Gray Haired Sisterhood

[Eunice-TNT]

Just watched a segment on the Today show about ladies going natural and showing their gray hair. I didnt know it was the thing to do. I have been growing my hair out for several months. I havent seen my natural color for years and years. I could tell that I have white temples so I decided to see. it has been hard but I am determined to let it grow ALL THE WAY OUT so I can see just how gray I am. It is about 3/4 out and I find I am not as gray as I thought I would be. It is a light salt and pepper. Kenny doesnt care so I may just leave it. As said on tv this morning it is so nice not to worry about the roots etc. I will post a pic in a couple of months when it is totally natural
Anyone else doing this?

 

[Miriam C.]

I spent years keeping the dark shadows from coming in my hair every winter. Every summer the ends of my hair would bleach and when very young turned white. Was grungy looking so I would dye it every couple of years. Tried to get close to my real shade.

Well I got skin cancer and decided I would just do the grunge thing. Funny thing is when I stayed out of the sun it quit doing all that. Now it is about half gray.....I like it.....

 

[SandyD]

I only colored my hair once. We were in church and my ex ~~ emphasis on the ex ~ was walking behind me and said, "Wow, look at that grey hair."

Sooooo he got the $100 bill for my first and last coloring. No one noticed the difference so I never colored again. (Or they learned that comments would cost them).

Now I'm a salt and pepper and I don't mind so much. Especially since I don't have anyone walking behind me making comments on the color.

 

[nevadatear]

Never have colored my hair (I know, I am rare!) and never plan to. I come from a long line of early/premature grayers, So always thought I would spent more of my life coloring my hair than having natural hair if I ever started. I have two great aunts who were completely white by 18 and I had quite a bit of gray by 30. I am wayyyy grayer than my husband, and he is 6 years older than me. But I'm ok with it, and so is he.

I like my gray hair. Read a great book not too long ago about women and gray/white hair and choosing to keep/embrace the gray. The most interesting thing in the book is that MEN don't think women look older when they are gray, but WOMEN do! We are only hurting ourselves! It is called: Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters and I highly recommend it! Power to the gray and white!

The funny thing is your point of reference changes. After you "embrace your gray" you start looking at folks who have colored hair that doesn't match the experience on their face, and realize how very strange they look at age 50 and 60 to have no gray hair. To me, it just doesn't look right. I got way better things to spend my money and time on, like new stuff for my teardrop![/u]

 

[gypsy97-TNT]

When I stopped coloring my hair several years ago, I found it was one of the most liberating things I've ever done for myself. One of the reasons I decided to quit was realizing the lines on my face weren't reflected in the perfectly red hair. I was surprised at how much red was left when I quit coloring, but it's being overtaken by gray now.

 

[martha24]

I've never colored my hair and I don't intend to start now. It has a certain amount of gray and is slowly getting grayer.
The thing that bothers me most with some of the gray hair is the texture not the color being different from my normal hair.
Another funny thing it seems to be a process of going gray, as I can find a hair that goes from brown to gray and back to brown again.

I don't keep up with hair fashion anyway as I've had my hair long & braided for many years. When I had it shorter ...many years ago... it always looked like I had be in a wind storm as my hair is very fine.

My hair has always grown very fast. Not sure how fast it grows now but as a teenager it grew about 6 to 8 inches in a year. I could go from fairly short hair to longish hair in one year. So for ease & neatness & being cheap, I braid. And for those reasons I wouldn't bother dying my hair either.

 

[Slowp]

Mine has always been a hodgepodge of colors. Now there's some white joining in. I'm hoping for a slow process. The Scandihoovian side of the family aged slowly. I've never dyed it. What color would I choose?

Funny, when I saw the movie Braveheart, I understood my hair. That's the Scots side of the family. Everybody had wild, uncontrolled hair, just like mine!

 

[Ratkity]

Well, my Scottish heritage explains a lot! My hair is super fine and does nothing I want it to It always looks like I've had my head stuck out the window of a 70 mph vehicle. I am brunette, but have a plethora of colors; now including the white ones that stick up like antennas!

Hugs,
Ratkity
(new lady teardropper with a reverse Little Guy TD)

 

[Blumie]

Eunice is doing the same thing I did:I finally let the uncolored hair grow and saw what I really had. Then I gave my hairdresser carte blanche to cut & style. About a month after having the colored hair cut off, I attended a meeting with Dianne Feinstein. She singled me out of the crowd, came over to me and said,"You went off the bottle!" with more than a little bit of envy in her voice, I thought. It's much easier to just be myself. And the dear sweet husband likes not smelling the chemicals once a month!

 

[Eunice-TNT]

I love all the responses and I am still determined to go natural all the way. What I am finding is that boy does the light and mirrors make a difference. In my bathroom mirror it doesnt look too bad but at the Scout office or in the natural light, I dont like it!!!!!! The nice thing is the dye has turned and you cant really see where it starts and roots begin. Hairdresser said it looked like highlights.

 

[Jazzy Lynn]

I started noticing whtie hairs when I was 17. In my 20's there was enough gray that people would comment "You're too young to have gray hair," and so I started dying my hair. Now I'm 50 and I haven't colored my hair in at least 15 years. Now I'm salt-n-pepper and I'm starting to see a few white hairs in my eyebrows and eyelashes and it doesn't bother me in the least.
Barbara

 

[nevadatear]

Hang in there Eunice! I can really understand how hard it would be to go through the growing out stage (that is one of the main reasons I never dyed mine, the thought of the long growing out stage), so best advice, avoid those mirrors! It will be worth it and I bet you grow to love the look and the ease. It is all a matter of what we have gotten used to. In the last 20 years our perspective has changed that we no longer expect people over 30 much less over 50 to have gray hair (at least women), so if they do, they must look "old". To see how pervasive this is, I took a real look at my school district recently where I work, and only 2 women of the 50 or so that work there have graying hair. And one is me. Major money for the dye companies! But since perspectives have changed, they can sure change back. Remember how no one would be caught dead wear too short pants? Or wear pink if you have red hair? Now it doesn't seem to look "wierd" anymore. Gray (acutally more white) is me. I like it.

 

[tearhead]

Fun discussion, and can I ever relate!!!! My avatar pic was taken a few years ago during my foray into going gray. I started coloring again a couple of years ago when I was interviewing for a job. I thought the competition would be younger than I. I didn't get the job, but I decided I like it better coloring than not...for now! But it's a close question!

I've been using L'Oreal Colour Perfecte or something like that. It causes my husband great amusement when I do it. It's a 2-step kit where the base color is a drab brown. I always hope no one comes to the door between that step and the highlights. Of course I need help putting highlights on the back, so Mark gets to put on an apron and help with that. He finds it quite fun, surprisingly! Never knew he was a frustrated hairdresser! It costs about $13 and I do it every 5-6 weeks. But I could easily go back to gray. I did like the color. However, the hair color also improves the texture and makes the curl and wave easier to deal with so that's another thing that keeps me "on the bottle." (What a great term!)

 

[Eunice-TNT]

Pat what I have noticed is that my curly/wavy hair is coming back! Need to change the cut because it is sticky out in all directions.

 

[nevadatear]

Yes, I actually like the texture of the gray better than my old hair! My natural color hair is very fine and stick straight. I now have a little curve and a little more body and can get a little volume with just a blow dryer, something I never could before with my "natural" colored dishwater blond/light brown hair. Good cut makes all the difference in how you feel about your hair.

 

[Ratkity]

Ya know, as I've gotten older, I'm getting waves and curls. What's up with that?? All my teenage years, I fried my hair (and scalp) on curling irons to get a wee bit of curl that would flop as soon as I stepped into the NC humidity (grew up in Raleigh area).

I've given up and just let it do what it wants unless I'm scheduled to work with the public. Then I over-product my hair to stay down so it doesn't look like I've stood in a wind tunnel to dry my hair.

Hugs,
Ratkity

 

[CAJUN LADY-TNT]

Bravo to you ladies!

I was born a brunette and will "dye" a blond!

 

[Miriam C.]

Bravo to you ladies!

I was born a brunette and will "dye" a blond!

 

[The Teardrop Nanny]

My hair has always been in its natural state....I've never dyed/colored or permed it. I really like my hair color and constantly get compliments on it. I tell people to call my Mother and let her know since she always used to want me to color it. My twin went grey (salt & pepper) in his twenties. I stayed blonde for decades longer and mine did not change color until my late 40's. After all the hullabaloo about hair dyes, colorings, and potential risk to scalp & skin from coloring, I prefer the natural look.

TDN

 

[mcspin50]

Well, my next birthday is the BIG 6-0. I can hardly bring myself to say it the proper way. I sure don't feel that old, so I guess that's the important thing, right?
I've gone through various "to color or not to color" stages in my life. The last few years, I've spent a just few dollars getting my hair highlighted/lowlighted. I was born blonde, then gradually darkened over the years. I remember being very surprised when we got a family photo taken about 15 years ago of my husband and me and our three boys . My hair was as brown as my husband's! Two of my sisters are natural blondes, the other has colored her hair since I can't remember when, so I'm guessing it's really brown now like mine, but I think there might be some coloring going on as none of them have grey hair. I guess I just want to look like my big thithters, and hide the few grey hairs that seem to pop up. Call me vain or insecure, but I FEEL younger when my hair has blonde highlights. We joke at the hair salon when I come in and say, "It's time to de-frump me!"