I have light ash brown hair that has gotten to be about 30-40% gray. I have been coloring it for years, since I found my first gray at 25 (I'm 47 now). I am too cheap not to do it myself, but I'd been unhappy with the damage from drugstore products like Clairol or L'Oreal. I recently found a hair coloring product I really like. It's a bit messy to apply because it is a powder that you mix with water, and is runnier than drugstore color, but the results are much more natural (no one who doesn't already know even believes I color my hair), and the damage much, much less. It's Robert Craig hair color and is available online. The color I use turns the gray into highlights (light golden blonde) and doesn't lighten the darker part (no ammonia or peroxide!) I love the Robert Craig shampoo and conditioner for colored hair too -- they make mine very soft and help with the frizzies. I have to touch it up (only the roots, except every couple of times) about every four weeks, but the roots seem to show less than with the drugstore products.

I do eventually intend to go naturally gray and cut my hair short, but like someone earlier on this thread said, "I'm not there yet". Once I am no longer in the corporate world, I might be ready. My DH wishes I'd just let it go natural now; he thinks hair coloring is silly, but he doesn't really understand -- the youth obsession definitely hits women harder in our society than it does men.

Emily