I agree with Melinda, I believe it's also
a state of mind for Me, I just keep trying to stay cool !!
listen to my 70's music, and hoping for the best !!
My Daughter gave Me this sign, that said,
If You obey all the rules
You'll miss all the fun !
So here I come :)
Olga,

Well you can see from my photo that I am letting it go -but it sure wasn't gracefully! I had a bladder biopsy and the doctor said one of the number one reasons for bladder cancer is from hair dye. So I decided that was the end of that for me. But I tell you, it was hard. Every day for months, I'd swear I was going to dye it. Now after two years, I finally threw away that last bottle of 'safety'.

Going gray is a lot easier than coloring. My hair grows very fast and I need to get color almost once a month, and then I had gray roots. I use the purple shampoo every other time and a body building shamoo the other time. Your skin color changes with your hair, so you will find that make up is easier and more natural. I started to gray in my 30's andwas totally gray in 50's.

Until I started to gray, my hair was so smooth, I could not keep barrettes or ponytail holders in it. They just slid out. My gray is coarser. (A cosmetologist called it "Glassine hair" (spelling?). I like having the choice of length, now that it has enough texture to keep a clip in it. During the day I just clip it back, and I still have the long hair DH loves. My hair is about 90/10, so it holds in place for a couple hours before I have to redo it. My hair, feels like most children's hair, baby soft. I even had one gal tell me my hair wasn't damaged enough, so I let her talk me into a perm. Can we say 'poof"? I looked like a poodle, and all she did was a body perm! so no perms or dyes for me anymore. I earned my gray hair and I will die with it. Works for me.

In one of my other lives I was a hairdresser.. I'm actually licensed in several states.. Going natural is difficult for almost everyone. I started going grey very young.. probably had a few greys in high school.. not grey all over, just in a horse shoe aroung the top of my head.... I have a real "Jay Leno" look, you know, like I fell on a marker! so I've colored my hair for years and years.. I've gone from dark brown to light brown and now to sort of a medium blonde.. geeze this is a pain!

The easiest way I know to go natural is to keep coloring for awhile, lighten the color used.. then start leaving an area generally in the top/side uncolored.. each side of you head.. not at the hairline, but back a way.. as it grows, keep adding more and more so that you gradually go natural. I think its as much of a pain that way as just going for it and looking awful for a few months.. going to a medium blonde helps because it doesn't show the regrowth like a brown does.

To cut the yellow and give your hair a wonderful white color use fandiful rinse.. the name you need is White Minx.. It looks a bit blue in your hand, but doesn't leave any blue in your hair. It cuts the yellow and give your hair a beautiful white color. There are the purple shampoos too, but I'm not familar with any except the professional brands. They also work wonderfully.

I sympathize with you.. I've wanted to stop coloring my hair too.. the other problem when you stop is that natural hair has a different texture than colored hair.. so it acts differently.. talk about bad hair days.. cripes!

You know, reading Madamekelly's answer made me think of something I heard also - "I've lived long enough to have gray hair". So appreciate it because not everyone gets thst chance.

I am 68 and have few gray hairs, but when they do come in, well, Lady Clairol, here I come! And I am not growing old gracefully!!!!

Me neither!!! Plus I can't imagine going without makeup. I don't mean Las Vegas showgirl - just something to even out the blotches patches, put a bit of color in my cheeks and give some oomph to disappearing eyelashes!

Oh geeze, 68 and only a few grays... I have a friend like you, she doesn't have to color either.

You just have no idea then what it feels like to take your child to kindergarden and have someone ask, "oh, are you Matt's grandma?" Or try to register them someplace and have the sweet young thing behind the desk tell you, "I'm sorry, we have to have a parent register them."

I am being funny here.. not mean... These things happened to me before I started being serious about coloring! So I'm with you, may not be Clairol, but I color.

[quote=Judie]Oh geeze, 68 and only a few grays... I have a friend like you, she doesn't have to color either.

You just have no idea then what it feels like to take your child to kindergarden and have someone ask, "oh, are you Matt's grandma?" Or try to register them someplace and have the sweet young thing behind the desk tell you, "I'm sorry, we have to have a parent register them."

I am being funny here.. not mean... These things happened to me before I started being serious about



From Robinlee below

I have the opposite of this happen to me, and I will continue to color my hair. When my oldest grandson, whom is now 7 years and I went shopping at the local Walmart, we were in the ladies department. He was just turning 1 years and I was 42. Anyway, we had a lady come by us and said "what a beautiful little boy you have" and "how old is your son". She was floored that I was actually his grandmother and that my daughter was 23 when she had him. She thought I looked to young to even have a daughter that age let alone a grandson.

Yes, it takes alot of work to keep it colored my medium auburrn, but as I said earlier, I would be completey white. Probably wouldn't mind it so if I was salt and pepper, but red heads don't have that in their "jeans". I color about every 6 weeks or so.