Hair colour as you age

[Loki]

@caszandra, I  bet your hair actually looks awesome! My daughter wants to get her hair dip dyed but as she's only 11 that's not happening for a while and her school wouldn't allow it in any case. But you've ended up with that sort of effect accidentally, I can imagine the colours gently merging into each other down to your pale purple ends......and that long, like a mermaid!! 

 

[Fascinated]

I've had blonde hair all my life. But now the roots are so much darker and I, too, have no idea what colour it is under the root and highlight touch ups. I don't have a lot of grey yet, though.  But, oh, man, it's really starting to thin. It's always been thin and fine but I feel like I'm going to be one of those ladies with a sort of Friar Tuck thing going on.  When I touch my crown I screech (literally) to my husband: 'Shit, I have no hair here!'. To which he replies: 'Don't be ridiculous, of course you do.'  I'm using a Uphora (sp?) thickening 'system'. I've got some new wispy hairs at my temples but not much happening really. 

You know what, though?  I don't look terrible but I seriously avoid mirrors as much as possible. Oh, here's something. Do you ever look at yourselves with your glasses on???  (I do not recommend it.)

[caszandra]

@Loki, I wish it looked as awesome as you describe, it does look kinda ok but will defo be going back to full purple when I can afford for the hairdresser to do it.

[PennySycamore]

I just saw this on The Zoe Report and I think all of you that are tempted to try something arty to cover your grey will enjoy it.

Hair color inspired by famous art works

[Elvis Presby]

I have medium to dark brown hair and get hi-lites maybe once a year.  I'm 44 and not going gray yet, but my skin is changing.  The lighter hair color is much more flattering against my skin than the darker.

[AnywhereButHere]

When I was 18 my mom talked me into bleaching my dirty blond hair.  Between that and the perm (I blame the 80's), I looked like a glow in the dark poodle for a year. Since that fiasco I've spent the last 26 years experimenting with varying shades of red and brown. I used to do it myself, until one day I looked at my bathroom door and realized I had created a knockoff  Jackson Pollack motif on it. 

I'm not sure when the gray started. One day I looked in the mirror and the top of my head looked like a skunk. Grrrrrr. I've got a nice reddish brown thing going on now, and I'll keep it for a while. I'm not brave enough to go gray gracefully. The thinning hair is scary enough! I've always had a lot of hair, but I can definitely feel the difference, and I can only handle one sign of aging at a time (I'm willfully ignoring wrinkles  )

[Loki]

Wow @PennySycamore, thats amazing! I've admired that flowing colours down the hair trend, but have never seen anything like that! I'm definitely not that brave......you'd need a pretty exciting life to go with hair like that 

[browncoatslytherin]

i only have two grey hairs (so far) but i've purposed that when the greys start coming in full force and my face looks too old to pull off a solid colour, i'm just going to dye my hair white/grey/silver and go from there.

 

i love love love those exciting bright vivid unnatural colours, but unfortunately i can't do them, myself. when my hair is bleached, it will not hold dye at all...i'm lucky if it tints...and all those nice dyes require you to bleach your hair before you put the colour in or else it won't come out right.  the only bright hair dye that worked really well was l'oreal colour rays (i had super short hair so one package was enough for my whole head) but i guess they've discontinued it (though it's still available on their website...in limited colours  ). i really wish someone else would step up and make a formula similar to it with lots of colour options so i can have really wildly coloured hair!

[Playagirl]

My hair is medium brown and I've been going grey for the last few years. I'm 50 now and am maybe 10% grey. When I was younger I used to use a semi-permanent dye a few times a year just for fun. I'd go auburn and it looked pretty good. Now, though, the colour makes me look older. I've recently had lowlights done in a couple of colours very close to my natural colour. So it hides some of the grey but not all. The good thing about it is I've got about an inch of growth since it was done and you can't really notice the roots. I like this option as sort of slowing down the natural progression of going grey. I also am now losing my hair. Mine has always been very thick, in fact I get my stylist to thin it out regularly. Still, it's rather disconcerting to see it falling out now.

Oh, and menopause SUCKS!!!!! Greying and thinning hair is a walk in the park compared to the rest of the hell we're forced to endure at this time of life.

[AlysonRR]

5 hours ago, Playagirl said:

Oh, and menopause SUCKS!!!!! Greying and thinning hair is a walk in the park compared to the rest of the hell we're forced to endure at this time of life.

I'm with you! Although, after going through the hairloss thing, I've come to the other side of it (I hope) so don't lose hope... My hair was really thick, too, and now I find it much easier to deal with at least.

I'm 51 with thinner and ~20% gray hair. I do like having (almost) no periods, though. I'm in my third year of perimenopause, thinking I was definitely in menopause after nearly 11 months since the last inklings of a period, then got one (minimal) again... Since the definition of menopause is 12 months without a cycle (or so I've been told), I guess I have another 12 months to wait :-(

[Kak]

21 hours ago, Playagirl said:

My hair is medium brown and I've been going grey for the last few years. I'm 50 now and am maybe 10% grey. When I was younger I used to use a semi-permanent dye a few times a year just for fun. I'd go auburn and it looked pretty good. Now, though, the colour makes me look older. I've recently had lowlights done in a couple of colours very close to my natural colour. So it hides some of the grey but not all. The good thing about it is I've got about an inch of growth since it was done and you can't really notice the roots. I like this option as sort of slowing down the natural progression of going grey. I also am now losing my hair. Mine has always been very thick, in fact I get my stylist to thin it out regularly. Still, it's rather disconcerting to see it falling out now.

Oh, and menopause SUCKS!!!!! Greying and thinning hair is a walk in the park compared to the rest of the hell we're forced to endure at this time of life.

Well you've cheered me right up! 

I'm just kidding, but this hits a nerve with me, as I'm getting to that stage.  Sorry you're having a hard time. 

[polecat]

On 1/31/2016 at 5:43 PM, Loki said:

I'm interested to hear what people think. I expect we've all seen those older women, by older I'm thinking 70+ who have jet black hair, usually long and often styled like a 20 something. In my humble opinion, that is very aging (the colour, not necessarily the style) However the trend lately seems to be that if you're obviously old enough to be going grey, perhaps around 40ish, it's great to choose a vivid colour that isn't pretending to be real, great purples and reds that are fun. 

I'm at that age myself now and notice that with age, skin tone changes. I used to go for deep brown, or purple lipstick and thick black upper eyeliner vaguely Egyptian, but although I can still wear eyeliner without looking like mutton dressed as lamb, I don't think deep coloured lips look good on me any more because my skin is paler now I'm older, so with changing make up I'm thinking about changing hair colour for the same reason.

So, do you think we should grow old gracefully, maybe embrace our greys......or colour like mad? Do you think dark hair colour against an aging skin makes women look older? I'd love to hear other people's views on this!

I'm 41 and naturally blonde, and I've only just now started seeing greys. I think they blended well with the blondes before, and I'm only seeing them now that they're really common, lol. But I like them! They look like little silvery highlights, like I meant to do them. I'm keeping them. 

re: skin, I had to change my makeup about 5 to 10 years back. I used to wear pretty vivid makeup, foundation, powder, the whole nine yards. I had to ditch the foundation because it made me look mask-y. I toned down the colors and wear a shimmer eggplant/pink champagne combo with a deep purple glittery liner. (It sounds gaudy, but the glitter/shimmer are both minimal, and the colors complement my skin tone, which is pale, pale, pale). I add mascara and a touch of lip stain, and that's it. 

So basically, I'm hoping to grow old "gracefully"ish. I will keep my hair long until my dying day, and no one will get me into a grandma cut ever. But I'm going to gray naturally for the time being. Adding fun pops of color might be nice for summer.

On 2/4/2016 at 9:59 AM, browncoatslytherin said:

i only have two grey hairs (so far) but i've purposed that when the greys start coming in full force and my face looks too old to pull off a solid colour, i'm just going to dye my hair white/grey/silver and go from there.

 

i love love love those exciting bright vivid unnatural colours, but unfortunately i can't do them, myself. when my hair is bleached, it will not hold dye at all...i'm lucky if it tints...and all those nice dyes require you to bleach your hair before you put the colour in or else it won't come out right.  the only bright hair dye that worked really well was l'oreal colour rays (i had super short hair so one package was enough for my whole head) but i guess they've discontinued it (though it's still available on their website...in limited colours  ). i really wish someone else would step up and make a formula similar to it with lots of colour options so i can have really wildly coloured hair!

Check out Ursula Goff's page. She's an incredibly talented colorist. 

https://www.facebook.com/uggoff/?fref=ts

[Playagirl]

45 minutes ago, Kak said:

Well you've cheered me right up! 

I'm just kidding, but this hits a nerve with me, as I'm getting to that stage.  Sorry you're having a hard time. 

So sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. And you may be one of the lucky ones who sail through without a hitch. My SIL just stopped having periods one day: no abnormal cycles, no hot flashes, night sweats, anxiety, mood swings, sleepless nights, nothing. Last year I went outside to feed her dogs one day in winter. It was -30 degrees out (yes, minus) and I went out in a t-shirt. That's when she told me how easy her menopause was and of course I have hated her ever since, lol.

 

16 hours ago, AlysonRR said:

I'm with you! Although, after going through the hairloss thing, I've come to the other side of it (I hope) so don't lose hope... My hair was really thick, too, and now I find it much easier to deal with at least.

I'm 51 with thinner and ~20% gray hair. I do like having (almost) no periods, though. I'm in my third year of perimenopause, thinking I was definitely in menopause after nearly 11 months since the last inklings of a period, then got one (minimal) again... Since the definition of menopause is 12 months without a cycle (or so I've been told), I guess I have another 12 months to wait :-(

I'm in my third year too and can't wait for it to be done, already. My periods are more like every 4ish months or so so I guess I've got awhile yet to go. I have to say it is nice not to get them so regularly since mine have been nasty all my life. My sympathies in almost getting there and then having to start the count all over again. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

On February 1, 2016 at 8:46 PM, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

I have dark mousy brown hair, that is turning white, not gray, which is bad because white doesn't hold color.  I've been coloring my hair on my own since I was 15, I'm 45 now and just did mine today.  I started going gray about 6 years ago, I'm probably 50% gray. My hair is also thinning. As my husbands grandma used to say getting old isn't for sissys.

As for growing old gracefully, if you really want to go for it, I on the other hand prefer to keep on keeping on with my coloring. Only now I HAVE to do it, before I did it for fun.So I'm going to keep up my tradition of hiding the ugly natural color of my hair. I've stayed in dark auburn dark brown hair area for the last decade or more, i was more adventurous in my coloring  when I was younger, I still look better with darker hair.

Mine is turning s silver white, not gray either and my God it's fighting color more every day.  It's so hard to get it to stick.  

My natural color is a med-dark auburn but with getting more of this impossible to color hair I went lighter so it wouldn't be as noticable.  Now I'm sporting a dark blonde/light brown with highlights that need to be redone this weekend.

just waiting for the whole thing to go white and dunk my head in a vat of rose nylund yellow and be done with it.

my daughter is in cosmetology school and she's always coming up with creative and fun things she wants to do to my hair.  Clips and styles - have at it.  Anything involving color or scissors and she needs to back away until she remembers mommy isn't 22 and can't pull off quirky.   (Other women of a certain age can, I can't.  Im not w stand out In a crowd kinda girl.)

fwiw clairol Age Defy does the best job of the boxes in coverage.  

[AlysonRR]

On 2/5/2016 at 2:21 PM, Playagirl said:

My sympathies in almost getting there and then having to start the count all over again. 

This is the second time I've gone 8 months... Hopes dashed twice, LOL.

[browncoatslytherin]

On 2/5/2016 at 5:07 PM, polecat said:

Check out Ursula Goff's page. She's an incredibly talented colorist. 

https://www.facebook.com/uggoff/?fref=ts

 

i saw a trending topic on her the other day! her work is gawjus. 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

I know it's not just me because Google told me this is a thing, but why is the gray at the temples so stubborn?  It's so resistant to color and if I get it to take the color doesn't last nearly as long as the rest of my head.  

Minor annoyance but still.

[Playagirl]

7 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

I know it's not just me because Google told me this is a thing, but why is the gray at the temples so stubborn?  It's so resistant to color and if I get it to take the color doesn't last nearly as long as the rest of my head.  

Minor annoyance but still.

Well at least I know this is a thing now so thank you. When I used to use the semi permanent dyes my temples would be back to grey within a couple of weeks while it would take the rest of my head a couple of months to lose the colour. I always figured I  wasn't distributing the dye evenly.

[LadyCrow1313]

I've asked my hairdresser friend if my greys could be trained to be on one side of my head in a streak only (ie, Rogue from the XMen). Sadly, she said that wasn't possible. So until that day comes, it's the old hair dye routine for me. 

I've got natural brown hair (now mixed w/a healthy dose of grey), & I get it dyed a dark reddish color. Whenever I get it done, it drives my 85 year old father crazy. He thinks it's too dark & he asks why I do it. I told him that it makes me happy.   

If it makes you happy to dye your hair, go for it (regardless of your age)!!! 

[Playagirl]

12 hours ago, LadyCrow1313 said:

I've got natural brown hair (now mixed w/a healthy dose of grey), & I get it dyed a dark reddish color. Whenever I get it done, it drives my 85 year old father crazy. He thinks it's too dark & he asks why I do it. I told him that it makes me happy.   

If it makes you happy to dye your hair, go for it (regardless of your age)!!! 

THIS!!! Part of why I don't dye mine regularly is because I'd make a mess of it doing it myself and I'm way too cheap to have it done professionally with all the touch-ups that entails. But part of it is cuz I'm a big chicken and am afraid of what people will think. I love the trend around here lately of people dying their hair crazy neon colours. I also know I'd look terrible with those colours, but, man, I love the way it looks and wish I had the guts to just go for it and say the heck with what people think. Sadly, I know that will never happen.

[PreciousPantsofDoom]

I was blonde blonde blonde as a child and never quite adjusted to being mousy ashy light brown when I grew up, but I come from a family who go grey or white quite early, (My Grandmother never even saw my Grandfather with anything but snow white hair, and they married at 25) so I started to go grey in my mid 20's.    I had it coloured once,  but didn't like the feel of my hair afterwards, nor did I like all the upkeep required to stop the roots from showing.   Next  I tried just getting highlights and didn't like that much either. In the end I just said fuck it and went back to just, you know, having hair.  I'm quite happy with it at the moment.  It is sort of hard to describe the actual color because I have some light brown, a few strands that have a bit of strawberry blonde to them, some pure white (especially from the temples around my face ) and some grey. It's quite light overall. And I have zero plans to ever dye it again.  

It's quite interesting the reactions I get.  I just think it is normal hair, but I have gotten some random unsolicited compliments on it.  Also I have gotten some questions from children (like one of the previous posters mentioned) that I think was because they are not used to seeing natural uncolored hair that has white or grey in it. I think some kids can't quite work out what is going on age wise with me.  I AM in my 40s now, but they associate white hair with 80 year old grannies so my hair is perplexing.  

[Chickenbutt]

I am 59 and started out with med-dark brown hair. I am now about 40-50% silver grey. My hair has never been colored, never been permed and I don't own a curling iron nor a blow dryer. I am post menopausal due to an early hysterectomy, have never taken hormones and don't seem to be losing my hair.

My mother, of all people, keeps nagging at me to "do something with my hair'. She is 83 and has an ungodly blond/red/orange hair color. The lady that cuts my hair calls my grey "natural sparkles". I love my hair color. It shimmers in the sun.

I am also a pretty natural person, rarely wear make up, not a fashionista and only own 3 pairs of shoes. I see no point in fighting the aging process. We are all going to get older.... embrace it, do the best with what you have and have fun.

I can't be bothered with social expectations or other people opinions of my face, my hair, my weight or my wrinkles. I am who I am and my husband, children, grandchildren and family love me. That is all that really matters to me.

ETA: My hair is a blunt cut, all the same length at jaw level, parted on the right side. Wash, towel dry, and go.

 

[melon]

I'm going to be 57 in August.My hair was/is a dark blonde.I have gold,brown and red highlights.I have grey,now.Some at my temples,strands that I can see.I have colored it,but I got tired of having it done every 6-8 weeks.I felt like it did not look natural.I cannot get over how many hair colors there seem to be.I permed it,once,years ago.It is straight and about 5 inches past my shoulders.I don't blow dry it.I had a hysterectomy at 45.I had breast cancer,at 43,and a lumpectomy and 28 radiation treatments.I took tamoxifen for 5 years.My eyelashes and eyebrows are thinning but not my hair.I grew my hair out 3 times,past my waist,just to donate it for kids or women with cancer who do lose their hair.I had 10 inches of hair to donate ,twice and 12 inches of my hair ,to donate ,once.I had long hair as a teen.I found long hair as a grown woman,and this is just my take on it,annoying and a nuisance.It got  tangled.I got it caught on stuff,instead of spilling food or drink on my clothing...it managed to get in my hair.I worked in  a warehouse,I had to pull it back,for safety,and it was hot in the summer.

Chickenbutt,my mother,when she was alive,always criticized my hair.She was always trying to get me to have it cut very short.Due to the pixie hair cut she inflicted on me,when I was a little girl,I hate short hair on me.

My son's hairdresser calls my greys my "wisdom".

I agree with you about the aging process,no point in fighting it.Embrace it.

I had a friend who colored her hair and they "discontinued" her color,she tried another one,and it was dark,too ,dark.Her natural color was the same as mine and she did find one that actually looked okay.

 

[lawfulevil]

I just turned 32 and in a fit of vanity, ordered fancy face cream and decided to dye over my greys with henna. Let's just say it was a good thing I had the week off... (spring break)- the first batch did not go well. I got a box of a darker shade formulated for greys and I think the auburn highlights are a nice look, but the orange was dreadful. My hair seems thicker now, though, which is nice, and it's definitely less frizzy, so I think I'll stick with henna. It's messy but it wasn't terribly expensive and it doesn't seem like it fries your hair.