Saturday 11 September 2010

Going Grey Gracefully

For as long as I can remember I have been colouring my hair. I couldn't even tell you what my natural colour was, except it was brown.
Since my early teens, I have been all different shades of brown with red, purple, orange, even a bit of blue added, but my favourite was always golden highlights.
About a year ago I decided enough was enough and I stopped colouring my hair.


Now I have almost white hair at the front and salt and pepper at the back. My hairdresser has been wonderful, she encourages me and tells me about other clients who have done the same thing. At the moment we keep it short so each time I have it cut some of the 'pepper' goes and it looks whiter.
I have found that I look at women with grey hair a lot more now and compare my colour to theirs and look at which styles look the best. I saw a lady this morning with grey, almost white hair in a short bob - it looked lovely.

When I look in the mirror sometimes I see my mum, but everyone around me tells me it looks nice and I am much happier now and you know what it saves a fortune!

11 comments:

sweet blondie blue eyes said...

I decided to go grey naturally, strangely enough my hair has gone almost white on the front and down the sides but the rest of my hair is still quite brown, you are not the onle one who sees her mother when she looks in the mirror!!!

Living the frugal life in France said...

It is quite offputting at times isn't it!

Sue @ Smiffy's Blog said...

Hi there, my name is Sue...nice to meet you. I have very much enjoyed reading your older posts. I think you are a very brave women to stop dying your hair...I would love too as I find it a real chore every month. Mine started to go grey when I was 21...not funny at all. S x x x

Diane said...

This is the hot topic of conversation for me at the moment. I have always had very dark brown, almost black hair and Ive been "hitting the bottle" since my mid thirties. But I get a serious badger stripe of white between dyes now. My son is tryong to convince me to go grey, but I still have very dark eyebrows and so I am scared of ending up looking like Alistair Darling (google him). I too stare at ladies with grey hair , infact I nearly took a photo of one today!!!

Living the frugal life in France said...

Diane, I think the thing that helped me the most was to dye my hair a much lighter colour so that when it started to grow out the difference in colour was not so great. this meant I could put off colouring it for longer and longer, then I got my hair cut shorter and soon there was more grey that brown.
Whatever you decide it's not easy. then I had to tell everyone that I was going grey, because otherwise people would think I could not be bothered to colour it. Also find a good hairdresser who will help you with it.
Good luck with your decision. Let me know how you get on
Sue

John Going Gently said...

grey hair= big brain

Living the frugal life in France said...

Thanks John, although I'm not too sure about that at the moment - approaching 50 and losing my marbles!!
Love your blog. You live not too far from where I grew up

Justine said...

I got your message on my blog thanks for that. Meanwhile I am 38 and I had dark brown hair then when I hit 21 white fringe!! I am not joking. I am salt and peppper at back white on top and sides and dark brown the rest of it. I went blonde so that when I am ready I will go white. I know someone who is one of the prettiest ladies I have ever seen and she must be my age or younger and she has white long curly hair. By the way is that pic is you up there your hair is lovely. I think the approach you took was the best to go light then go grey gradually when you were ready xx

Brenda The Bregle Rebel Bag Lady said...

hi sue, thanks for visiting me. Im going natural too. i havent dyed my hair for 6yrs or so. my profile foto is a bit dark as i have mid brown hair that goes redish/blonde in summer and darker in winter. ive got about a dozen silver ones scattered thru that are only really noticable when wet. my mother was a redhead and died at 48 so never went grey, so im not seeing her reflection in the mirror haha. i think women with grey hair can look fabulous. better natural than some of these obvious dyed looks.
be proud of your maturity. im looking forward to going greyer, people might take me seriously then lol.

brightandnew said...

I love grey hair, all shades - it's so beautiful. I have mid blonde hair that has been going grey very slowly over the last couple of years - I have quite a few silver highlights now and have never considered colouring them.

Is that a photo of your hair? It is a beautiful shade :)

Living the frugal life in France said...

Thanks for all your comments, that picture isn't me - sadly. My hair is not quite that grey. I am now planning my next haircut so that it will look at it's best for November when it's my birthday!!