<p>My dh is 56 & as far as I can tell he doesn’t have any. However he is quite a bit thinner on top than he used to be.</p>
<p>I love Excellence by L’Oreal. I only do a full color every 6-8 months. L’Oreal makes Root Rescue and that’s what I use most of the time. Medium Golden Brown is a great color on my…not so much so speckled gray.</p>
<p>I’m in your camp, HImom! too much trouble, too much money, too much time, too many nasty chemicals… Plus, people would wonder why I have all those wrinkles, but my hair is still dark brown.</p>
<p>I just colored mine this afternoon. Can’t wait until Monday when one of my students, right in the middle of class, will ask if I did something with my hair.</p>
<p>My DH will be 53 in a few months. For years he has had a spot where his hair has turned white (about the size of a nickel) just behind his left ear. He also has gray sprinkled liberally throughout his dark hair. I love silver hair on a man. I tell DH I can’t wait for his whole head to be silver.</p>
<p>I just asked him if my hair was gray,silver or white. He says silver…good.</p>
<p>OP here. Spoke with my stylist during my monthly de-skunking and trim. She has helped clients make the move to natural gray/white hair. It takes about a year to 18 months of gradual lightening, and trimming, and foils. One client took two years to get there… and then three months later asked her to dye it back the way it was! She also said that I don’t have enough gray/white yet, to make the transition. She thought it wouldn’t look fabulous if I did it this early. And I don’t want to look old and worn out, I want my hair to look fabulous. So for now, I’m staying with the monthly de-skunking.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your comments. What a wealth of information and experience you all have.</p>
<p>Love the new vocabulary word, “deskunking.”</p>
<p>Members of H’s family start going gray at a very young age. He had noticeable grays in his black hair at age 21 when we first met. He’s now 61 and his hair is silver; there’s very little dark hair at all. He’ll soon have a head of snow white hair. Our eldest D, who is 31, is complaining that she’s found several white strands in her golden brown hair. I found the first 2 white hairs on her head when she was 7! They were both at least 12 inches long. My guess is that they had been white since very early childhood.</p>
<p>As for whether or not grey makes us look older, I think it’s just one of many factors in how we appear to others. I think that both middle-aged men and women who are at a healthy weight, are in shape, and whose coloring looks good with salt and pepper or silvery locks appear just as young and attractive as those who have retained the natural hair color of their youth or those who have natural looking dyed hair. Personally, I think that those of us who are “winters” or “summers” (remember color analysis from the 1980s?) look more attractive going grey than “springs” or “autumns”. </p>
<p>I am a “spring” with golden brown hair that has a lot or metallic gold and red highlights. I decided when I was in my 30s that I did not like the look of golden brown hair with silver grey mixed in. I told my H that when I started seeing grey on my head, I would start coloring. He was already quite grey at that time and thought that I was quite funny. I said that I didn’t want people to notice that one day I had decided to get rid of my grey hair; I vowed I would start coloring before other people could notice I was getting grey. Years passed. Poor H was frustrated and amazed that during my 40s he couldn’t find a grey hair on my head. The day for hair color finally came when I was around 50. </p>
<p>The 1st time I used hair color, I tried a semi-permanent product. It did not cover the grey at all! I then went to a salon and got a disastrous permanent color job. I requested going slightly lighter to get close to the lighter color I naturally had in my 20s. I ended up with a hideous, very unnatural looking auburn. I never went back to a salon for color. </p>
<p>I have colored my hair myself for the past 7 years. I have gotten a lot of compliments on my hair color and I think it looks very natural. The upkeep is pretty easy and it is not expensive. I always wait for my brand of hair color to go on sale and I use coupons. I’ve never paid more than $5.00 for a box. I usually color my hair every 7 to 8 weeks. I’ve been lucky that the only roots that have ever shown are at my part. At age 50, my roots were darker than my colored hair. Now, at age 57, the roots at my part are a brown/grey mix. Whenever the roots become noticeable, which for me is about 4 weeks after I’ve last colored, I pull out my box of color, mix a teaspoon of developer and a teaspoon of color in a glass bowl, then paint it on my hair just at the part. That gets me through about another month. There have been many times when I haven’t wanted to take the time to color my entire head and I have repeated the “color only the roots” process a 2nd time; so, I have gone as long as 3 months between dye jobs. I estimate that I spend less than $25.00 a year on hair color. I know lots of people who spend more than that on coffee in a month!</p>
<p>I don’t care what people think when they see 57 year old me with no visible grey hair together with 61 year old H and his silver hair, or at least, not too much :). I know that many people unfortunately think that he is much older than I. I have had people with “foot-in-mouth” disease ask if I am H’s daughter. He and I just laught it off. H says he is proud to have a young looking wife.</p>
<p>I won’t be one of those 90 year old ladies who still dye their hair dark. But, I am waiting until my hair is mostly white before I lay off the dye. I think snow white hair is absolutely beautiful. My father’s paternal aunt, who was a natural redhead, had snow white hair in her old age. What I don’t like is the mix of white with brown on ME. I think it makes my hair look mousy. I told H in my 30s that I think that my gold and copper highlights would clash with silver. I still think so, and my roots are my proof!</p>
<p>I’m in favor of the natural look. Plus I know if I colored my hair I wouldn’t keep up with it and would definitely have a skunk line all the time!</p>
<p>A friend had a “GI Jane” cut to suddenly go gray. It was very striking.</p>
<p>My hair is salt & pepper, more pepper than salt, which at my age I like to think is due to good nutrition, but who knows? I do have much less grey than my younger brothers or most other people my age. And as I tell DH, at least I HAVE hair! :D</p>
<p>A hint: My mother, who was a hairdresser when I was younger, said the secret is to use a color lighter than your hair color, and not to leave it in too long. That way the gray is not completely covered, and the resulting color blend is more natural. My H never realized she colored her hair until she passed away and I mentioned it!</p>
<p>My mom, also a hairdresser, agreed with mommusic about a lighter color.</p>
<p>It’s unfair, but true, that society considers gray on a man to be very attractive while aging for a woman. Around here, women who do go natural are complimented for their bravery which I think is a backhanded way of saying, better you than me! Maybe all that will eventually change. But it’s an equally dated notion that women over 50 are too old to get color. </p>
<p>I do think shorter hair is easier to keep healthy looking, so that may be part of the reason it looks great on many men. Longer grays are a lot more prone to splitting, dryness and frizz - it can take some knowledge, effort and a bit of maintainence to keep it healthy.</p>
<p>I dont color my hair. Never wanted to because it seems like a hassle and I just dont want to pay that much attention. I liked the streaks of white in my dark hair when I first started to go greystill do. However, when I let it grow past my shoulders (thinking I guess that I would look like Emmylou Harris) one day I saw something out of the corner of my eye and thought, Eektheres a mouse on my shoulder! only to realize it was a lock of my grey hair. </p>
<p>Got it cut in a bob and now maintain the cut every six weeks. I get compliments on my hair every now and then so it probably looks okay.</p>
<p>I have always worn my hair on the short side.,( above shoulders) Now I am growing out the hair around my face from a pixyish cut from a few years ago, but since my hair is getting a bit thinner at the crown, I’m not planning on growing it long.</p>
<p>Also I noticed that when my hair was lighter, it looked even thinner on top. Adding depth to the color makes it look thicker too.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, my hair got much thinner with age, but cheer up, I am one of the oldest here, so you have many years and it does not happen to everybody, there are plenty of old people with very thick grey hair.
On the bright side, with age, I really stopped worrying about my appearance and color my hair only when my H. tells me so. This is his assigment, to watch it for me and remind me when it needs to be colored. I do it at home, much cheaper (about $1.50 per application) and much less time. Getting older I also have no patience waiting for anything or even driving somewhere for 15 min.</p>
<p>Last night I saw a film clip of Newt Gingrich and his wife. Standing together, their hair colors actually clashed! He silver and she a yellow blonde. So I guess we need to factor in our spouse’s hair color before we change our own!</p>
<p>H is also glad he still has hair & is the envy of much younger men in his office that are developing male patterned baldness. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to handle the chemicals involved in coloring my hair, which is why I stopped permanents many decades back. I’m quite OK with my bits of silver & white with my dark/black hair. I like keeping my hair at or above shoulder length & it’s very easy to manage.</p>
<p>No bitds of silver here, just very ugly grey hair. As much as I do not care about my appearance, even I hate it. But most of the time, my H. is the one who triggers my coloring exercise. I seem not to be alergic, but I am aware that it is not good for anybody. However, there is a balance of pro’s and con’s and the trick is not to do it very often, but still do it when ugly color start affecting you negatively.</p>
<p>I use an Italian hair color that doesn’t dry out my scalp or my hair & has fairly gentle ingredients.
[Herbacuticals</a> Naturcolor / Truth In Aging](<a href=“http://truthinaging.com/hair/herbacuticals-naturcolor]Herbacuticals”>http://truthinaging.com/hair/herbacuticals-naturcolor)
I don’t think my pale reddish blond is an * ugly* color, but because my skin is pale it requires me to wear a lot more makeup to not have people asking me if I am 'ok". 
Much easier to use a little color on my hair & just wear lip balm.</p>
<p>I don’t think yellow blond hair is very flattering on many people past the age of 16.</p>
<p>[as</a> proof](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Conan O'Brien And Andy Richter Return As Newt And Callista Gingrich (VIDEO) | HuffPost Entertainment)</p>
<p>I never colored my hair until I was grey. Few strands of white hair did not bother me. And I am way too lazy to apply anything on my face but heavy duty body lotion.<br>
Is this Italian hair color lasting awhile? I would like to be able to color no more than once in 5 - 6 weeks. Most colors do not stay long on my hair, even the in the same brand, it depends on color itself. Most permanent colors get washed off with the very first shampoo, more so the once that hairdressers are using. It was a major reason actually for me to switch to home coloring. And then I have discovered that it is so much easier at home.</p>