When I was a girl I had very light blonde long hair. Then as a young woman it urned a mousey dishwater ash blonde. With my light skin, I looked very pale and dull with this color scheme. So when I hit 30 or so I started coloring my hair red and cut it very short. Everyone loved it, and it looked pretty natural with my light skin and freckles. I felt good with it, and kept it short and red for 20 years.
But then I began to get more and more silver threads... as you know, red fades very quickly in the sun and I had to keep coloring often. The silver threads kept wanting to fade to pink! Not good. I hit 50 and realized that I was starting to look more "mature" and it become more odd looking to have dark hair with my older face. I don't want to be one of those old ladies on the street with shocking dark dyed hair!! The softer face with the harsh shocking hair color looks bad.
So, over a few years, I switched to more golden lighter shades of red, then to just golden warm blonde. The lighter I went the more natural I looked and I liked that. I started biking and walking and went out in the sun more and my hair looked nice as it faded. Finally I saw last year that I had about 30% silver mixed with my natural ash blonde, and the silver was very pretty the way it sparkled amongst my "dishwater blonde" hair. The silver gave me pretty highlights and real depth for the first time.
So about 9 months ago, I totally stopped coloring for good, still have very short hair, and I just love all my silver highlights. Now I'm slowly and happily gliding into my natural silver look. I'm finally "free" and it's great! My friends and DH all love it.
I have "finally" come to terms with aging gracefully, especially now that I have lost 25 pounds of flab and have a new biking body!