I got my first silver hairs in my twenties and stopped coloring alittle over a decade ago. My hair now is very unique with many silver hairs, brown hairs, red hairs, blonde hairs and almost black hairs…and I love it…it’s just like when I was young only with silver shot through it. I wish I’d go all silver, but my mom has the same hair as I do and she’s in her nineties. My hairdresser told me she would refuse to color my hair anyway, so no going back. My husband doesn’t have much gray hair, but I don’t feel like I look older than him. I think we match pretty well.
I started to find gray in my hair when I was 16. D1 (29) and D2 (25) have a few gray hairs and blame me for them! 
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They actually make silver hair dye. I’ve seen girls on campus with their hair colored silver. [/quote}
I have seen this, too. Maybe 8 years ago my hairdresser told me that there was no such thing as silver hair dye, which seemed like a strange thing not to been invented.
I have an old friend who had shoulder length monochromatic brown hair that she was coloring herself and she went cold turkey with the decision to let her all-gray hair grow out. It was very odd seeing her for over a year as the dividing line between dark brown and gray traveled down the side of her head. She seemed to think she had no other options.
I was a blonde until I started to go gray/white. I would like to transition to my natural crone color, but am waiting until the gray/mousy color turns white. My mother has beautiful white hair, so I’m hoping to get there. In the meantime, I use a 3-process treatment (root cover, high and low lights) that is very expensive and time consuming, but I am vain.
I was actually thinking about this earlier today. I was at a meeting yesterday and someone was obviously growing out her color and to be honest, it looked awful. I’m also in the “found my first grays while I was in college” club and am far more gray than I should be at my age. I’m getting tired of dying, but have said I’m staying dyed until my youngest is out of high school.
But I was thinking of it today and was totally wondering how it would work if I dyed my hair one of the fake grays that is trendy and then let it grow out. Right now, that would be my strategy. My mother went for a super, super hair cut and it was shocking, but worked. I’m definitely not there yet.
I had 300 gray hairs in high school. I had to stop pulling them out lol. I hadn’t considered going gray until lately when I’ve seen so many cool looking gray/highlight/lowlight combinations. I also never considered letting it go white while adding a few dark thin pieces to give it some interest. I’m fairly sure I’m all white without any cool streaks of dark.
@ChuckleDoodle - very interesting about that shampoo. I remember when “old ladies” would get a blue rinse and have blue tinted white hair back in the day. It must have been the result of using primitive products to get rid of the brassiness. Sort of fascinated me as a kid.
I haven’t dyed my hair in years and it’s a salt and pepper melange that I’m happy with. My Mom dyed hers almost until the end, then she had chemo and lost much of her hair. When it grew back in, much more of it was still dark than any of us expected. An interesting discovery at a difficult time.
My sister and MIL, both with naturally dark hair, have slowly gotten lighter and lighter over the years. It’s easier on their faces and hides the root line more effectively.
Have been talking about this with my hairdresser. When I retire, in two years hopefully, I want to go natural. I have always had dark hair and do now with coloring. If I just let it grow in, hello skunk!
My hairdresser has told me how she manages to let it ease in. She gave me some client examples. I knew some of them and realized–now I know why they look so damn much older!! Haha.
Be prepared, it is going to age us ladies! Still kind of enjoying some men checking me out. That will provably stop.
The purple shampoo was suggested to my D when she got blond streaks put in her dark hair as a way to keep the blond from getting brassy. They suggested the Bed Head purple shampoo, no more than once a week. It seemed to do the job.
The gray dye only works on hair that’s naturally light if you are talking about the boxed dye one sees in stores. I suppose a stylist could bleach your hair and then add a dye like that. I’ve seen the boxed dye in pale gray-pink, gray-blue and gray-lavender. If my hair wasn’t still mostly pepper with a little salt, I would love to try one of those. D was horrified at the thought. I’m definitely one of the oldest of the moms she knows (I’m 58, she’s 17) so that’s probably why. Maybe once I’m not working…
And tons of pics online of glamorous grey haired ladies are photoshopped for hair color. There are some great sites with real people transitioning to grey, but some of the options one sees online than look to be available are much more digital that actual.
61 here. I use the natural instincts semi permanent light blond. It washes out over about 3 months for me. I tried blond on a whim. Interestingly it covers the grey which is less than 50%. The rest is medium brown naturally. So I have a lot of colors going on. D said what ever I am doing looks great with that color variation. I used to use a darker brown color semi dye but I am trying to go lighter as I age. I don’t know what I will do when there is more grey.
Has anyone tried adding streaks or chunks of blond or light brown to a grey head?
I colored mine dark brown myself from early 30s to 40s but was having trouble keeping up with the skunk stripe so decided to go natural. I switched to a more medium brown color, then used a temporary medium brown then switched to just touching up the stripe. THEN I went to my stylist and had her cut it short, and give me blond highlights. I spent the summer as a blonde and then had it cut short again in the fall and was pretty much all silver with some dark low lights then. The whole process took about nine months for me. I am really glad I did it. I get many more complements on the silver than I ever did with the brown. I read Going Grey as well and that helped support my decision to stop coloring.
I think I’m the only one among my sisters and SisILs who doesn’t color my hair. I’ve never been interested. My hair is mostly black with a few natural silver streaks and highlights.
I permed it for a few years to look more professional but stopped after a few years when I decided the chemicals were probably not great for me and before I had kids. I never looked back.
H has had white hair since he was in HS–was just a few but over time it has not become mostly silver and white. It looks fine on him and he’s never wanted to dye it, except perhaps a dark hair dye that you wash in and it will wash out for some Halloween.
My mom never colored her hair either, nor has my dad.
Because of overwhelming laziness, I’ve never colored my hair. It just went gray when the time came.
This had a weird side effect. I lost my anonymity. People who’ve met me once recognize me now, and they don’t seem to realize that it’s because I’m one of the few women out there under age 70 with gray hair. But the embarrassing thing is that I don’t recognize them. Why would I?
It can be quite awkward, for example, when the dental hygienist brings up things from the conversation you must have had six months ago and you don’t even remember that you saw the same hygienist both times.
I just had my roots done yesterday 
Obviously I am still getting color (light brown) and I am not quite ready to go gray. I love the silver look, but my stylist tells me my hair is not quite there and have enough brown that it would look “mousy” if I went natural. My other issue is that I wear my hair shoulder length which is a good look on me. Tried a short cut about 10 years ago and it didn’t work at all.
I “color enhanced” my roots last night with L’Oreal Light Brown. My stylist colors my hair about 4 times per year with all over color and highlights and then I maintain root touch-ups inbetween visits. I also touch-up my eyebrows as they are are also turning white and disappearing! :(( I don’t like the drawn in look of pencil so I use my root touch-up powder on my brows, too. Really intriqued with and researching microblading at the moment.
Also in the ‘never colored my hair’ camp.
It was a decision that started in grade school as I was quite impressed by the distinctive look of a youthful grey haired mother of a classmate.
I was fortunate to have the genetics of my paternal grandmother who had a very even looking salt and pepper sprinkle gradually becoming mostly salt now at 62.
Aside from my grandmother, I am the only female in my entire extended family to remain natural.
I found my fist gray hair on my 18th birthday, and have been coloring my hair since I was about 25 (30 years now). My husband is 57, and doesn’t have much gray, so I would feel older if I went all gray. I had medium brown hair, about shoulder length, and get a skunk strip going within a little over 2 weeks. I try to use the temp products to get me up to 4 weeks between colorings, but can’t go much longer. I have always colored my hair myself, but if I decide to go gray, I will need professional help. I’ve considered starting to get pro color now, bc I’m trying to go to a lighter brown, but the build-up of color keeps the longer parts darker. I try to get only my roots, and I use a brush for collr placement, but I still wind up with collr build up/darker than I’d like.
I generally do color myself (dark blonde), and see a hairdresser friend if I need color/highlights for a special event. I’m very, very mousy naturally, and when the roots grow out, probably 60% gray. I look at three of my sibs (younger than I am) and gauge where I’m at. They are all heavily gray with very little white. My youngest sister is 49 and she goes a few shades blonder than me (but not brassy or platinum). Her twin brother is completely salt & pepper.
Am thinking I’m going to start doing non-permanent color and be more diligent about keeping up with it. It’s not that I object to gray hair, but my mousy color completely washes out my face and I look like death warmed over.
My dad had significant gray at 19; S2 found gray hairs the day of his Bar Mitzvah. S1 is light blond, so if he has gray, it’s not showing.
No matter what color/process I use, it always goes read. Who knew? The five of us were all blond as kids.
I asked DH if he would let me know when he thinks I should stop coloring my hair, and he said not for awhile! I figure he’s the main person whose opinion matters to me, so I won’t worry about it for now.