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Style and beauty

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Original poster

Going grey...do it gracefully or dye it!

88 replies

ilove · 27/04/2009 11:30

I woke up last Monday (ON my 40th birthday!) to discover I have suddenly sprouted a LOT of grey hair!

So,do I give in with grace or do I dye? And if I dye, what to get? What's best? I am a brunette with bright blue eyes, shoulder length hair but a couple of large bald patches from alopecia.

OP posts:

Mamulik · 27/04/2009 16:09

I know somebody in their early 30s and already have grey hair. so you should look after yourelf and my advise is to style it and have haircut.

pavlovthepregnantcat · 27/04/2009 16:11

I have lots, mostly at the front, but spread across the back a bit too, am only 32 and it really does age me. It takes colour from my face. So I have it dyed at the hairdressers.

I have it done more or less the natural dark brown I had before, with a bit more depth, but have some copper/red highlights through the front to break up the roots as they first come through, otherwise the grey is prominant very quickly - this saves me money as means I get it dyed every 8-10 weeks rather than 4-6 if I did not have the highlights.

Some people are happy with grey, in fact some people look fab with grey. I do not, and if you are worrying, get it dyed.

higgle · 27/04/2009 16:24

ja9 - my mum is 84 and she is still agonising about when to go grey - she likes to look good and feels being honey blonde is far more fetching than grey. At her request I've been having a good look at the over 60's who have gone grey and although there are a few with stylish cuts most of them are permed to the eyeballs or have totally lost the plot and their hair looks pretty dreadful. I'm resigned to spending all my pension, in 30 years time, at the hairdressers and not on food etc.

geraldinetheluckygoat · 27/04/2009 16:38

I am 33 and almost completely grey. Hen the roots come through it looks awful, as others have said, I find it makes me look exhausted and old! I always feel like a new woman when I have it dyed. DH slaps the dye on for me, I use either Nutrisse or the perfect ten one that some one else recommended earlier.

Tinker · 27/04/2009 17:36

at having to even think about that choice "If I had to choose between dyeing grey hair or make up it would have to be the hair"

sarah293 · 27/04/2009 17:37

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pagwatch · 27/04/2009 17:41

TBH I think it depend on the person.
It has nothing to do with aging gracefully - I am never uncomfortable aboutr being a bit of a codger. But I started going grey at 21 and it simply does not suit me. It makes my skin tone too sallow and I end up having to wear more make up than I like to try and counter it.

My mum looks fab with grey hair but tis not for me. Well not as I can afford the monthy colouring anyway...

sarah293 · 27/04/2009 17:50

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hollyhobbie · 27/04/2009 17:50

I'd be happy to be grey if it WAS grey - instead it's a very bleached out wishy-washy version of my natural hair colour (which my grandmother would have not called anything but 'mousey').
So for now (when I can be bothered) I dye it.

pagwatch · 27/04/2009 17:57

Riven. I am going off you. My wrinkles have wrinkles. And as I get more menopausal I seem to get hairier and I have ( if I would allow) a whole head of grey hair.

Even my knees are getting wrinkly .

Someone shoot me

Dh is thinking of just getting me a tin of varnish and some embalming fluid.

sarah293 · 27/04/2009 17:59

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Message withdrawn

suiz · 27/04/2009 18:31

Fleeceflower root, eh? Got the botanical name?
I heard almonds are good for stopping grey. Also, I believed it's better to cut rather than pluck so they don't get wire-like?

Smilewearingthin · 27/04/2009 18:48

I have naturally light blonde hair and my first grey hairs were appearing in my mid twenties. Since then I have been longing to go completely white. (My granny had a beautiful white bob from her late 30s onwards, according to my mother.) I think whether you dye or not depends a lot on what nature is throwing at you. I love my grey/white but if it made me feel old or washed out, I'd certainly dye it. I think it was Jane Smiley (novelist) who said that whatever your original hair colour, when you go grey you should go blonde!

Nekabu · 27/04/2009 19:50

Dye it! If you use a semi-permanent it'll fade so you won't get roots (it always dyes it a shade or two darker than it says on the packet so give it a test first) and L'Oreal customer care are really helpful, so you could call them for advice regarding your alopecia.

LoveBuckets · 27/04/2009 19:58

My hair started going grey last year after my 3rd baby was born (I'm 32.) You have to go a shade fairer if you don't want such dramatic roots. I'm told that if you do go natural you have to make a real effort with clothes and make up etc or you will become invisible.

I fully plan to get it chopped short gamine-style and let it grow out naturally when I'm 40 - I may be legally old enough to be a granny right now but if I'm going to be mistaken for one, I'd rather it was a more reasonable mistake.

pointydog · 27/04/2009 19:58

dye it

Katisha · 27/04/2009 20:04

Is there a product for just touching up grey bits in my fringe? Don't want to do the whole lot as it seems to be the fringe that goes grey and nowhere else..
Whenever I ask the hairdresser to sort that out he always does the whole lot which is more than I want to pay for!

LoveBuckets · 27/04/2009 20:10

Katisha, get a friend to do a highlighting kit on you. Much cheaper and the regrowth is less obvious.

Actually I've just realised I did have the greyish streaks at the front a few years ago. I put Sun-in on just the streaks and went for the kitsch trailer-trash look!

fishie · 27/04/2009 20:20

i am veyr grey, both my parents went grey early too. i have been dying my hair since i was 14 anyway, so not really a big deal for me. i use semi-permanent herbal stuff, it dyes the grey very strongly so i have purplish-red highlights.

i'll stop when my eyebrows go grey, by that time i should be mainly a nice silver anyway, probably late 40s.

ja9 · 27/04/2009 22:25

higgle - that's funny! i want to be a glam old lady. guess i'll take advice when the time comes

fishie, shudder at eye brows going grey! hadn't really though of that either!

93pjb · 27/04/2009 23:23

I'm getting to thinking about dyeing too at 33 . I've decided I have to because my mum does! She looks great, a much softer shade of her original colour now. It would look weird if I was greyer than her!

aristocat · 27/04/2009 23:44

dye it - its the only way !!!!!!!!!!!!!

threestars · 28/04/2009 00:03

Dye it, but in a hairdressers, not from a packet! I did it from a packet and it all went horribly wrong and I had to book an emergency appointment anyway.
I have a few thin grey streaks now, so use a colour as close to my normal (brunette) as I can. It means I can wait alot longer than 8 weeks before getting it done again. And the dye makes my hair look nice and shiny and smart. Once it was dyed, I wondered why I'd never done it before.

suiz · 28/04/2009 09:52

Are you sure re grey eyebrows, what about Alistair Darling?

LoveBuckets · 28/04/2009 17:06

Oh another point about going full on grey is that any sexiness/glamour is completely undone by a pair of specs (unless they're cool black Nicky Hambleton-jones types.) Am hoping that laser surgery for astigmatism will be affordable by the time I'm ready to natural!

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