grey hair: to (naturally) dye or not to dye?

[ghanima]

I'm 50-ish and in the process of growing my hair, now it's just APL. My natural color is a nice dark brown with some red accents, but it's kind of duller these days, and I have now some white hair in the front, they are very few for my age, it's mostly one lock. I'd LOVE to hendigo, also for the shine and conditioning, but then what happens when my hair are long and all and I hit 60 and still have to dye it? judging from how it's going for me, and from my parents hair, I am not likely to ever have one of those beautiful all grey or white hairs, on the other hand I think, the dark colors of a hendigo may be too hursh at some age....
what do you think?

[wilderwein]

I'm 50-ish and in the process of growing my hair, now it's just APL. My natural color is a nice dark brown with some red accents, but it's kind of duller these days, and I have now some white hair in the front, they are very few for my age, it's mostly one lock. I'd LOVE to hendigo, also for the shine and conditioning, but then what happens when my hair are long and all and I hit 60 and still have to dye it? judging from how it's going for me, and from my parents hair, I am not likely to ever have one of those beautiful all grey or white hairs, on the other hand I think, the dark colors of a hendigo may be too hursh at some age....
what do you think?
I personaly love natural grey hair and it's variations. I'd say embrace your color! if you take care of your hair grey color or strands it's one of the most majestic colors in my opinion.

[Crystawni]

And it's unique to you. :p Embracing the natural stuff keeps the journey interesting, and can help you get through the length slumps when all you want to do is change something as the incoming colour is always changing. But yeah, I'm biased. :cool:

[ghanima]

if you take care of your hair grey color or strands
this is interesting, how do I take care of the grey color or strands?

[ghanima]

And it's unique to you. :p Embracing the natural stuff keeps the journey interesting, and can help you get through the length slumps when all you want to do is change something as the incoming colour is always changing. But yeah, I'm biased. :cool:
Love this mindset, but then again it's a subtle line between being natural and looking like you can't bother... so far I am riding the natural wave too, and very happily, as 2 years ago I threw away all products, and now just go with organic shampoo, water and ACV rinses, and some touches of olive oil before bed, and I've never had so beautiful hair as I have now, and I've even hair-modeled in the past! but the grey thing, I don't know sigh...

[wilderwein]

this is interesting, how do I take care of the grey color or strands?

I supposed to put an "," in there so it was more like "if you take care of your hair, grey color etc". Speaking about grey hair routine tho the only thing I can suggest is silver shampoo if you start noticing a yellow tint (and in case you don't like it).

[Neelie]

im 26 and im intensively greying... but i love it, its unique and beautiful, so i would say natural :) dying costs money and is also unhealthy for your scalp and hair. plus roots grow back so quickly (with me, every 2 weeks!) so i could not justify the cost and effort of it! PLUS (ironic...) but alot of young ppl are now looking to follow the trend of actually BEING grey! ;) so really, you'd be totally trendy!

http://cdn2.thegloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Gray-hair-vintage-roll-curls.jpg

[ravenreed]

I have been dyeing my hair almost 30 years now. I can't see myself stopping any time soon. I love my purple hair, and the more grays I get the brighter the purple is. I found an easy, damage free way to dye, so I will keep on as long as I feel up to doing it myself. That said, I also support those who wish to gray naturally.

[browneyedsusan]

I'm with you. I don't think my hair will ever be attractive in it's natural state either. It was red when I was young, but turned ash brown in my 20's, and I don't like it one bit!
My plan is to hombre the henna out if I ever choose to go completely gray, but I can't see that happening anytime soon. I use henna glosses on my roots every 2 weeks, and have tried diluting the glosses to lighten the stain, but if it doesn't make my roots red, I flat-out don't like it!

My grays are bright copper, and the brown is auburn from the henna. Current siggy is bright because I hennaed that day. It darkens down in a few days. :)

[hennalonghair]

I personaly love natural grey hair and it's variations. I'd say embrace your color! if you take care of your hair grey color or strands it's one of the most majestic colors in my opinion.


And it's unique to you. :p Embracing the natural stuff keeps the journey interesting, and can help you get through the length slumps when all you want to do is change something as the incoming colour is always changing. But yeah, I'm biased. :cool:
Absolutely. I adore natural coloured greying hair. Crystawni and many others here have beautiful locks of platinum and it looks stunning. You don't have to worry about touching your roots up before you go anywhere. It's an easy breezy wash and wear.
While I LOVE the colour of my hair, I'm now 55 years old and I'm at the point where I have to do root touch ups every 2 weeks and while I don't mind the labour involved, it's HIGH maintenance hair. You just don't have the freedom that these other woman have because you will constantly be chasing the roots; looking in the mirror to make sure your roots aren't showing. After a while you'll start feeling very pretentious because it is pretentious. Your natural hair colour will always suite your skin tone. It's the MINDset that needs adjusting more than the hair.

Love this mindset, but then again it's a subtle line between being natural and looking like you can't bother.......I've never had so beautiful hair as I have now, and I've even hair-modeled in the past! but the grey thing, I don't know sigh...
Theres a fine line between being natural and looking like a frump whose let herself go!!!!
HELL NO! There is NO fine line there dear. THAT is that self imposed mindset hurdle that you alone must face and decide upon because that exact thing is what I got stuck on and tripped over. Does Crystawni look like she has let herself go?
Of course not. If you care for your hair then it shows no matter what colour you have. I personally think the people that embrace their natural hair colour are much more confident and secure in their own skin than some of those , who colour, like myself.


im 26 and im intensively greying... but i love it, its unique and beautiful, so i would say natural :) dying costs money and is also unhealthy for your scalp and hair. plus roots grow back so quickly (with me, every 2 weeks!) so i could not justify the cost and effort of it! PLUS (ironic...) but alot of young ppl are now looking to follow the trend of actually BEING grey! ;) so really, you'd be totally trendy!

http://cdn2.thegloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Gray-hair-vintage-roll-curls.jpg
Yes regular commercial hair dye is very damaging to hair but the OP was considering henndigo which is basically henna and indigo which are NOT damaging to hair. If fact that's the MAIN reason I colour my hair is for the health benefits. I've stopped colouring with henna and couple of times and my hair suffered greatly which is why I went back to colouring but there is a colourless herbal blend you can get which I think is what I will transition into.
Yes grey presently is a fashionable but because it's a colour that's been brought about from the fashion industries, it's not actually a natural grey that's in style but a violet -silver so you'd have to colour your hair to get it. The fashion industry never lets anything come into style unless there's money to be made on it and there isnt with natural greying hair but who cares. :shrug:


I have been dyeing my hair almost 30 years now. I can't see myself stopping any time soon. I love my purple hair, and the more grays I get the brighter the purple is. I found an easy, damage free way to dye, so I will keep on as long as I feel up to doing it myself. That said, I also support those who wish to gray naturally.
Yep! Me too. I've been using henna for 35 years now and it's definitely a healthy way to colour hair and I adore my cherry cola colour also BUT be forewarned that once you start going grey it's HIGH maintenance hair.
There's definitely pros and cons to either considerations.

It's good that you are taking the time to really think this all the way through because if you colour, at some point in your life you may wish to grow it out and the more vibrant your colour the harder it's going to be.

[lapushka]

I'd leave it natural. Henndigo on gray is really harsh, especially when the gray roots come it (the contrast is just too stark).

[browneyedsusan]

Maybe a veggie dye that fades out slowly? Adore makes a zillion colors, and you can get it on Amazon.com.

[missrandie]

It's really up to you. I am 24 and have a patch of grays that have cropped up near the hairline above my right eye, and they are slowly becoming more numerous. I rather like them.

My mom tried the "highlight to somewhat cover the grays" tactic, but she didn't care for the maintenance. She has since embraced the gray, but her canopy and hairline are pretty salty, and not so much peppery. I think the silvers are quite pretty.

[spidermom]

I let the silvers come, but my hair color is a lot different from yours. I transitioned from a mid-range golden blonde to a silvery blonde, and it's stunning. Every once in awhile I use a deposit-only, veggie dye in a fun color, then let it fade out. Last time I did the ends only in crimson, and they've faded out to a coppery color.

I've seen natural graying hair that I know I'd want to dye if I had it, but I think a soft color is best. Henna and very dark colors look too harsh against aging skin to me.

[Crystawni]

Love this mindset, but then again it's a subtle line between being natural and looking like you can't bother... so far I am riding the natural wave too, and very happily, as 2 years ago I threw away all products, and now just go with organic shampoo, water and ACV rinses, and some touches of olive oil before bed, and I've never had so beautiful hair as I have now, and I've even hair-modeled in the past! but the grey thing, I don't know sigh...

Yep, as mentioned, this all boils down to a mindset. Whether it's white, grey, silver, platinum... it's just another colour hair comes in. It's up to you whether you can wear it, though.

As for looking like you can't bother, well, I actually can't bother... :p But that doesn't mean I've let myself go (ta HLH :smooch: ). Far from it. My hair is part of me and my entire look, and is cared for just as well as the rest of me. I just choose not to colour. Resistant-to-dye hair helps, I guess, plus having multi-colouring (thus the tawny overall shade) where no one strand is dominant. But as I said, white is just another hair colour to me, and not something I feel I should hide.

[ravenreed]

I am 45 and have had grays coming in for about 20 years. It is still mostly dark, but I would say about 1/8 or more of my hair is gray at this point (mostly towards my face, most annoyingly!) and every time my roots grow out I notice more silvers popping against the dark brown. I dye my hair every 4 - 6 weeks, now, but might have to bump it up as I get more and more silvers. I use Elumen Red Violet, and I am actually excited to see how it will look when my hair is mostly gray. I am anticipation a nice hot pink.


Absolutely. I adore natural coloured greying hair. Crystawni and many others here have beautiful locks of platinum and it looks stunning. You don't have to worry about touching your roots up before you go anywhere. It's an easy breezy wash and wear.
While I LOVE the colour of my hair, I'm now 55 years old and I'm at the point where I have to do root touch ups every 2 weeks and while I don't mind the labour involved, it's HIGH maintenance hair. You just don't have the freedom that these other woman have because you will constantly be chasing the roots; looking in the mirror to make sure your roots aren't showing. After a while you'll start feeling very pretentious because it is pretentious. Your natural hair colour will always suite your skin tone. It's the MINDset that needs adjusting more than the hair.

Theres a fine line between being natural and looking like a frump whose let herself go!!!!
HELL NO! There is NO fine line there dear. THAT is that self imposed mindset hurdle that you alone must face and decide upon because that exact thing is what I got stuck on and tripped over. Does Crystawni look like she has let herself go?
Of course not. If you care for your hair then it shows no matter what colour you have. I personally think the people that embrace their natural hair colour are much more confident and secure in their own skin than some of those , who colour, like myself.


Yes regular commercial hair dye is very damaging to hair but the OP was considering henndigo which is basically henna and indigo which are NOT damaging to hair. If fact that's the MAIN reason I colour my hair is for the health benefits. I've stopped colouring with henna and couple of times and my hair suffered greatly which is why I went back to colouring but there is a colourless herbal blend you can get which I think is what I will transition into.
Yes grey presently is a fashionable but because it's a colour that's been brought about from the fashion industries, it's not actually a natural grey that's in style but a violet -silver so you'd have to colour your hair to get it. The fashion industry never lets anything come into style unless there's money to be made on it and there isnt with natural greying hair but who cares. :shrug:


Yep! Me too. I've been using henna for 35 years now and it's definitely a healthy way to colour hair and I adore my cherry cola colour also BUT be forewarned that once you start going grey it's HIGH maintenance hair.
There's definitely pros and cons to either considerations.

It's good that you are taking the time to really think this all the way through because if you colour, at some point in your life you may wish to grow it out and the more vibrant your colour the harder it's going to be.

[brickworld13]

I'd leave it natural. Henndigo on gray is really harsh, especially when the gray roots come it (the contrast is just too stark).

^This. And as has been mentioned by HLH and others, dye is high maintenance. I quit henna and henndigo cold turkey because I got sick of the maintenance. My smattering of white hairs is definitely showing now. It's been 8 months since I bothered to color them. In another year, I will have a pretty cool ombre going as I grow out the dye. My natural color is more of a chesnut and now it has many gray hairs too. I dyed with henna for years until I hit saturation and then decided to try indigo. Now, I'm just more into benign neglect. All the maintenance of dye was bothering me so I quit buying it. It saves me so much time, especially now that I work 7 days a week and my time is very precious.

[Unofficial_Rose]

I was henndigoing in my 40's on and off. but I'm stopping now I'm 51 and really have lots of grey. It always goes quite dark on me and looks harsh against my pale, ageing skin. Possibly on a darker skintone it would look great. The roots are a b*gger, too.

Can't help thinking that the natural grey would be an improvement on me if I'm honest.

It really depends on your preference, but henndigo is pretty impossible to get rid of if you decide you don't like it anymore.

[ghanima]

Thank you for the very insightful replies!

I've seen my mother-in-law slip gracefully from blonde to all-grey, and you guys, judging from the pictures, come from a lighter tone than mine, while I would be "stuck" with a salt/pepper situation, which I don't particularly like, and not probably ever evolving into an all-grey. Hmm.... maybe explore veggie dyes like suggested?

In case I opted not to hendigo, would cassia glosses (for conditioning and shine) make the grey strands yellow? as I obviously wouldn't like that

[hennalonghair]

Yes cassia will make your greys yellowish

[spidermom]

Yes, cassia stains yellow.

[Agnes Hannah]

I am 49 and had been growing out my greys after years of box dye colouring. However, I decided to try Henna for brown hair, mine was originally chestnutty brown with auburn mixed in. The henna colour is close to my childhood colour and is really pretty. My greys, and I was really very grey, about 75% probably, are now varying colours of orangy brown and I am happy with this. Henna looks more natural when the roots come through which helps too.