Questions for Renegrays & those with sparkles

[akuamoonmaui]

Last week I lightened my henna because my roots were really getting dark and I wanted a consistent all over color. I used a creme box lightening kit which worked just fine and faster than sun-in. Although now I'm babying my dry hair.... but this is not the reason for my post but necessary for my question. When I got out of the shower after rinsing I looked in the mirror and :agape:

I could not believe how much gray was in my hair. I've been using henna enough that it consistently covered what was growing in so I didn't realize how fast and how long the gray was.

So. Have you always embraced your sparkles?

If so, please explain why because I'm having a hard time appreciating them.

If not, how did you wrap your head around it not to color?

Some people have beautiful silver hair. I'm not one of them. But at the rate this is happening, I'm tempted to stop coloring.

Thanks for the moral support! :flower:

[dulce]

When I saw my gray roots I used to think they were ugly!Once I decided not to colour and actually let them grow in and get long was astounded to realize they were pretty!

[dulce]

Check out the" 2 years and no progress" thread below. I put pics on and discussed this thoroughly there.Am too lazy to repeat it all here again!!

[Madora]

Last week I lightened my henna because my roots were really getting dark and I wanted a consistent all over color. I used a creme box lightening kit which worked just fine and faster than sun-in. Although now I'm babying my dry hair.... but this is not the reason for my post but necessary for my question. When I got out of the shower after rinsing I looked in the mirror and :agape:

I could not believe how much gray was in my hair. I've been using henna enough that it consistently covered what was growing in so I didn't realize how fast and how long the gray was.

So. Have you always embraced your sparkles?

If so, please explain why because I'm having a hard time appreciating them.

If not, how did you wrap your head around it not to color?

Some people have beautiful silver hair. I'm not one of them. But at the rate this is happening, I'm tempted to stop coloring.

Thanks for the moral support! :flower:

I LOVE my sparklies but I don't have a lot of them. I've always embraced 'em because I worked hard for them! I doubt I'll ever have hair as beautiful as some of the silver haired ladies (and gents!) because I don't think it's in the genes. Both mom and dad kept most of their hair color into their 80s. Still, it's a wonderment to me when I shine those sparklies in the sun! They positively glow!

[akuamoonmaui]

I LOVE my sparklies but I don't have a lot of them. I've always embraced 'em because I worked hard for them! I doubt I'll ever have hair as beautiful as some of the silver haired ladies (and gents!) because I don't think it's in the genes. Both mom and dad kept most of their hair color into their 80s. Still, it's a wonderment to me when I shine those sparklies in the sun! They positively glow!

Your hair is a beautiful color, I can imagine your sparkles are truly that.

My gray is a mousy kinda thing, and coming in in odd "clumps" - more on one side than another, some here, more there. I'm a natural red head (enhanced with henna) and in my opinion graying red isn't the prettiest. :justy: but I don't want to be one of those old ladies whose dyed hair is glowing - ya know what I mean?

I don't mean this to be a petty thread, there are significantly bigger issues in the world, but I've never gone gray before and I'm not quite sure what to make of it...

[spidermom]

I'm not the type to devote myself to keeping up with roots, so really - I have no choice but to embrace mine. In the past, I've dyed my hair no more than once or twice when I decided to heck with it and let the roots grow out.

But I really lucked out when I noticed I was going gray. My self-esteem was low and I asked my stylist about coloring. She said "It's not gray; it's silvery blonde. Leave it alone; it's going to be stunning." So I started with that voice in my mind "it's going to be stunning."

I'm still waiting for stunning, but I like the color quite a lot, actually.

[akuamoonmaui]

I love you Spidermom! Ok, not in the creepy kind of way. In the "I love your perspective on life" kinda way!! :)

So mine is a silvery rust.... it'll be stunning. Got it.

[Madora]

I love you Spidermom! Ok, not in the creepy kind of way. In the "I love your perspective on life" kinda way!! :)

So mine is a silvery rust.... it'll be stunning. Got it.

Well, I sure envy you, akuamoonmaui! I adore red hair! My mom had auburn hair and only grayed just a tad at the very front. It really looked lovely. Looks like I'm taking after her with the greying pattern, although my sparklies tend to be on the white side and not grey per se.

[wooliswonderful]

I have some sparkly silvers and a few white hairs. I decided to embrace them when I noticed how pretty one of my friends looked with her gray.

[spidermom]

A check-out clerk at the store once informed me that only natural red-heads get a pretty color when they start to go gray; the rest of us have to color. I love that - "have to" color, like there's no other reasonable choice.

[akuamoonmaui]

This is helping....

(Hopefully others, too - I can't be the only one!!)

Thank you!
~ A.

[wooliswonderful]

A check-out clerk at the store once informed me that only natural red-heads get a pretty color when they start to go gray; the rest of us have to color. I love that - "have to" color, like there's no other reasonable choice.
I always thought I'd have to color, I didn't have any women in my family that didn't. That's crazy about only red-heads getting a pretty color. In the past few months I've seen some amazing gray, white and silvery toned heads and none of them were originally red!

[Quetiepi]

A lot of women I know have given up the hair crack. I am one of them! I'm getting older and can't pull off 30 something anymore. Gray All The Way!

[Cassie 123]

I now have silvers sprinkled throughout, but they started off as just the streak you see in my avatar, only smaller. I combed over it for years, thinking I was hiding it, but then people started complimenting it - so it probably wasn't nearly as hidden as I thought! :p

[Slinks]

:-) I have dyed my hair a handful of times in my youth but have never dyed since going grey, I have faith in my hair, my Dad has gorgeous white hair and mine is the same type as his .. at 47 tho I have only a very few sparsley sprinkled sparkles .. perhaps I don't worry enough :-) lol

[long]

I'm growing out my grey and it is a process of accepting it. I am allergic to hair dye so for a while I got lowlights with semi-permanent dye. Then I used cassia with a little henna and that worked really well but is to much work for me.

Then my sister grew her grey out and it looks beautiful. She told me about the going grey looking great site and it inspired me. That is how I found LHC and decided to grow long too.

I think I got a little confused listening to women who hate grey hair so it scared me of my grey. I felt like I would be unacceptable with grey hair... but I have found that I like grey hair and am amazed at all the variations of grey, silver and white.

Sometimes I wonder if people are afraid of aging and change. It can be hard to let go of hair color and go with what is really happening. I also think it is great to have a choice about it. I just think it can be good to understand what is the motivation behind the choice... and I will respect everyones choice to cover grey or not.

[akuamoonmaui]

Sometimes I wonder if people are afraid of aging and change. It can be hard to let go of hair color and go with what is really happening.

Yep.... :couch:

[Columbia River]

Long grey hair is actually my dream hair, well medium auburn is, but for natural realistic hair...I LOVE grey. To me a women looks elegant, confident, and naturally beautiful with long grey hair. I worked with a woman who dyed over her grey hair, the color looked dull, dry, and flat. She grew it out to the most beautiful silver fox pixie...she looked incredible, healthier and...actually younger.

[ElusiveMuse]

I also love long, grey hair!

I have a few areas at the top of my head, running down from my part, where I have many quite sparkley greys. They show up against my brown hair and I don't mind. I think they look pretty. I'm not sure why I do, so I don't know if I can give you any advice about how to embrace yours except to say that I will not be coloring my greys so, there are people who don't!

I'm not a redhead and I think my grey is a nice color.

[jeanniet]

I love hair that's heavily gray or silver. I don't particularly like the point my hair's at right now, so I color the roots and leave the silvers around my hairline because I like those. I would rather go completely gray and not have this in-between stage!

[renarok]

I decided in May to stop highlighting my hair and let the grey hairs come as they may. I may do some demi perm low lights on the outgrowth if it starts to look too awkward, but so far I can deal with it. I really only had minimal highlights on the very top of my head so it isn't very noticeable when my hair is up. I have it up most of the time so it is not an issue. I am able to measure growth very easily, and I am growing a steady 1/2" a month. No surprise there.

[Eolan]

I stopped colouring several years ago, even before I joined the LHC. My greys started to show up in 2009, 2010 I think. I still don't have that many but I love them. I don't know why, but they make me happy and proud. :D And I love not colouring my hair. It's so liberating. No upkeep, exept from the trims.

And this is my 600th post! Yay! :cheese:

[trolleypup]

Had silvers since I was 17. Never really bothered me, never considered using dye.

I have more now, *shrug* I've earned them.

[Jing]

I adore my little sparklies! I always try to part my hair to the two that are growing around the area where I usually part end up on top of the rest of my hair. So shiny! They make me happy every time I see them.

[celebriangel]

I just wanted to thank everyone who's so silver-positive. Although I'm not getting age-related silvers yet, my natural hair colour is basically...gray. No, really - it's such an ashy light ash brown that it looks grey.

But all the renegrays here have helped me to see that it could be beautiful too, so now I'm going to take a peek at my natural colour for the first time in about 6 or 7 years!

[Ginny Mae]

I don't have any greys (yet!) but I'm a natural redhead and I've been told ever since I was little that red hair eventually turns bright white, so it's interesting to me that your hair is turning silver rather than white. My dad used to tell me stories about a red haired teacher he had who got so much white that his hair ended up looking pink. If mine really does grow in white I'll be really happy, white hair looks awesome!

[silverjen]

For me it was a question of self-identity. I had a OMG!Grey!Panic! last year, when I first started going noticeably grey. After a lot of thought (and a regretted henna), I realized it had more to do with the image I keep of myself in my head. Being dark brunette was (is?) a big part of my identity, and in order to go grey, I'd have to allow that mental image to change as well. That was... emotionally uncomfortable. But the realization that my panic was about identity, not about appearing older, helped.

[Pixie0763]

I used to dye my hair frequently out of boredom more than anything else. I went natural for a while, and my grays popped out all over the place. My husband & daughter pressured me to color. I did one last time, and hated the way it changed the texture of my hair. So, I've embraced my grays. I'd rather have healthy hair with gray than dry, damaged hair without it.

[SpinDance]

My mom found a white hair in my mostly very dark hair when I was 11, and until I started to silver I always had every color shade in there somewhere. Red to nearly black. Overall an ashy, very dark brown that most seemed to considered black. By the time I was in my mid 30's I had quite a bit of white, especially around my face and temples. I got a number of comments about how the silver made a nice pattern in face-framing braids. Once in a while I'd get some strange looks at my hair. I could never tell if they were confused about the gray or the braids.

It never bothered me that my hair was going white, it was just how it was. Part of what happens as one ages.

About 6 years ago I took it in my head to "play with dye". I'd never done so, other than a few henna applications to give redder highlighting when I was young. That wasn't permanent, fading after several weeks. Part of it was the desire for something different, part was the odd looks I was getting when I went to client sites. Many of the women who were older than I, with dyed hair, spent more time looking at my hair than my face, so I figured it was sort of like the suit, part of the uniform. Since I was bored and interested in a change, I got it dyed to a very dark color, very much like my natural, original color. It was sort of fun for a bit, but the color really wasn't right for my skin tone any more. Also, even though it was nearly my 'natural' color when first applied it would fade to a redder, more golden brown, and that is not a good color for me. I'm as Winter (color season palette) as they come!

I kept up the dye for 3.5 years, considering 'exit strategy' for most of the last couple of years. Then in July 2 years ago, not long after joining LHC I had a reaction to the dye. That was it, I just stopped with the dye and let it grow back in natural. My natural color really does look much better than the dye did. It goes with my skin better, and I don't have to mess with the fact that my eyebrows are also mixed dark and white.

The silver pulled across the dark looks nice, I think, and I love how sparkly the whites are. These days I clearly have whites sprinkled liberally throughout, in addition to the pure white right around my face. I'm trying to be patient as the rest of the reddish, golden brown dye grows out....

[akuamoonmaui]

For me it was a question of self-identity. I had a OMG!Grey!Panic! last year, when I first started going noticeably grey. After a lot of thought (and a regretted henna), I realized it had more to do with the image I keep of myself in my head. Being dark brunette was (is?) a big part of my identity, and in order to go grey, I'd have to allow that mental image to change as well. That was... emotionally uncomfortable. But the realization that my panic was about identity, not about appearing older, helped.

Thank you for this. I think this is where my head is. I've had a lot of change over the past 4 years (leaving the wasband, raising a teenager, complete career change including going back to school) Is it any wonder the grays are coming in faster....? Anyway, when I saw this in the mirror I think on some level I understood this was yet another thing to adjust to (or not, via color). And then (I tend to be denial royalty, as in Queen of) Oh S....! I AM getting old. D....! and I don't want to be, I was old when I was married, I feel like the clock is turned back now, but my hair was a reality check.

[Das Siechtum]

Since 3 years I'm getting silver strands too. I like it. :-)

[Eternal.Fiend]

I've actually got a friend going grey, I haven't seen them, becuase she died her hair purple when she found out :P
I want her to grow her hair out natural, I think having long hair that's got grey in or totally grey would be beautiful :)* I want my mum to grow her's out, they're a brilliant white, and wavy! She doesn't like them though....

* I used to see this woman walking to her work on my way to school, with the most beautiful hip length grey braid :crush: And whoever said long grey hair would make you look older is somplete rubbish, she looked really youthful! :D

[nobeltonya]

I have found 2 nice, solid WHITE [and thick :P] hairs on the right side of my head.. but, it's in the genes as both my mom and nanny went grey [gray?] in their 20s. Nanny was about 20 when she started [full white now] and my mom was about my age [after 3 kids, salt and pepper now :)]. But, I don't want to color it, even if everything turns grey.

[Snippety]

I'm 43 and have been finding grey amidst my brown hair for the last ten years or so. I've only ever coloured it once when I was pressured into it by friends. I really regretted it and never did it again. I'm not a very feminine person so I don't use make up & such and rarely think about my hair being grey. I found this website in the summer which I really loved. Not all the women have long hair, but they're all grey :0)

http://www.womenonaging.com/main.php#/THE%20WOMEN/Gallery%201/5/ (http://www.womenonaging.com/main.php#/THE%20WOMEN/Gallery%201/5/)

[rusika1]

I've always liked the way red (and blonde) hair goes grey. It's very subtle and soft looking. Sort of like gradually adding more and more sugar to your cinnamon-sugar mix!

[CurlyMopTop]

I just started noticing a couple of white hairs growing out last May. I'm 39 and at this point see no reason to color. I'm really curious to see what my hair is going to look like when I have a whole head full. :D I told my husband that I want to be one of those grandmas with long salt and pepper colored hair kept in a bun! :)

[newbeginning]

I too think silver/gray hair looks great. I started graying pretty young. I recently stopped using hair dye because well the dye wouldn't cover the grays (red hair and it's coarse), I'm not a fan of chemicals and the upkeep was too much work. It's going to be a pain to grow it out and I'll admit I'm a bit freaked out at having so much gray at my age but it's not worth the upkeep and chemicals. It's all about acceptance of what we have and dare I say it getting older.

[Pierre]

I noticed some gray hairs before I joined LHC and looked around for a natural thing to do about them. I tried henna and was pleased. I now have some patches of white hair and some scattered throughout. They are sparkly pretty when they're white, and they're sparkly pretty when they're red. I still like the henna color, but I like the softness and strength more, and don't feel like I have to henna just because I see the roots.

[Aethernaught]

My mom keeps coloring her grey and always has, I wish she hadn't because I'm not planning to but I'd like to know what I can expect. All I know is if I color I can expect to have grey roots, and eventually white, but I don't know if she went streaky, salt & pepper, super light or middle grey. =3
I'm getting sprinkles throughout, mostly up high up front.
I've seen a couple Renegray pictures posted and have to say YOU ARE MY HEROES.

[lunalocks]

The only time I ever colored my hair was a beautiful foil in my early 30's that resulted in subtle silvery streaks. I felt so sophisticated and couldn't wait for this to happen naturally. Well, it is taking years and years. I am mid 50's now, and have just a smattering of silver. The hairs are glittery, and a bit kinky. My whole head of hair is gradually changing to be more textural anyway, maybe because of menopause. So interesting. I am enjoying the process.

[patienceneeded]

I always wanted to be one of those "little old ladies" with long silver hair. The gray hairs I have are all silvery-white, like my grandmother. Her hair was the color of a cotton ball, pure snowy white. Her mother's was the same. My mother's gray is a little less white, but that's because she keeps trying to color it blond to hide the gray. It's not working well anymore... The men in my family all go salt-and-pepper to eventually iron-gray. I just want to be true to myself, and if myself has silver strands then so be it.

[MommaRalph]

I have some great grey haired examples in my family! My mom finally stopped dying in her late fourties. She was subject to a lot of criticism but she was tired of having to dye her hair. She has a silver pixie now and looks very stylish and youthful! My paternal grandfather has thick, white-grey curly hair at 80+!

Valerie
My parents and 2 of my kids - see Mom's cute pixie and Dad's handsome salt n pepper hair with natural wave?
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/285267_10150740613285151_743050150_20354098_534903 6_n.jpg

Paternal grandparents (Grandad's hair has been brushed here)
https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/46123_10150251493200151_743050150_14753260_6434322 _n.jpg

[Honestwitness]

I have never colored my hair and it's about 90% white/silver. I'm very happy with my hair color, but my hair ishttp://www.longhaircommunity.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=2898&pictureid=122722 also getting thinner and my pink scalp and ears show through the gauzy curtain of my pale hair. Oh well! I'm ok with that, too. At least I have hair. Some folks have none.

[Briar]

This is bumping an old thread, but I really wanted to say thank you to akuamoonmaui for introducing me to the term "sparkles." I gained a white hair or two by twenty-four, and by twenty-nine I have enough of them on my right temple that I don't have to search to find them. I haven't hit the "distinguished" mark yet, and I didn't know what to think of this somewhat sad, tiny spatter of white... I ended up doing some searches of the forums on going grey/white, and found this thread - and the term "sparkles" for the little spatter of pure white at my temple has not just entered my lexicon, but boosted my entire day. Thank you.

*dance* I have sparkles!

[SpinDance]

Briar, those sparklies can be fun in side braids. I get a nice silver pattern around my face on the darker under hair when I do side lace braids. The nice pattern will eventually go away as I get grayer, but that's OK, too. :D