makeup every day.

It's hiding my natural photos but let me post an ai pic!

I can't see any white OP, just a kind of strawberry blonde including the roots.But I think white would suit you.

I envy white, I am a dark blonde naturally with highlights as i was getting darker amd darker roots as time went on, but last 12 months I have been embracing the grey coming through and my hairdresser is ace at blending.

I know you said you havent used bleach but I would consider a bleach bath to get some of the brassy yellow off and then work with it until the white comes through?

Here are my messy white roots.

Oh def embrace that!! More.than enough growth to blend,.may take a couple goes with a hairdresser though as you essentially need to strip the blonde off hence the bleach bath suggestion.

You’ve got beautiful hair. Embrace the white. I am very jealous. My hair is steel grey and I’d love white.

Looking at your skin-tone, the white is going to be GORGEOUS. Truly enviable. Absolutely beautiful.
The growing out might be painful, but it will be worth it.

Yes embrace the white. It will look great! You are lucky, the colour will suit your skin tone and I think your hair will look sleeker for not having dye on it

Pure white is going to be a million times more flattering on you than the colour you have now, which is clashing with your rosy cheeks. Go for it!

Whichever colour you decide on, definitely cut your hair into a bob. That alone will make you look younger IMHO!

You will look good with your natural colour in my opinion go for it like others say you can always go back to a different colour if you don't like it and it's very empowering to at least try it.

Thank you all, so, so much 💗. I will give it a shot then. I dont know why I'm so scared to just have a different colour! I guess it is just psychological to associate white/grey with being old. It is crazy the pressure we have as woman over something as trivial as this.

As someone said, I could try it and always colour again if awful. The thought of putting chemicals on my hair for the rest of life is not appealing so worth a try if i can free myself.

Does anyone know what toners i could put try once my hair is stripped just to give some added depth?

Thank you all again, really appreciated.

My hair is similar colour now, I've embraced the white. Also very fair, blue eyes, cool colouring. The only thing I'd say is makeup, as in less is definitely more. You may find you need a different base, whether bb cream, tinted moisturiser or foundation. Blush, eyebrows and mascara and a bb cream is my go to, but ive gone for warmer shades, otherwise I fade away.