Loving/hating my greys

**sneakybea** · December 4th, 2008, 04:15 PM

Hello all. First off, I want to say that I have seen some beautiful silver, white, salt and pepper hair in my day (particularly among the ladies here), and when I'm older, I look forward to having elegant long silver and/or white hair. Particularly if I can keep my hair thick.
I'm more ambivalent about the graying of my hair now.
I have more gray than most of my friends, but a very youthful face and not any real wrinkles. Since my skin is oily, I apply sunscreen religiously, and my parents both look young for their age, my silver "elf-hairs" as I call them are the most obvious marker of my age. If I were making a pro/con list, that would go in the con column. However. . .
My gray hairs are silvery or a shimmery white in most light, maybe what I would imagine Mithril looking like (from Lord of the Rings---I've mentioned I'm a geek, right?); I actually find them pretty. Add one to the pro list. I'm also a winter, and we're supposed to grey rather becomingly, plus there's not a lot of difference between the silver shade and the ash blond highlights my hair would get from the sun. So the silver isn't that obvious, I don't think; another pro. But in some lights the silver becomes this really obvious stark white, like if you painted them, really wiry and unattractive; that would be a con.
I have no desire to start coloring my hair, and I'm not really looking for advice, but are there others here as ambivalent about the beginning of the silvering process? How do you cope?
P.S.: Most of my grays are in the front, in case you were wondering why you don't see them in my profile pic. You can see some interesting stripes in some of my updos, though.

**teela1978** · December 4th, 2008, 04:42 PM

I'm kind of in the same boat. I stopped dying my hair a couple of years ago and am wondering when all these grays started growing. I'm not planning to start dying again (it took long enough to grow out the dye in the first place), but I'm not too thrilled about them either.

**susiemw** · December 4th, 2008, 04:48 PM

for quite a while, my grey's were coming in a really ugly grey particularly mixed with my mousey browns (when I didn't color) so I colored for a long time.

My grey's finally started coming in a nice white instead of grey so I'm letting them grow out. I'm still not sure how I feel about them... I"m still in the skunk stripe stage so it'll take some time for me to know. Even if I end up coloring again, I think I'l leave some of the white that is up front by my face and just color the grey's in back. Who knows?

Susan

**Teazel** · December 4th, 2008, 05:20 PM

Oh, I've been through the whole spectrum, from hate to love.

I hated them at first. When the first ones came in (my late teens, I think) I plucked them out. They started to become noticable in my 30s, so I covered them with temporary dye. When that stopped working I made the choice to let my hair do what came naturally, though I wavered a lot between quite liking the silvers and just wanting to dash off to the salon and go through the cut'n'colour process.

Somewhere along the way I came to not only accept the grey, but love it. I think maybe all the compliments I receive here on LHC have helped

- so many people seem to genuinely like my hair colours. It's helped me to see it in a new light.

Speaking of light, I know what you mean about the magical mithril becoming dull, wiry white in some lights. Shady daylight's the worst offender, I think. I will just have to become a creature of the night.

**sneakybea** · December 4th, 2008, 05:27 PM

Teazel, you're one of the ladies I was thinking of when I mentioned elegant silvering hair! I also have a good friend who has nearly black hair with a lot of silver in it, and it looks gorgeous! But I'm one of those who thinks it looks good on everyone else but me!

**teela1978** · December 4th, 2008, 05:28 PM

On my better days I decide that going gray isn't a problem because I can make gray hair look sexy. On other days I get annoyed. I'm too young to have gray streaks.

**spidermom** · December 4th, 2008, 05:35 PM

I do have days when I long for the hair color of my youth, but seldom. My silvers are such a pretty color, thus easy to accept. I'm not as fond of the wirey white ones.

**Kittee** · December 4th, 2008, 05:36 PM

Originally Posted by teela1978

On my better days I decide that going gray isn't a problem because I can make gray hair look sexy. On other days I get annoyed. I'm too young to have gray streaks.

^^^^

Yep, I am starting to get a patch like "Rogue" from X-Men, I turn 30 in 20 something days.

I think it appeared over night.

**Teazel** · December 4th, 2008, 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by sneakybea

Teazel, you're one of the ladies I was thinking of when I mentioned elegant silvering hair! I also have a good friend who has nearly black hair with a lot of silver in it, and it looks gorgeous! But I'm one of those who thinks it looks good on everyone else but me!

Aw, thank you.

See, it still surprises me!

I know, we're our own worst critic. Well, stop it right now!

I just looked at your hair albums; can't really see the grey, but your hair is so healthy and shiny and generally gorgeous, I'm sure the silver is beautiful, too.

**QueenMadge** · December 4th, 2008, 05:39 PM

I am a "Summer" according the the seasonal color system. I got my first silver/white hair at 24. I just recently hennaed my hair then henna/indigoed. I did it for a change and for conditioning. Now I am at a point where I don't think I'm going to do it again but I will have to deal with the two tone grow out. I will not give up length to get rid of color differences at this point. I did that before and that is why my hair is the length it is currently.....
My uncolored hair color is a med/light ash brown. My silvering hairs are pure white, mostly on the top/front sides...on the front sides I have "wings" at ear height....the rest is just getting more and more silver vs the ash brown. The back of my hair shows almost none of the silvers. I thought about it long and hard before I hennaed because I knew growing it out was going to be a consequence. I did like the increased contrast between my skin and hair when hennaed....I look younger than my already young looking 45. Most people guess me to be at minimum ten years younger than my actual age. I waffled back and forth though with my natural color and sometimes felt my silvers aged me and then other times felt they were beautiful...welcome to the world of a classic Libra.....having difficulty making up her mind.

So not much help for you as I am trying to decide a. henndigo again to maintain the increased strength and dark color or b. begin the growing out process as I know it will take over a year to grow out all of the colored bit I have now?

Perhaps if you are not sensitive to it you could use one of the truly wash out colors to see if you really like the color first? I know what my hair looks like colored so I knew I would be o.k. with the color before I did it......I also know what it is to grow out dyed hair so know I can get through that this time without resorting to cutting it off.

Margot