To Dye or Not to Dye??

If I just had a streak, I would stop dyeing my hair, too. But my gray is scattered all over, and on my dark hair it looks like a spiderweb on my head. As long as it stays that way, I keep dyeing it, even if it is a pain in the butt.

It sure is a pain in the butt! I have been dyeing for years and years. I got my first grey when I was 16. Premature grey runs in the family. I do have steaks, tho'. I have thought about letting it go and see what happens, but there are a lot of stray greys and I am afraid it will make me look a lot older. People have already made "Grandma" comments to me about my 17 month old son. Sorry, no kick-ass wisdom here. I bet your streak looks cool.

I have a streak like that, I've even been asked if I had it dyed that way. Since I've gotten more gray hair, I guess getting close to 50, that's to be expected. I don't feel like starting to dye my hair, because it would be a pain. I;ll be a grandma this February, so looking the part is fine with me, it also means not having losers hitting on me and that's just fine with me :) Go with what you feel comfortable with.

49 here, plenty of grey to be sure, never have died my hair, old hippy chick, too lazy and vain to worry about that odd inch of grey hair growth between dye jobs, I just figure if I keep a good attitude who cares? It is weird though, the grey shows SO much more right after I wash my hair. Why? Give it a few hours and it hides away a bit. I wish I could just go really white like some of my friends have, that would be awesome.

That's how I feel too, I can't be bothered. I'm lucky my hair isn't dark, so the white/gray blends in a bit, I guess I have dark blond/light brown hair, I used to call it mousy. I'd like it to be all white, kind of going back to what it was like when I was little, a towhead, really light blond.
I've always pictured myself as a jeans wearing grandma, with long, gray hair. Besides, colouring hair isn't very healthy for your hair, or you, who knows what those chemicals do to your body, some must get absorbed by the skin. I'm not looking to appear younger, I feel I've earned every gray hair I have :) Lets hear it for being older!

I'm with you two, Knot and nachtwache!

I'm almost 50, and just started getting a few greys in my crown. My hair is dark blonde, so they don't show very much. But even if they did, I don't think I'd want the hassle of dealing with the roots. Plus, as we age, our complexions change, and the hair color we had in our youth no longer goes with our skin tone. If I had a dollar for every dye job I've seen that looked so obviously fake because the hair color didn't complement the complexion, well, I could go on an awesome vacation.

What bugs me about the grey hair I'm getting, is that it's a totally different texture than the rest of my hair, which is smooth and straight. The grey hairs are coming in all wiry and wacky. There doesn't seem to be anything, any product or treatment that can tame it (or so I've been told by the instructors at the beauty school--and they sell professional products, and would be anxious to get me to buy such a product if there were one).

On the other hand I have several girlfriends who've gone grey and their hair is smooth and beautiful. No fair! Well, OK, maybe I can't complain about that too much; I've had beautiful smooth straight hair for almost 50 years; maybe it IS fair for what goes around to come around.

One thing I'm sure of, though, is that as I get more grey, I'll cut my hair so I don't have a stark contrast between the roots and the ends. That looks creepy! Currently I don't really have a part; the hair spreads out naturally from the crown.

I really don't want to start the dyeing thing. It's just a maintenance that I don't wish to have. I have lot's of grey but with curls it's not that evident. I'm more of a natural type anyway. I'm proud of my age, my laugh lines, and yes, my grey. I earned it all. I guess it all depends on how much you want to maintain. If you are happy, I wouldn't worry about it.

I dyed my hair once and the maintenance was too much for me. So, I've worked with my stylist to come up with a 3 color highlight approach. She adds some blonde, some dark blonde, and some reddish brown. I like the effect - very subtle and doesn't require that I RUN back every 5-6 weeks to avoid the skunk strip on my part. I've been toying with an adventurous color (my hair is really a dark-ish blonde)...like maybe an auburn or lighter red...but my stylist is making me think hard. "Red is the hardest to get in, and the hardest to get out..", she says. Yikes.

I have always had very dark, almost black stick straight hair, so the grey that is coming in looks like curly, wiry snow white rods! I still don't care. Thor loves red heads and I had considered that until I read that the colour most women choose when they feel old and are trying to hang onto their youth is RED. Yeah, it just didn't appeal to me after that analysis! I looked around and it seemed true in my sphere of acquaintances...lots of "sexy gramma"s who had some variation of red hair.

Most women I know dye their hair, but I do not. And I have quite a bit of gray. Have had it since my son was born 8 years ago. (I am now 46) I no longer get carded when buying wine :-) I think it looks fine, but every now and then I catch myself in the mirror, and it's like "who is that???" But I don't think I could handle keeping up with dyed hair... I only get a haircut every 3 months ! Or at least I try to stretch it that long.

I dye my hair the same time I get it cut. I am cheap so I go to Fantastic Sam's - they do a good job. The whole thing is less than some hairdressers charge for a cut.

i do not dye my hair, I've have always had some grey in my hair, that patch of grey progressively gets bigger every year.Do i care that you dye your hair to hide it, no! to each his own
what bothers me more is badly dyed hair, or women that don't keep up with their roots, or those with over bleached dyed hair.
Because that looks far worse than any streak of grey could.

Tracy you said what I was trying to express perfectly. Thanks!

Yes, well-said, Tracy! If people want to dye their hair, fine. But a lot of them aren't fooling anyone (because it looks so fake). My 17 year old daughter has had fun dying her hair different colors; if she wants to spend her money that way, it's her choice. But now she's coming around to appreciating her natural color, and just wants the brassiness of the colored hair (which looked fine when it was done, but is now lighter and, well, brassy) to go away. Good thing hair grows!

I have lightened my hair a few times - from a light brown to a dark blonde. I didn't like looking in the mirror and seeing so much darkness. I was feeling dark in myself part of the time and needed to lighten up. I never dyed my hair regularly. The new color was so close to natural that it just grew out without any root problems. However, the last time I did that it didn't grow out nicely, it turned kind of yellow as it grew and there was a definite root line. I don't want yellow hair, so I tried dying again hoping for better results as it grew out. Yellow again! Now on days when it is lemony-looking I use a "color refreshing rinse" in a light brown to tone down all that yellow and hide the root line. I have only a few grey hairs at each temple and the dye never hid them for more than a week, anyway. They don't bother me. A couple more hair cuts and I should be back to natural. No more dying for me then. Except I do have this fantasy of being a little-old purpled-haired granny when I go completely grey. I always loved that lavendar look. ;D

I have to say it has been refreshing to read all these comments. My hair has always been an ash brown and now it is a lot more ash. Unfortunately it is interspersed now all over light grey and dark grey and everything in between but no white in sight.I would love to have snow white hair like my grandma. I look very washed out so I use a light golden brown semi permanent dye. Lasts me 3 months because I have curly hair and no part, the roots are hidden. It doesn't quite cover the grey but makes it look like highlights. I was going to try the permanent stuff but got scared after reading all the warnings about severe allergic reations and sudden death and patch testing 3 days in advance and that is still no guarantee that you won't develop an allergy to it overnight. What! Ok, no thanks.