What age would you let yourself "go gray"

[LSmith]

I guess 80yo or death, which ever comes first.

I'm thinking the same thing. After that, I might just wear a wig.

 

[Christine]

I will color my hair until it becomes impossible.

I am 50 and only have a few grays. Like the rest of my family, it will hit me full force in my 60s. We don't have anyone who is a nice gray so I'm not counting on that.

If you don't have beautiful gray hair, it will look bad and age you way more than you need to be. If you are okay with that, than go for it. Frankly, I just want to look my age, not worse. I don't think gray is going to be a good color for my skin tone.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

I'm 66 years old, and my natural color WAS dark blonde. I colored the gray for the past 15 years, but this past December, I decided enough was enough.
I had some trepidation because my Mom's hair was a gunmetal gray and she always hated it. So far, mine is silvery with a slight platinum blonde cast. I'm OK with that!

 

[RadioNate]

I started dying my hair at 12 or 13. It'll be a cold day in hell before I let it go totally grey. Ok, MAYBE 70+ but my mom is super active at 66 & I can't imagine her 'letting it go' in a few years.

75 if I can't do it any more? Maybe.

 

[apirateslifeforme]

I don't have a specific number, it's "whenever the majority of my hair starts to turn."

I'm 39 now. I've been dyeing my hair since I was 18 (I went dark brown a few times, but I usually stay with the reds). Due to an IVF embryo transfer, I haven't been allowed to dye my hair since October and my whites/silvers are VERY evident. But it's just a sprinkling right now...more than the "two" my hairdresser keeps claiming (with an eyeroll), but not my whole head or patches here and there. Just some around the hairline and throughout the crown.

Thankfully, what's there is a nice shiny silver or white. As long as it's not "dirty dishwater grey" like my great-grandmother, I'll let it go when it all starts to turn.

 

[Art 1]

I'm 53 and getting a bit of it. I don't care for it on ladies though unless they are the grandmotherly type.

 

[MichelleVW]

Never going grey...just makes you look older than you are.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Probably never. Fortunately, I don't have much, and have never had the expense or aggravation of having to color, so when it hits, maybe it won't be so bad. I can understand someone who's been coloring for a lifetime wanting to just stop, but I do find in the people I know who've gone completely gray, it ages them prematurely. If that doesn't bother someone, then more power to them!

 

[JanaDee]

I'm 53 and getting a bit of it. I don't care for it on ladies though unless they are the grandmotherly type.

The picture you posted awhile back must not have been you, huh?

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Maybe when I feel like an old lady, but right now at 46 I'm not ready. I guess I'm about 50% silver when I see my roots. I'm happy that it's a sort of sparkly silver, but no.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

About 20 years ago - I'm 46 now

 

[Meriweather]

I will keep dying my hair.
Started at 40, am now 60. Helps me feel younger to not be gray.
BFF is 68 and will continue to dye her hair also.

 

[Angeni11]

Every so often I go an extra week and decide if I am going to let it grow out but I am not ready yet.

My hair was dark brown.

I started to get white hair at age 7. By high school they were starting to get noticeable. By 23 over 50% of my hair was white.

Yes, I am lucky that my hair is a very pretty silver and white white but at 44 with 4 and 6 year old boys I am not ready yet. Most people think I am younger.

I am thinking I will stop coloring it sometime between 50-60.

Oh and at 44 I am all white/silver underneath. I have always envied those that don't go gray/white until later.

 

[krcit]

Never unless I am physically unable to do it or get it done.

 

[TNDisneyNut]

I was always a blonde but "dirty" blonde and it got mousier as I grew older and THEN the gray in my late 20s. Im 49 now and probably totally gray underneath. My skin tone just looks washed out with gray so Im not going there until maybe 70, at least that's my thinking now. I am also refusing to go with the obligatory short hairdo. I guess only time will tell but Im staying blonde for now!

 

[Pakey]

I was forced to go bald during chemo but as soon as my hair was sprouting, I was back at the stylist. When she said it still wasn't long enough, I tried to get her to just paint the scalp. I go every 3 weeks for a color so that I can continue to deceive myself about how much gray is really there.

 

[okeydokey]

Never, although I will probably go lighter as I get older. Maybe go up a shade every decade or so. I don't want to have an 80 year old face and black hair.

 

[njmom47]

I'm 53 (and a grandmother haha) but I have been coloring my hair since my early 30s (pure white since then. Thanks Dad! ) I am tired of coloring it but I think I'm way too "young" to let it go.

Anyway, my hair is the longest it's ever been (4" past my shoulders) and the darkest. I color it every 3 weeks or so. Some people say it's too dark but I'm Italian, olive complexion, and my eyebrows are still dark (except for that one darn white one ), so I think I can carry it. DD#2 is a hair stylist and wants me to do something with it. But what?

I did see a young woman (to me she looked mid 30s) with gray hair, but she had many blonde highlights. It looked really nice on her, but she had blue eyes and a fair complexion.

 

[tina.tina]

I think of hair color like makeup. If you like the no makeup look- good for you but I like to enhance my eyes. If you like gray hair, good for you but I don't.

When I was very young, I had platinum blond hair. It got darker & darker until it was sort of mousy brown in my middle school years. I started coloring it blond until I graduated high school. My natural color was medium brown at that point and not as dull. Every so often, I would highlight during the summer- or whenever I felt like it.

Just like I hated the mousy brown color, I can't stand gray hair. I think I would have to be dead or in a coma to not color my hair. I am 39 and I really started getting a bit of gray about 3 years ago. Prior to that it just was a hair here and there and often blended with natural (or purchased) highlights (unless I yanked it out). Highlights pretty much hide the gray until it's time for my next color 8 weeks apart.

DH is 43 and his hair has thinned considerably and receded some but he has only gotten a few gray hairs at one temple in the last year. He keeps his hair short and it's not as noticeable, though. A guy at his office has terrible color jobs and I'm not sure I could ever talk DH into coloring his hair.

I will say that if you have gray hair, kids think you're really old. There's a lady in our community a couple of years older than my mother who had gray hair really young. She worked at a jewelry store and really had a sophisticated look. When I was young, though, I figured she was older than my grandma who probably colored her hair.

My sister has sort of medium to medium dark brown hair. She was probably fully gray by the time she was in her early 20's. She looks like a skunk if she lets her color go too long. She has very thick, coarse hair anyhow and it is hard to color. She has worn it blond in the past with a few dark lowlights. The gray didn't immediately stand out as soon with blond hair.

 

[Feralpeg]

Absolutely! I started having patches of grey when I was in my mid-30s. I did dye it for a long time, but it was always a problem. I was allergic to something in the hair dye. I tried all sorts of different dyes. I did it myself and had it done professionally. It didn't help. The dye would make my scalp itch terribly. When I turned 50, I stopped covering my grey.

I am now 61. My hair is probably 60 percent grey. Oddly, it was greyer before I underwent chemo and lost my hair. It has come back a little more brown. Personally, I think my grey looks fine. It is not that yellow grey you sometimes see. It is almost a silver looking.

I think of grey hair and wrinkles as my merit badge for making it this far!