To be or not to be - gray

[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?

[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!