To be or not to be - gray

[Dogmama]

Argh. Looked in the mirror last night & the silver hairs are taking over. I don't feel old enough to be gray! So, I have to make a decision - am I going to be gray, am I going to become my hairdresser's new best friend or am I going to just get a box from Target & do it myself? I really think gray roots are TACKY so if I went to hairdresser route, I'd do highlights & low lights. My hair is naturally dark brown, so I'd have to weave in some blond tones. Or, I'd have to do the L'Oreal route but I don't think stark brown looks good on me - too harsh.

If you've been there - or are getting there - what are you doing? I'm tempted to just say screw it because Ma Nature is going to have her way eventually anyway. Maybe I need to look at the fact that I am getting older -- nah. Let's just focus on the hair...

[bmccasland]

I went the hair dresser route for high lights/low lights - mainly because I was tired of my mousy brownish hair. And what he does for me is still mainly around my face. I don't get "tiger" stripes either, so the highs definitely not neon bright. One thing you have to consider is the chemicals that are used to lighten your hair. We still laugh about the first time I walked into his salon, I told him it didn't stink. Whatever brand he uses (I should know), Italian I think, doesn't stink like the hair dressers that I remember going to with my mother or grandmother when I was young. That stink has kept me out the door of many a salon.

[SheFly]

I've just embraced the gray. Don't get me wrong - I started coloring at 16, and did it both myself and at the salon for over 25 years. I had actually forgotten what my natural color was!

Now, I'm completely back to natural, gray and all. I am lucky though - mine comes in more salt and pepper than in clumps or stripes like some.

All that said, a coworker (whom I met for the first time this week) told me I should color my hair .

SheFly

[Aggie_Ama]

My hair is naturally a dishwater blond with reddish highlights. I just box dye it a medium golden blond to pull out the highlight color. Luckily that allows me to have the grays (they are a bit resistant) look like blond streaks. I started going gray at 19, I fear eventually I will have to embrace it or start seeing a hair dresser. At almost 29 I am not ready to let it take over, I am about 10-15% gray with more coming every year. My Dad has been salt and pepper gray all my life and my Mom's mother was a very earlier silver - I was doomed!

[roadie gal]

I just turned 51. I started going gray when I was 30. I decided to just go with it. I hate gray roots more than I hate natural gray, and I'm too lazy to be good about dying my hair. Dying your hair is like an addiction. Once you start it's hard to stop. Now I'm almost all gray. I just tell people that I match my dog: I'm blue merle.

[Tri Girl]

I just tell people that I match my dog: I'm blue merle.

That's funny!!

I'm embracing the gray, but still coloring with the $3 box color from the grocery store. The gray coming in is strong at the roots right down the middle of my head- it looks terrible. I'm going to color until it evens out a little more. I'm only 36 but I don't really mind the gray. I wear it like a badge of honor (most of them are named after students, after all).
When it gets a little more uniform, I'll stop coloring. Why fight nature? It's like my laugh lines and crows feet: just means I smile a lot and have lived a fun life.

[Biciclista]

I dyed my hair for about 5 years. I used to have brown hair, but i liked the red hair dye.
But i couldn't stand being called "that redhead" because it wasn't me. So I just stopped with the dye and am trying to get used to what I have naturally. because that is me, not the dye. I hope that makes sense.

[OakLeaf]

So far I'm embracing the grey. But it's not that noticeable yet - my hair is light brown with a lot of blonde highlights, so the grey kind of blends in. I'm guessing maybe only 4-5% of my hairs are grey at this point, maybe less, and while I was starting to get a clump a couple of years ago, it seems even now.

I don't know... ask me in five years.

[KnottedYet]

My very thin, very fine red hair started going white and gray in my mid 20's. I've always used a light red-brown henna, which doesn't hide the gray at all. It just makes the white hair look a bit blonde and the gunmetal gray look light mahogany brown.

Nice thing about the henna is that about half of it gradually washes off over the course of a month or so, so I never have stark roots.

I've tried letting it go a few times, but the white patches look bald (you can see my scalp and count every freckle). So, I'll keep henna-ing it until all of it is white.

You might consider trying henna. It's easy (though messy) and gives you the lowlights and highlights it sounds like you want. Plus roots don't show, since the white is never actually colored, just tinted, and it washes off gradually. This is the brand I use, and have been happy with: http://www.light-mountain-hair-color.com/ Scroll down the page for the color charts. I don't use the "Color the Gray" stuff, just the regular stuff. Half a box does my scrawny hair and lasts for a month or two. So about $3 every couple months.

[shootingstar]

I just turned 51. I started going gray when I was 30. I decided to just go with it. I hate gray roots more than I hate natural gray, and I'm too lazy to be good about dying my hair. Dying your hair is like an addiction. Once you start it's hard to stop. Now I'm almost all gray. I just tell people that I match my dog: I'm blue merle.

Well, just turned 51 -yesterday. I confess I pull out the rare errant white hair..I seem to see one once a month or so. Still black hair. My natural black..is not a natural blue-black, but abit softer black because have lots of fine hair.

I keep telling myself I won't colour hair when I get quite grey. And keep telling myself that having black hair, means at least one can go gray in a more even-colour way.

We'll see. I do dislike the hot trend for many Asian women with black hair to use strong colour dyes of red-brown, brown, etc. and blonde, that must be used to cover up the black. The thought of dealing with uneven colour hair roots doesn't interest me. It's like starting to walk down chemical road. Some of my Asian friends have started to go grey and they have not coloured their hair --yet. But then, they fall in same age group as me. And yes, they are cyclists.

Figure I'll be taking a necessary drug for whatever health problem when I get frail, so do I really need another chemical on my body?

[hammertime]

brunette here... and I color.

47yo, will be 48yo in June... I think I started coloring 3yrs ago. My hair was shorter then, and it had 'some' grey... but one day it just looked 'blah', so I started coloring it and highlighting it and it looked wonderful... I was hooked.

Now I'm wearing my hair much longer, and the grey (to me) looks awful at this length... so if I want to have my hair longer, I continue to color it. I don't do highlights anymore, they are super $$$ and honestly with all my biking and running in the summer, I seem to get naturaly highlights from the sun. My straight one over all color seems to be enough.

I stay at medium brown color cause that matches my natural color... and I like it. I like my hair longer and I like the brown.

One day I might grow my grey in, maybe I never will... but now, this color works for me. I go about once every 7 weeks and it costs $45.00. I have been through a few colorists and if you are persistent, you can find a good one for low cost... you don't have to pay top dollar at top salons to get good color.. you just gotta do your homework and find one at a low cost.

Good luck to you... whatever works for you is what you should do... after all, it's your hair, and your life... and you gotta feel good on that bike!!!... so do whatever works for you!!

[softthings]

i am a hairstylist, just to throw that out there.

gray is such a pain to start dealing with for most people. if you want color, the best route is the highlights. only because it blends away that line of demarcation you get (skunk stripe) if you are heavily graying. i'd say, do box color until you get the stripe, then consider getting highlights to take the edge off and eventually grow out the gray.

for those that might be wondering, you cannot dye your hair gray. not possible to do and to look natural, most stylist won't even entertain the idea of trying. it just doesn't look like natural gray, it looks more like a punky color. a lot of people come in wanting to dye their hair gray when they start going gray, and it is weird that it is pretty much the only color you can't get from a box or from a stylist.

anyway, that is my suggestion, that, and if it were me, i wouldn't commit to color, i would just ride out the grays. i am starting to get my first few, and my hair is at a point where it is close to my natural color. i'm going to grow it out natural. good luck!

[Eden]

I've used LightMountain Henna too. My hair is dark brown/auburn with some red highlights. I've started getting a fair amount of white recently....

The henna definitely doesn't cover the white, just makes it faintly red. My hair is dark enough that it still shows pretty plainly. I'm resisting any type of color that is permanent as once you start you are stuck and I wouldn't be able to stand the upkeep. Plus the choices are definitely limited if you don't want to expose yourself to a lot of chemicals.

Maybe some time I'll be vain enough to try the LightMountain that covers greys. I don't feel old enough to have a head of white hair... and I don't want to give up having longer hair either, though I'm afraid that the texture is also changing. The whites are less curly and more just wild....

[Skierchickie]

My plan is to embrace it - it's me, it's natural, so why not accept it and focus on skiing/biking/the other important things in life? That being said, I have about 3 individual grey hairs at this point, so my feelings could change, but I don't want to end up being that elderly lady with the unnaturally-perfect brown hair - sooner or later you have to let go.

Oh - and right now I like my 3 grey hairs, because they look kind of silvery.

[OakLeaf]

That being said, I have about 3 individual grey hairs at this point

Ha... Though they've been slow to populate my scalp in any serious way, I got my first grey hair when I was 27. At that point I hadn't cut my hair in 18 years, but that was it. If I was going to have grey hairs, I was d*mned if they were going to be three feet long!