Letting your hair go gray............

[NotUrsula]

My hair has naturally been mostly grey since my mid-20's, and since my hair was red, that gave me a lovely pink shade. No thanks. It's also thinning badly, so I'm still coloring it, though now it's more blond, so that the visible scalp patches are not as obvious. I'll probably transition it to ash blonde and keep it like that, because my grey is a dull, steely color that is also too much of a contrast with my very fair skin tone. (It's not that I object to having grey hair at my age, but I'll go to great lengths to avoid looking as bald as I really am.)

 

[loves to dive]

I let mine go it's natural grey during the trying times. I'm almost 67 and have been dying it since I was 20. Always a variant on my natural color, which was a dark brown almost black with red highlights. No matter what color of brown that was used it usually came out some shade of red. I had been doing it at home for at least 20 years. I knew it was almost totally grey but really hadn't seen anything but my roots in so long. Its sort of a silver layer over the dark layers underneath now. Just about everywhere I go I get compliments on the color and I always say it's just natural. I do use purple shampoo about every other week, just whatever was at the shop when I first decided to let it go natural. I had longish hair at the time and cut it extreme pixie so I wouldn't have the growing out two tone issue and I had already let the roots grow out. I just use suave shampoo and conditioner. I do condition it every time I wash it but don't wash it but about every 3 days. Right now it's down to about my shoulders but I'm thinking of taking it back to the pixie cut just because it's easier. I do know it has thinned out a lot but did get more curly when I let it go natural. I've always had sort of wavy hair and now with it longer if I let it dry by itself there are some ringlets in it. If I'm going to blow dry it to straighten it out, I also use a leave in conditioner just to tame the fly aways.

 

[china mom]

I have never colored my hair (much to the annoyance of my mother). I have medium brown hair and I am greying at the temple (only) like a distinguished gentleman. I always wear my hair in a high pony so the grey is pulled back from my temples, making my whole head look very grey. When my hair is down (and it is only down for the ten minutes if takes to blow dry it) you cant see the grey unless I flip my hair to the side and then it just looks like a chunky blonde highlight.

I had to wear my hair up for work for 26 years and now I am not comfortable wearing it down even though I know I would look years younger if I did.

 

[ronandannette]

My hair keeps getting darker. At 62, barely recognizing myself in the mirror because my hair is so dark, I've started adding grey. I'm spending a lot of money to turn myself grey! I have to use purple shampoo every other wash or it goes too blond.

I don’t know your age, but this may make perfect sense for you. A few years ago it was trendy for very young women to have their hair stripped and dyed grey/silver. I never saw a single one that I honestly thought looked flattering and some were downright awful.

 

[MdmMim]

I let mine go it's natural grey during the trying times. I'm almost 67 and have been dying it since I was 20. Always a variant on my natural color, which was a dark brown almost black with red highlights. No matter what color of brown that was used it usually came out some shade of red. I had been doing it at home for at least 20 years. I knew it was almost totally grey but really hadn't seen anything but my roots in so long. Its sort of a silver layer over the dark layers underneath now. Just about everywhere I go I get compliments on the color and I always say it's just natural. I do use purple shampoo about every other week, just whatever was at the shop when I first decided to let it go natural. I had longish hair at the time and cut it extreme pixie so I wouldn't have the growing out two tone issue and I had already let the roots grow out. I just use suave shampoo and conditioner. I do condition it every time I wash it but don't wash it but about every 3 days. Right now it's down to about my shoulders but I'm thinking of taking it back to the pixie cut just because it's easier. I do know it has thinned out a lot but did get more curly when I let it go natural. I've always had sort of wavy hair and now with it longer if I let it dry by itself there are some ringlets in it. If I'm going to blow dry it to straighten it out, I also use a leave in conditioner just to tame the fly aways.

When I decided to stop coloring my hair, I went to my stylist and told her I was only getting my hair dyed once more--and I wanted it dyed gray. She did it, and I never looked back! I loved it! And still do!

 

[cabanafrau]

Never fully colored my hair, only golden highlights to liven up my mousy brown for years. Like a lot of people I stopped during Covid. In the years since I've had several people make comments where I realized they didn't recognize the change and thought I was still highlighting. My younger DD made a comment not long ago that it really doesn't look different. To me it's very noticeable, so IDK.

I haven't changed anything product wise to spruce up the gray. Shampoo has always been a moving target for me, as my hair texture can change day to day, from baby soft, to course, to bouncing and behaving. Sometimes it's weather influenced, but I never know what I'm dealing with. Recently I've been using some Neutrogenas for scalp health and one I don't know the name of that's made in Korea for the days my hair seems a big rough. Now I'm wondering what would happen if I tried purple shampoo or something like that?