I had a grey hair incident a month or so ago. I was meeting a friend for lunch, and I hadn’t seen her for about 18 months. I arrived at the restaurant first, and sat upstairs. When my friend arrived, I could hear her downstairs, talking to the waiter.
“Hi,” she said, “I’m meeting a friend, long dark hair, is she here yet?”
“I’m not sure,” said the waiter, “there’s a woman upstairs with long grey hair, might that be her?”
Hmmm.
I had a similar grey hair themed happening a few months ago after I’d met one of the young women fiancé worked with.
“Your girlfriend is really cool isn’t she?” she apparently said to him afterwards.
“Is she?” he said. (I can understand his confusion.)
“Yes,” she said. “I know a lot of celebrities are doing that grey hair thing, but you have to be really brave to dye your own hair grey.”
I laughed a lot at that one.
So, back to the question, should I dye my grey hair?
No.
That’s my simple answer.
If you’re wondering why I wouldn’t dye my hair if it’s grey at 37, answer me this – why should I dye it? Why on earth would I spend time and money, and probably damage my hair in the process, just to change its colour artificially? Seriously, give me one good reason.
Apart from anything else, I quite like the confusion on people’s faces when they see my grey hair against my smooth, chubby baby face. When I drop in that my oldest daughter is graduating this year, they really don’t know what to do. It’s like I’ve told them I make a career as an international ballet dancer. (That would be less believable.)
Plus, I want to look like this when I grow up, I think it’s an ace colour:
Sure, some people are going to say that it’s about how you feel about yourself, and that dying your hair makes you feel younger and more confident, but I tend to think that if your confidence comes down to the colour of your hair, that there are bigger issues at stake.
What do you think? Should I dye my grey hair?
Image – Volt Collection/shutterstock
I think you should do whatever makes you happiest.
I let my hair go grey and grow long and I was happy with that for several years..
Then all at once I began to find gray hair around a still youngish looking face very depressing to look at in the mirror first thing in the morning.
Over the course of a single day I went from Mary Beard to a neat light brown bob. The fact that I had left my hair alone for so long meant it was in excellent condition and – though I say it myself – now looks better for the change.
I’m not sure if I’ll do the grey thing again but I might.
I think you should do whatever makes you feel great, confident and happy! I do dye my hair but I am trying to stave off the ever accelerating aging process, sadly I certainly do not have a baby face! Lol x
I can’t believe that these incidents actually happened!
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I couldn’t either! I don’t even think I look THAT grey!
Do whatever makes you feel good
If you don’t like it dye it back
I think it’s entirely up to you – I totally understand why people would and why people wouldn’t. I’m 36 and have been getting an increasing number of grey unruly hairs over the last few years. Having neglected my hair for pretty much my whole adult life, I decided this year would be different and so have booked myself in every 8 weeks to a good local hairdresser for a cut and colour – just a soft, warm slight auburn which fairly matches my natural colour. It just feels like a lovely indulgent happy thing to do and it shimmers ever so slightly in the light :) But really, it’s so odd the kind of comments people make! X
What about the Caitlin Moran Morticia skunk streak? That looks cool!
Mine is very short and I was fed up colouring it every couple of weeks so simply let it go grey. I’m a lot older than 37 though. I think my skin looks better against what is in fact my natural colour. Several friends have done the same now I’ve made the first move. My advice would be to leave it to see whether you still like it in a while since you can always change your mind. It’s a very personal choice though.
i think your hair should keep it natural color, that will be great look.
I dyed my premature grey hair dark brown for years, but over the last few years just got sick of the hassle. I gradually stripped the colour out, now it’s long and silver. Occasionally I get purple streaks put through the ends. I love it. (I’m 34, don’t know if it ages me, also don’t care!)
I started going grey at 15 so you can probably imagine that at that age I didn’t have the self confidence to let it happen naturally! So I have been dying mine for a long time and if I didn’t I’d be about 90% grey by now. At 30, my hair quality is good (I only get the roots done so I’m only ever dying new hair) and I’m not ready to take the plunge yet, I know it wouldn’t suit my pale skin and the transition from very dark to grey would be painful! Plus my eyebrows (and all other hair!) are still naturally very dark!!
My opinion is very similar because I wouldn’t want to dye my hair, why would I? I would just have to embrace the fact that my hair is gray or white and care for it just the way it is, the only thing I could do is to treat it with all natural remedies just to make sure that it maintains its color.