<p>I think I have just one friend that doesn’t color or highlight her hair. Most of the women I know that had brown hair originally have gone blonde because it just makes it easier to keep up when the grey starts growing in. My daughter teases me because in any group picture there are usually just one or maybe two dark haired people and the rest are blondes. She calls us the Stepford friends.</p>
<p>My new hairstylist said she couldn’t tell if I colored or not. I am blonde with highlights twice a year, two colors that just blend. My last hair stylist said I was about 1/3 grey but because I am true blond it doesn’t show too much. The highlights brighten things up. My hair is short. I have a new job at 65, part time with complete benefits. I can do this for awhile!</p>
<p>I would color my hair I needed to to get a job. But since I’ve got a job and gray hair perhaps I’m helping break down that barrier.</p>
<p>But other than economic necessity why do I care if people think I’m the age I actually am. I have an 18 year old son. It’s more common for 61 year old women to have 18 year grandsons. So if you make that assumption it doesn’t ruin my day. I’ll set you straight and we’ll have a laugh about it.</p>
<p>I do my hair color for me. I don’t particularly give a rats patootie if anyone else likes the color. My mom feels compelled to tell me that she doesn’t like the dark panels I have interspersed, but I like the contrast & how I can make it more or less noticeable depending on how I style. Same thing when I add in a few “fun” colors such as pink or purple. All for me. There are very few things I splurge on myself for and I often kid around and say changing my hair color is my hobby ;)</p>
<p>After watching Whip It a few weeks ago with D2, I did tell her that when I let my hair go grey I am totally gonna go grannie & use double amounts of the purple or blue tone that used to be the rage for my grandma & friends.</p>
<p>When I was coloring my hair, my stylist recommended that it was just fine to use commercial hair color but she also recommended the non-permanent kind. I did that for several years then stopped coloring when my oldest started college last year</p>
<p>I have short hair and have many times been told I look like Jamie Lee Curtis. I figure it is because there are very few women out there with short AND grey hair!</p>
<p>I recently ended a 6 month period of unemployment and refused to think that I couldn’t look my age and be successful too.</p>
<p>I started a company kind of late in life, and me and my male partner are always trying to hire young people who will help us grow. (We would happily hire older people to help us grow, but the more established candidates don’t usually consider our firm).</p>
<p>I want to look young (hence the coloring) so these guys in their 30’s won’t look at me and think: she’s about to retire.</p>
<p>I use non-permanent color so being afraid of the end color hasn’t ever been an issue because I figure it’ll fade away anyway. And actually, my hair feels softer and better after coloring (Clairol). The new Clairol packages have “refresher color” which lets you do your roots and more of a touch-up between colorings without making your hair darker (that layering of dye jobs!). I’ve got brown hair and gray just looks old–and worse yet I feel old.
The gray doesn’t take dye as well as usual hair so you end up with a highlighted look anyway (which I guess is dependent on how your gray is coming in).
One fun thing I found in Sally’s is hair dye in a tube with a brush (just like mascara) for tiny touch-ups. Quick for a last minute “gotta get rid of that” thought. Just brush a tad on!</p>
<p>I have been thinking about this today, and wanted to bring up the geopolitical aspect. Here in Northern California, it’s almost odder to dye than to go gray. We’re leftists, we’re hippies, we’re fitness-centric, and so on. Down in Southern California, however, just as Democratic, but with a youth-centric industry dominating the economy, people have told me nobody ever goes gray. So. There’s that.</p>
<p>I started going grey at 22; colored my hair for 15 years; stopped dying it at 37, by which time I was completely white. At 53, I started adding a pink streak in the front. I’m now 57, and was recently told by a 20-something beautiful young woman with very blonde hair that my pink streak had inspired her own purple streak. (My son’s jaw dropped when he heard her say it, too. That was fun.)</p>
<p>Apparently colored streaks are now trendy in the grey set:<a href=“Edgier Hairstyles Turn Up on Clients 40 and Older - The New York Times”>Edgier Hairstyles Turn Up on Clients 40 and Older - The New York Times;
<p>^^^dmd, omg, does that make me almost trendy when I put the pink in? LOL. That would be a first 
I am intrigued by the ombre; may be having a conversation about that at my next appointment.</p>
<p>Alumother: I agree with you about the geopolitical aspect to some extent. When I was tired of the typical 80’s/90’s highlights, I decided to go single color process color & went red. It worked well for me in NJ, especially during the long winter. But when we moved to TN, it was too harsh. I don’t think I saw any other bottle red haircolor plus with all the extra sun & chlorine, it was hard to hold the red. When I started going to my current stylist, he got me out of that rut & I haven’t looked back. I still put red tones in, especially in the fall, but there’s a lot more layering of color.</p>
<p>Loved the looks in he article.<br>
Trying to see blue streaks in my blond … And how my kiddos might react, and parents?
Maybe next year. After I lose a bunch of weight …</p>
<p>D has these little clip-in streaks of color-she has pink, purple, bright blue and an orange-blond. She expertly sets them in so that it really looks like she had it dyed professionally-I think we pay $4 for them at the beauty supply place. At almost 13 its the only color changing she’ll be doing for the foreseeable future but it looks pretty nice. Makes me wish I had long enough hair to even try it.</p>
<p>I love this thread. Using a non permanent rinse toner that I pay too much money to have put on at a good salon…since it doesn’t last and rinses out rather quickly. The gray blends in as sort of blond in my medium brown hair…The toner (Aveda—I do love their products) does make my hair smoother as well. I think I have a couple more years before that will no longer do the trick and I will need a professional colorist for a new solution. (56 here) So do you all spend money on shampoo and conditioner that “prolongs” color? Just wondering if that is a gimmick or a real phenom.</p>
<p>^^^I buy the suave salon versions of the color care shampoo. The only time I’ve spent the money for a salon shampoo was after I had a keratin treatment a couple of years ago. Wouldn’t do that again, especially since the sulfate free shampoos are now available widely (and at a fraction of the cost.)</p>
<p>What helps maintain color whether it is natural or man made is sunscreen & a hat.</p>
<p>Also dried cowdung. (and much less toxic than the other stuff)</p>
<p>May I interject on the subject of graying eyebrows? My brows are naturally dark mouse brown, a bit darker than my natural hair color; the gray hairs that now amount to about 15% of the brows (and more every day) are actually pure white, really obvious. (They started coming in about the same time as the dark hairs started sprouting on my upper lip–God’s sense of humor, I guess.) My hair stylist once colored them the same color she uses for my hair base, but the result was way too dark. A CC genius suggested using men’s mustache and beard color, which is made for coarser hair and can be mixed in very small amounts. I now use that in a blonde color every few weeks, applying with a Q-tip just to the white hairs, so they pretty much match my highlighting. My brows and hair now look like they belong on the same person.</p>
<p>All this upkeep is exhausting, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Maybe I should start coloring the occasional stray chin hair! They are coarse and white!</p>
<p>I took advtantage of Beauty Brand’s recent liter sale and purchased some fancier shampoo and conditioner for colored hair; before that I used Suave or similar. I actually can tell a difference. It doesn’t prevent the grayish roots, but my hair looks and feels fabulous.</p>
<p>Dragonmom: I think you should do it now. It could be the first change, instead of the last, which would make it the first step of today’s 10,000… ;)</p>
<p>I have always played with the color of my hair–first for fun, and now for gray (and fun, too)! My 95 year-old mom still dyes her hair, and my D (19) has been playing since her early teens–I guess it’s a family thing!</p>
<p>Putting on the gloves and mixing the bottles makes me feel like a mad chemist!</p>
<p>My natural color is medium brown, but with all the grays coming in, I’ve been going blonder…and blonder…and blonder. Recently, I pushed the limit and look too washed out. I use a permanent mix and find that the color helps to thicken my fine hair. I have had my hair permed and had the highlights done (both at salons) and it is too harsh for my hair type. I sometimes have a colorist rebalance my handiwork, but for the most part I do it myself.</p>