to color or not to color

[Flynn]

Question:

• Where do you stand on coloring your hair?
  How long do you plan to color?
  Do you think grey hair is attractive?
  Will you every go grey?

I just made an appointment with a new stylist. A friend of mine here recommended her and I've had average luck here since I moved. I'm excited.

I bring this up to DH -- tell him I have booked our babysitter just to have him "in the loop" and we get into this huge discussion on "why don't you just go grey? Grey is natural and you're not 25 anymore." :huh:

I've recently gone to permanent color to color grey hairs. I'm Irish, have dark brown hair, and it's just time. I color it just slightly different than my natural color so when it grows in all you can really tell (unless you're me) is the grey growing in. I LOVE my color --- it's a bit redder than my natural color and not so dark with my fair skin. It probably sounds awful but people comment on it all the time. I'm embarassed to say that makes me happy.

I "think" someday I'll go grey -- I really think that if you have the right hair, a naturally grey woman can look quite elegant and smashing. I'm just not there yet. I'm 36 -- not 45!!!!!

DH was funny about it but he's a "natural guy" all the way....I'll stick to my color, tinted moisturizer and a dusting of power (and a few other things ) thank you just the same.

So where are you in this?
I colored for fun when I was younger....semi permanent color once in a while. I loved how it made my hair feel!

[DCJenn]

I started coloring it when my husband told me he was no longer married to a redhead...

I was a wee bit peeved.

It's gotten darker red over the years so I have a lighter red and some blond highlights put in every few months. It's taken years to develop the exact color formulation with my stylist- we mix and combine three different colors to get the exact shade- and sometimes we don't bother with the highlights. She puts the highlights on while the other color is on so that they highlights don't look like hello- these are my highlights.

Since my hair is short I don't bother doing the color all that often- and it's actually close enough to my natural shade that it's hard to tell when it's me vs. color. It's more that the color adds high and low lights to my natural shade.

I say go for it.

Jenn

[alison]

I'm on the fence about this.

For one thing, I have seen so many Asian women who look unnatural. It's either too dark, as if you have a blue or purplish orb. Or it's too light: since when do Asian women go blonde? My mom went for blue until she hit her early 50s. She has since stopped coloring her hair, and she looks beautiful! She's got a bob and grey are like highlights around her face. It looks so much better than the ridiculous coloring she had when she was in her 40s.

My mom's hair was straight and black (which is a good thing if you're Japanese, apparently). My grandmother told me to eat more seaweed, becuase my hair is naturally a much lighter black (brown) with... reddish highlights around my face, that are especially noticeable in the summer. :huh: And I've got loose curls. I have no idea how this happened and have no idea what to do when I start greying.

[alison]

I wanted to add that I am jealous of black women. I think they grey the most gracefully out of all of us.

I've gone through periods of coloring and then not coloring. Right now I am not. My hair color has changed since having kids and I didn't like it after Anna was born so I colored it. I like it again so I'll leave it. I've got a gray hair here or there. If I get more, I'll probably color again.

[Ravenclaw]

I think gray hair looking nice depends on the person wearing it. I don't think a whole lot of people can pull it off well - looking classy and elegant instead of tired and old.

When I go gray, I am DEFINITELY coloring. But I think I will try using natural dyes first.

[Vanquisher]

When I go gray, I am definitely going to color, but I think I am pretty blessed in this area. My Mom turns 50 next year, and she has less than a dozen gray hairs on her head. I hope that will be true for me too. SO far so good. I plan to color until I die.

[Stella]

I've been coloring my hair since I was.... 13? I just always loved how you can change your look in an hour. I've been everything from platinum to strawberry to dark dark brown. Grey? Noooooo thank you. Ever.

[Auspicious]

I'm on the fence, but I think I might color until retirment if I'm working, and go gray if I'm not working.

My parents have an ongoing argument about this--my dad wants my mom to go gray and my mom says it would hurt her at work to be gray. :huh:

Like Heidi's mom, one of my grandmothers and one of my aunts just never went gray except for a few hairs, so I'm holding out for that option.

[Michele]

I'm with Stella. I've been coloring my hair since high school and I've also been blond, dark auburn, and all shades of brown to my latest (last few years) color - black.

Right now my roots are an embarrassing 2 inches and I need to decide what to do. I'm thinking about going back to brown/natural for a bit....but I'm pretty sure I should have it professionally stripped....but if I stay black, I'll continue to do it myself with Clairol Natural Instincts #36 Neutral Black.

[alison]

I get partial highlights to lighten things up a bit. My hair is a dark, goldenish blond. I think greys will blend until they really start to take over. It's a more subtle transition with light hair.

I love grey hair. Really. I love silvery grey and the totally white "grey" heads. If you take good care of your hair, don't chemically fry it over the years and have a flattering cut I think it can look very chic.

My hair is board straight, so I'm going for the slightly angled bob and grey hair in my mid fifties like the French women. :P

I totally agree with you, Annie. I think grey can be incredibly classy - why is it still ok for men to be grey, but for women, not ok?

[Sheherezade]

All this thread is doing is reminding me that I need to get a hair appointment. :>

I started coloring last year when my red started getting called "blonde" regularly. Redheads don't take kindly to being called "blondey" after 39 years of redhead-hood. That said, I don't think going "blond" is so bad. My grandmother has pure white hair. My mom has colored forever, so who knows what's under there? I think I will go white eventually, but there is something wrong with going grey or white when your MIL and mom haven't yet done so. Strange world we live in.

[DCJenn]

Angie-

I swear redheads either end up beige or brown.

Jenn

My grandfather was a redhead and he went blondish to white. I never understood why people made references to red hair until I saw older photos of him.

Today my hair guy asked if I had color on (I don't). I am going to assume he thought it looked good. I've been thinking about this today -- I don't know what color I would do.

My mom colors her hair a color....not found in nature. She gets a lot of compliments on it and likes being a redhead. We can't share clothes as often because our coloring is too different now.

I totally color. I've had grey hair since I was 16 (not a typo), and my mom was almost entirely grey in her mid-30's. Once she started coloring her hair, it took 10 years off her face.

I always thought I'd like the grey if it came in in a streak or something - but it's really sketchy. Just strands here and there, wirey and funky. Nothing fun about that.