<p>Well, this is a thread to consult in the coming years!</p>
<p>Right now, I have very little gray. If I take after my mom, I probably will never have a lot of gray. She is 81 and still doesn’t color her hair and if you were to see her, you would describe her as a brunette. Her closest friend (who has been like a second mom to me) called me about ten years ago and told me to spill the beans on mom - she insisted mom had to be coloring her hair. </p>
<p>I get a reverse highlighting from hairdresser. It is expensive, but it is one of my few splurges and it is only every couple of months, not weeks. I would love to let my hair all gray at some point, but I have such fine hair I suspect I will not have the wow factor that I think NY has. I will just be a pale old lady with white, limp hair. </p>
<p>Please Lord, don’t let me start perming my hair!!!</p>
<p>I love that ny went gray and it looks good. I’ve seen many women who have gone gray, with cute stylish haircuts and they look fantastic. Maybe some day I’ll do that. Right now, (in my 40s) I still feel like a dark-haired gal and don’t want to change that yet. </p>
<p>I do the roots and around my face/hairline, every 3 weeks. If I don’t get around to it in time, I do the “fluff it up” along my part so it isn’t as noticeable. I also have a dark brown touch up stick - sort of like a crayon thing - you get it a little wet, then draw it on your gray stripe - and it is good in a pinch. I agree with whoever said don’t color all your hair - too much color deposits on the bottom. I only do the last 5 minutes on the entire length of my hair every few months.</p>
<p>My hair is past my shoulders. Of course, that is another topic: at what age should we give up our long hair! lol. I did cut my hair really short several years back and loved it - for a week. Then I felt like a guy and grew it back out again. I am definitely a long-haired gal. I think it’s in my genes or something.</p>
<p>I color my own hair with Clairol Grey Busters that I get at a beauty supply store - I have to mix it with toner. It ends up costing me less than the box stuff. My hair is naturally dark brown, but it is VERY gray now if I don’t dye it. Unfortunately, it is a shade of gray that makes me look tired & bedraggled, so I am not ready to embrace it yet. My hair used to hold color well, but it doesn’t seem to want to hold dark color anymore. It ends up being a highlighted (due to the gray, I guess), natural looking, light brown/reddish color for a few weeks … then the color slowly fades. My H is my colorist - as an engineer, he is quite particular about coverage!! </p>
<p>Someday, I will embrace the gray. For now … especially since I was recently passed over for a promotion for which I was more qualified by a woman 20 years younger than I … I will stick with coloring my hair. :)</p>
<p>I can totally understand why some are not ready to embrace the gray. It is such a personal decision. Definitely do what feels right to you. </p>
<p>kelsmom, I think it’s cute that your husband colors your hair. My dad used to color and style my mom’s hair. During the day, he worked in a factory. In the evenings and on weekends, he worked as a hairdresser.</p>
<p>I agree that it may take some trial and error to find your perfect color. When I was in my 20s I had light brown hair with gold and red highlight. I wanted my hair to be a lighter shade, so I colered it with a permanent color for a couple of years. I liked the result. My hair was a lighter shade of golden brown and retained its gold and red highlights. But, I got tired of having to color every 6 weeks or so and after a couple of years I stopped.</p>
<p>Fast forward to my 40s. I had vowed that I would not have mousy gray/brown hair and that I would start coloring it before I became noticeably gray. When I started to see a lot of gray around my temples, I decided it was time. I went to a beauty college and asked for a shade slightly lighter than my own. The instructor warned me that going lighter would bring out the red tones in my medium golden brown hair. I said that was okay because I’d always had red highlights, and besides, I had lightened it myself very successfully when I was younger. The instructor chose the color and the student applied it. The color turned out a ghastly, very unnatural looking shade of auburn. I hated it and suffered with the ugly color for months as it grew out.</p>
<p>I decided I’d color my hair myself the next time. I started with the color I used when I was in my 20s. My hair turned out looking auburn. It was a natural looking shade of auburn, unlike what I got at the beauty college, but it was not what I wanted. After thinking about what might have gone wrong, I realized that my hair had darkened more than I had thought between my 20s and my 40s. Therefore, the shade that worked when I was younger was now too light. </p>
<p>Over the next couple of years I tried a succession of hair colors. I kept going a shade darker each time. My hair looked better with each experiment, but it kept looking redder than I liked. A Clairol consultant told me I should use a color that had a violet base. Good advice. However, you can’t tell by reading the boxes which shades have a violet base. I had been using ash brown shades to try to tone down the red, but not all of the ash shades have a violet base. Eventually, I hit upon Hydrience 48, dark brown. The model on the box, has very dark, ash brown hair. When I use the color, I get medium golden brown with gold and a few red highlights. I know the color definitely has a violet base. My plastic gloves turn a pretty shade of violet! I leave the color on my roots for 15 minutes, then quickly apply the color to the rest of my hair and immediately rinse it out. If the ends of my hair start looking too faded after a few months of that procedure, I’ll leave the color on the ends for 5 minutes before rinsing. I’m very happy with the results I get. Stylists are always surprised when I tell them what shade I use. though I use a dark brown shade, I do not get a dark brown result with my method.</p>
<p>MidwestMom, I’ve been using 7A for a while, but I tend to go a long time between colorings and my hair has just enough undertones that I go reddish after a few weeks. Tried out 6 (light brown) Natural today and love it. Had an office dinner tonight and noone recognized me at first! Hope it doesn’t fade too much, as this color makes my blue eyes really pop out.</p>
<p>I’m about 25% gray with mousy flat light brown, and my hair is terribly thin and sparse (love that chemo). Coloring helps me with volume. No gorgeous gray here. Was a natural medium blond through most of college.</p>
<p>It’s gotten so bad that H started coloring his hair because as a professional photographer, he found people didn’t want to hire him.</p>
<p>He did okay when it was salt and pepper (which is what he colors it too not wanting the shoe polish look of dyed black hair, his natural color), but when it went white all bets were off and he looked like an old man, way before his time. (He and his dad both went prematurely gray.)</p>
<p>I get my professionally done because it is very, very thick and past my shoulders, and I would ruin my porcelain if I undertook to do it myself as I did as a young woman when I did it just for fun.</p>
<p>I have to wear it long because it is so thick it just looks way too “poufy” if I cut it shortly. With short hair I look like I have “basketball head” (self- called): a big round blob atop my neck with hair that looks so full it looks like a dynel wig.</p>
<p>Everyone else likes my new color but my son today said it was too red. Either he is the most conservative or the most honest. I need to decide.</p>
<p>Up until now I had medium brown replacing my natural black and had caramel highlights. Since I am still very involved with my career at almost 60, I justify the professional attention that way.</p>
<p>I have a lot of gray hair, and although it is a pain to color it, I really feel that I will not look good at all in gray hair, so I keep coloring it. It started to go gray over 25 years ago, and the only time I let it go was when I was pregnant and nursing (one time). It was very gray then, and that was a long time ago. </p>
<p>My hair is dark, and the one or two times I tried to do it myself years ago, I found it too messy. I think good color from a good colorist is worth the price. I think there can be a lot of variation in price, and sometimes it is not even more in the “nicer” salons (barring NYC or other high end salons). I moved a few years ago, and the more upscale place that I go to actually has a lower price than my old place in an older neighborhood. Even though I probably could use it every 4 weeks, I wear my hair curly the last 2 weeks (roots don’t really show too much), and stretch it out to avoid the chemicals. I feel so much better when I have it “done.”</p>
<p>I have my hair (mouse brown plus lots of gray–truly unflattering) professionally colored medium brown with blonde highlights, and use one of the root touch-up products (I think both Clairol and L’oreal make them) to extend the time between salon visits. Because of the highlighting, I can use a dark blonde product and the roots are totally camouflaged. The root touch up is quick and easy, and by using it I can go about 10 weeks between salon visits. I don’t have the courage to color my own hair, but this is a compromise that keeps the costs down a bit.</p>
There have been a couple of times in my life when I wore my hair pretty short, otherwise it has always been long, or at least shoulder length. Strangely, when it was short, I would often notice in my dreams that my hair was again long. When I have worn it long, it never seems to be something that I notice in my dreams one way or the other. </p>
<p>As for coloring, I was mostly gray by 26, and have colored it pretty consistently since then with one thing or another. Now, I go with a shade a tad lighter than my natural color would have been, and not as reddish, which can be too harsh. I tried getting more and more blondish, but DH didn’t like it. It has to be done every 5 weeks or so, so I do it myself these days.</p>
<p>I’ll embrace the gray when it doesn’t add 10-15 years (if that ever happens!).</p>
<p>I got my first gray hairs in my twenties. I no longer use hair coloring but when I did I most often did it myself. I had medium brown hair and I used a dark blonde semi-permanent coloring a few times a year. It blended the gray in and looked like highlights. My hairdressor told me she probably couldn’t do a better job and she used to “mix” two colors for the two years I had her do it. But I’m glad to be “done with it.” The book “Going Gray” was my inspiration as I thought the author looked so much better natural. I’m not fond of the non natural uni-color look that sometimes comes out when people use a darker color to cover the gray. I stay away from the ash colors which I think wash me out too much. My hair is just below chin length which seems appropriate for my age. I now use “clear” “haircolor” which gives great shine to my brown and gray streaky hair. Once I gave up the coloring and went to clear I got compliments from my boys (including H who has of course has very little gray) which is rare and all I need to continue on. Gray hairs seem to lack shine and the more gray I got, the less shine I had so I’m happy. Sometimes if I stop and think about my age I’m surprised at how old I am, but I have no real desire to appear like I’m thirty. I’ll take late forties which is what most people guess and I’m in my mid-fifties so I go with the flow.</p>
<p>I wish my hair looked good grey, but it doesn’t! When i try to let it grow out a bit, I get (how shall I put this?!) “negative feedback” and I know it totally washes out my face, and everyone asks me if I’m getting enough sleep. I have the fast growing, dark ash brown but probably 50% grey kind of hair that is really thick, so i have to do it like every 3 weeks. But I have yet to figure out the trick of getting the roots colored without the rest!</p>
<p>I think the trick is figuring out when to let it go. I let my gray go before my then 80 year old mom. She got inspired and she looks tons better with solid gray hair. She lightened up her lipstick and still wears a bob but brown hair on an 80 year old just isn’t attractive. She actually looks younger and everyone asks her if she had a face lift. Sooner or later you just gotta deal with it I guess.</p>
<p>A co-worker, who is fifty, let her hair go gray probably in her mid-forties (she formerly had very dark brown hair). She has it cut in a Sharon Stone like short cut. I’m not kidding you - she gets more compliments on her hair - perfect strangers will approach her to tell her how much they like her hair. We were in Walmart on our lunch hour last week and a woman came up to us just to tell her how fabulous her hair looked. This happens all the time.</p>
<p>I think white or white-gray looks great on a lot of women but a more steel gray isn’t usually that attractive. A lot of it also has to do with the cut and texture of the hair. You don’t want it too old lady-ish looking and yet, too long, and you look like an aging hippie. I think a nice bob or very stylish short cut is the way to go.</p>
<p>Just did my “every 8 or 9 week” redo with my L’Oreal. It looks great…nice highlights and very shiny. The conditioner that comes with it is great. </p>
<p>My “grey” hairs are straggly coarse greys that are scattered on my head. My hair is actually pretty straight but these greys are not. When I color my hair, the greys settle down and it all blends together. </p>
<p>I also have a friend with fabulous silver grey hair (also in her early 40’s)…and hers also looks fabulous. If mine was uniformly grey, I’d let it go, but this here and there grey just doesn’t look very good.</p>
<p>I used to have very shiny, dark brown hair.</p>
<p>I will embrace the silver/white when I attain one of the following:
a. Have something equivalent to tenure at my job (that situation does not exist)
b. 90 % silver (not this washed out brown with some silver) Coarser hair would help, but that isn’t going to happen.
c. Retirement</p>
<p>Looks like I will be coloring until retirement.</p>
<p>Oh! I just remembered another reason why I can’t go gray yet (even though my head is 98% white) … I still have tons of eyebrows and they are all black!!</p>
<p>I started going grey at 22 and stopped coloring my hair at 37. At 52 (I’m now 55), I was pretty much all white when I saw an Italian woman with multi-colored spikes in her short hair and was inspired to add pink streaks to my short hair cut. I use a vegetable dye (Special FX) and do a light streak just at the front. It adds color to my face. It fades out over a few weeks. </p>
<p>I find women of a certain age, often with hair that looks thoroughly trashed by dye overuse, come stand next to me and quietly ask “how do you do that?” One acquaintance has added a lovely deep purple streak to her grey hair. It’s very becoming.</p>
<p>I use Redken Shades EQ, a professional product. My old stylist gave me a combo of two shades to mix in order to make my ‘highlights’ turn a nice reddish auburn shade lighter than my dark brown, but the same colour to which my hair naturally sun bleaches. A short time later I left the country, so I found a way to obtain the pro products and experimented myself. My niece has a license so I had someone to ask the lame questions! I began by leaving it on too long and being too dark, but over time have gotten to about 15-20 minutes and I redo it every 5-8 weeks depending on fade & root growth (seems to differ seasonally) </p>
<p>I have maybe 5% gray scattered evenly throughout like the best highlight job ever so the colour wash is good. Maybe if I had solidly silver hair that looked good I would go au natural, but right now it would just look frowsy</p>