I'm with She Fly on the short hair; my hair is unbelievably unruly, frizzy, twisty, bendy. Not curly, just awful. The liberation I felt when cutting it really short and not having to worry about looking like a monster when I take my helmet or ski hat off is awesome. My water bottle is my styling implement!
I am a natural blonde; my hair has always been golden, not white, and many different colors. I started getting various kinds of highlights at around age 30, on and off, as my hair darkened. I can't even stand having brown hair, let alone gray. The dark color really washes out my face, as does anything silvery looking near my face.
So far, I have had a few periods where I seemed to get some gray near my temple, but I pulled them out and they haven't returned. The few wisps that are there look blonde. My stylist and I have found a great color that as it grows out actually looks like highlights; I only get it done every 3 to 4 months. Yes, I have to condition it and use a different shampoo, but I already buy really good products, as my hair as stated above is unruly. I don't ever put my head under the water, as I wear contacts, so I don't have to worry about that.
I guess that while my "regular" (non-cycling) friends would definitely put me in the crunchy category, it's more in the area of my values. When it comes to my appearance, my inner Jewish princess comes out! I don't care, because as Limewave said, going to the salon makes me feel great. In the next couple of months I will be going on job interviews, with 25 year olds as my competition. Enough said. It's a fact of life that most people don't see older people as active, like all of us are. The fact that my co-workers at my internship think I am in my early forties kind of amazes me. They just don't understand any of it.