Hair dyeing

[Malika]

I've recently (ie today when my hairdresser came!) taken the decision to stop dyeing my hair and have the old dyed hair cut off. So from having been a kind of ash blonde-y colour, I am now glorious mouse with silver bits!
I wanted to do this because psychologically I feel it's important... something about accepting the ageing process, to myself and to the external world. Also I don't really like hair that looks obviously dyed.
What, if any, are your feelings about this issue?

 

[BusynMember]

Malika...I am all for keeping yourself looking great...lol. I dye my hair and always will and am often told I look young for my age (60). I LOVE IT!!! I have never seen myself with gray hair and have no intention of ever knowing how I look with it. If you feel more comfortable going natural, go for it!!!! It is an individual decision

 

[Rabbit]

I am letting mine go gray

 

[InsaneCdn]

I've always supported being content with whatever nature gave us.

 

[AnnieO]

I like the temporary stuff - you know, 28 washes and you just have highlights left.

That said, I'm blonde and can't tell if I have any gray, anyway. All the women in my family seem to go straight to white, so I am guessing I will too.

 

[donna723]

I've been coloring my hair since the first gray ones started coming in and I can't really even picture myself now with all gray hair. My natural color was a very dark brown and when it first started graying it was the ugliest steel gray color imaginable! If it had been a prettier shade of gray I might have let it go but it was soooo ugly. And the gray ones were coming in right on the top of my head and hung down the back like a skunk stripe! At first I matched it to my natural dark brown but I've gone to a lighter brown shade as I got older - skin tones change a bit as we get older and the darker colors tend to look harsh in comparison. I envy those people whose hair changes to those beautiful pure white shades though. I had an aunt whose hair turned the most gorgeous white color! If mine had done that I would have kept the gray but, no, I had to get the ugliest drab mottled gray color there ever was!

 

[susiestar]

I like whatever you are comfortable and happy with. I use to dye mine, but developed a reaction to the dye. My hair is all grey but along with the grey came some darker brown strands. Not a lot, just some. It is odd because I had dishwater blonde hair and nothing anywhere near as dark as these strands until the grey came in.

I stopped cutting my hair about the time i stopped coloring it. Money was super tight, and I wanted to see what would happen. It is now down to my tushie and I get compliments every time I am out of the house for a couple of hours.

Whatever YOU like is what I think you should do. What is your dream hair like and how do you get that hair? If you like the look and feel of yourself with grey, lovely. If you don't, figure out what you want and work toward that.

As far as accepting the aging process, phooey. I refuse to give it much thought.

 

[BusynMember]

I've been coloring my hair since the first gray ones started coming in and I can't really even picture myself now with all gray hair. My natural color was a very dark brown and when it first started graying it was the ugliest steel gray color imaginable! If it had been a prettier shade of gray I might have let it go but it was soooo ugly. And the gray ones were coming in right on the top of my head and hung down the back like a skunk stripe! At first I matched it to my natural dark brown but I've gone to a lighter brown shade as I got older - skin tones change a bit as we get older and the darker colors tend to look harsh in comparison. I envy those people whose hair changes to those beautiful pure white shades though. I had an aunt whose hair turned the most gorgeous white color! If mine had done that I would have kept the gray but, no, I had to get the ugliest drab mottled gray color there ever was!

Ugleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee silver here too...lol.

 

[FlowerGarden]

I'd like to stop coloring my hair but it is an ugly gray color and in clumps. If it were pure white, I'd stop coloring today!

 

[SuZir]

Haven't dyed my hair for ages (learned the lesson early, lighter I can't go much and it looks hideous, when you dye very blond hair darker and roots start to show, you really need to do the roots every two weeks if you don't want to look like you are going bald) but I doubt I will start when the grey will come out. If it really will, tends to be later and change is more gradual with people with similar hair to mine. Of course, any new hair I have starts with greyish tint and gets whitish after seeing some sun. So I guess some different type of grey would go unnoticed easily.

 

[donna723]

Susie, I haven't had my hair cut in ages either! I just refused to do it anymore! When I was in school, all the girls had the teased, sprayed hair and I spent hours on it and had to sleep on those lumpy rollers. But then the sixties came and in my late teens through my mid twenties I let it grow and had waist length dark, straight, shiny hair. I loved it! All I had to do was brush it and I was done! But I eventually got it cut and spent several decades having to get up early trying to do "something" with my hair before I went to work. But now that I'm retired, I just refuse to do it anymore. It's now 3/4th of the way down my back, pulled back either in a pony tail or a long loose braid ... back to my hippy chick roots. That's really "me" anyway.

 

[KTMom91]

I gave up on the coloring about three years ago, and am also "glorious mouse" with gray highlights. I stopped cutting it about that time, too, and it's about halfway down my back. I wear my hair up in a clip or in a ponytail.

 

[svengandhi]

I have very little gray at 55 but my natural color is dark poopy brown. I'm waiting for H to buy some developer so he can dye it reddish for me, which I love, like dark auburn, not Little Mermaid red.

I work with 2 other women. My boss dyes her gray a little blondish brown regularly and my other colleague has gorgeous silver gray hair, which is one of her best features. They are a month apart in age. If I had hair like my colleague, I'd let it go gray.

 

[trinityroyal]

I think "glorious mouse with a bit of grey" sounds delightful.

I went through a punk phase followed by goth in high school and university. I think I wore myself out dyeing my hair back then, because I just can't be bothered these days. My hair is about 1/2 a shade lighter than jet black, with random burgundy highlights in it from when I'm out without a hat in the summer. I don't colour or cut it. My only nods to "hair style" are relaxer to tame the unmanageable natural curl (tame, not eliminate), and the occasional flat-iron if I feel like wearing it straight.

Women in my family tend to go grey very late, and fall into 2 patterns. Either the all-over-salt-and-pepper look, which I quite like, or the two-distinguished-streaks-over-the-temples look, which can look grand or funny, depending on your face. My inclination is to run with it, whatever happens, as I'm not prepared to commit to the maintenance regimen involved with keeping up a hair colour other than the one that grows out of my head.

 

[Malika]

The funny thing about this is that I've received a lot of compliments about my hair... two men on a motorbike said "You're beautiful!" (hasn't happened in some years) and friends say it looks good. It's not all salt and pepper as I had imagined it would be but more a kind of ash blondey mouse with silver at the temples. Why have I been wasting my money on dye all these years?

 

[Confused]

Malika-I agree with others here, you do as you feel comfortable for you. I think women and men look just as pretty or handsome without any dyes, all natural. Me personally? As I see white as I brush my hair, I tell myself I will dye it when I ever lose this weight! Like a total makeover thing for me. Best wishes!!!

 

[Malika]

Thanks, Confused. I think I'm really just trying to convey that going natural can be a pleasant surprise - I thought that my natural hair colour was not going to be nice but in fact I see that now it suits me much better than the dyed stuff

So you never know...

 

[trinityroyal]

Malika, your post made me smile.

The last time I coloured my hair (I was about 18 or 19, I think), I used Miss Clairol Blue-Black (apparently, the same shade that Elvis Presley used during his "jump suit" years). I knew perfectly well that it wouldn't suit me as well as my natural colour. Harsh is what I was aiming for, and what I got.

 

[Californiablonde]

I personally have no idea how much gray I have and I'm too scared to find out! I have been dying my hair platinum blonde since I was 18. Back then my natural hair color was a dark strawberry blonde. I didn't like the red in it, so I dyed it lighter, and over the years it just kept getting blonder and blonder. I am 42 years old now and have no idea what my natural color is anymore, but according to my roots that grow in every month, it's a dark brown. Yuck! I have been blonde all my life, but as I've gotten older it's apparent by my root color that I am no longer naturally light. I just can't believe how dark my hair really must be. No way am I going to be a brunette. So I will continue to dye my hair because I refuse to go natural and have dark brown hair. I would like to go back to my original color of a darker strawberry blonde that I had as a teenager (go figure, I hated it back then) and I am hoping to come up with enough money to get it professionally done. I think it's great you decided to go natural, Malika, but I can't bring myself to do it.

 

[trinityroyal]

CB, you never know. You might look smashing as a brunette. Of course, you'd have to change your screen name ;-)

My eldest daughter was blonder-than-blonde for years. About 5 years ago, a friend suggested she go a bit darker. She now has beautiful, glossy, very dark brown hair and it looks soooooo much better on her than the blonde hair did.