When I retired 8 years ago I decided that the expense of coloring my hair was one I could let go. Then I got a very serious melanoma (cancer) on my face and I knew I'd never use chemicals on my head again. (Not that the coloring caused the cancer, it didn't, but I just don't want to use chemicals I don't need now.)

Now I'm learning to quilt and building a stash- who wants to spend my retirement money on hair coloring, I need more fabric! :-D

I've thought often about not coloring, but Hubs gives me a "look" every time I mention it. I color at home, and the last time decided to leave out a few grey streaks to see what that looks like when left alone - who knows, maybe a subtle switch will change his mind - not. I often wish I could go short and spikey, but that look would not work for my puss!

I have never colored my hair. I had auburn red hair, now it is almost blond, people think I color it and they also think it is naturally curly. I tell them the color is from God and the curl is from the bottle. LOL

I'm keeping my grey hair...I earned every one of them !!

I love grey. It says I have wisdom!!! I only put a rinse on my hair one time. I was 17 years old. I have earned every grey hair on my head.... which is getting thinner all the time. DANG IT!

Iquit coloring when the first grandson was born and I tell everyone I earned every one of these gray hairs. I would rather look my age than have black hair.
At a class reunion, someone remarked, never saw so many redheads in my life.

Carol J.

Waterstide, I do agree with you that red is a difficult colour to get just right, however my Mum was a red head and she went blonde. I had very dark black hair and now I have managed to go blonde now it has gone grey. Its my treat and I go every 6 weeks to the hairdresser to have it done. I am like that advert, No More Grey.....

You could always try a little blone on the front, but I would go to the hairdressers

I tried the color thing many,many years ago and my hair either looked pink or green. Gave up and now am all white for many, many years. If thats what the Good Lord wanted, then why fight it. I get more compliments now than before. It is a choice each must make. I have a sister who does not even know what her natural hair color is.

I never have colored my hair. I just take what God gives me. I always hoped to have white hair rather than grey and white is what I have. Some folks do such a nice job of coloring their hair. Others are awful, and make me glad I have what I have.

I'm toying with the idea of going natural. Not sure what it would look like. Nervous. DH is almost all white. I see many women who look absolutely gorgeous with salt and pepper or all white. I just can't decide!!!!

I am a former practicing hair colorist. Given my ancestery, Sweedish Mom, Irish/Englilsh Dad, my hair is and was not a good match for my skin color. That is a nice way of saying that my own color is a flat color that makes my skin look like I am comming down with hepatitus. LOL. My sister got the awesome chestnut hair. I have friends and had customers whoose white/grey color is stunning. Mine or Mom's didn't look good turning. Another factor, my snot hair, pardon the expression, behaves better after being colored. The color I use is more suited to my personality, kind of Carol Burnett like. LOL.

PS. while in the salon I had a customer who wasn't happy about how long it was taking the beautiful silver to come in. We reverse frosted enhancing streaks till she had enough silver to look great. I loved doing her hair, it was so much fun comming up with the match for the dark.

I am starting to have my first grey 47. Dh asks me if he needs to color it everytime it starts growing out. As long as he asks me I will color it. He is my hair stylist when it comes to coloring it. Also some of my children are very young, two are 5 year olds, I don't want to be known as their grand mother.

I have colored my hair since I was 18 (61 now) I never really knew what color it was because of all the experimentation. I have had red,blonde,platinum, party pink, green, brown...well you get the pic. After a serious illness several years ago, it started falling out. I am fine now and am just letting it go natural, I am very fortunate to have thick hair and love just having it done once a week. Saving so much money on coloring- to buy fabric with!!! LOL

I like my gray hair. Been going gray for about 20 years. Also stopped having it permed. Now it is wavy and almost completely grey/white. I earned every last one of those grays. If you get the right cut it is very attractive.

I guess I'm really lucky. I'm 66 and have just a few gray hairs. My mother went gray in her early 40's but my father was a red head and his just faded. He never really grayed. I must have gotten that gene from him. :) Unfortunately more are beginning to show up. I'll probably start coloring it again soon. I don't like gray.

I had a grey streak by time I was 23. At 25, my boss said,"You are too young to be so grey. Color your hair!" So I did what was then called a reverse frost (now I think they call it low lights). I did that thru my 30s, then all over color thru my 40s. When I was 51, I was tired of coloring and stopped. Got a nice short cut. Was I amazed at how grey I was! Never realized....! But it's a nice, all-over grey. And the grey hairs are coarser, so I have more body. I love it and am very glad I stopped.

Grey is the new blond, you know!

I used to color my hair but quit and feel much better being myself. Besides that I figure I earned the grey. My husband has no grey and he is old than I but it makes no difference to him.

I started going grey at about 25. It looked like "highlights". Tried the coloring routine for about 10 years and just gave it up. The smell and thought of all those chemicals. YUK. Now, I'm totally grey and I guess of a certain age, that frankly ,I don't care. I like my hair the way it is.

I am 66 and decided gray is fine. Every time I have tried to do anything but frost, strange things have happened--once a weekly rinse turned it flame red and had to go out. Another time the rinse turned it burgandy and had to go out. I gave up.

My friend Sharon did and she had the most gorgeous Sal and Pepper hair.

My Aunt dyed her hair jet black all her life. It was harsh in her later years. Now it is it's natural white and so gorgeous and so soft and gentle next to her skin tones

I've never colored my hair, just let nature take it's course. My hairdresser said she wouldn't color it, even if I asked. My Mom had beautiful gray hair ... maybe she passed it along?

I think that is awesome. I have a friend that dyes ehr hair black but with a bright red top. I stopped dying my hair when I had surgery. Got it cut really really short because I knew I wasn't going to be able to mess with it. Good thing. Spent a week in ICU in a coma. And you know they don't wash hair there. Can you imagine what it would have been like if I hadn't cut it? It was down to my waist!! It is slooowwly turning white but mostly salt and pepper in the back. I have thought about coloring it again but hate the thought of constant up keep. I just wish it would go completely white like my great grandfathers was.

I didn't color much, just highlights rinse, more or less, but, I gave that up when I watched Barbara Bush at her husband's innaguaration ball. I figured if she didn't have to color her hair, I didn't either.

I skipped gray and am going directly to white. I look a little like Lily Munster. I don't much care. I'm someone's grandmother.

Yes!!!! It is such a relief to not worry if any gray
is showing? or white roots showing!!!!
I asked my husband how my hair looked the other
day as I getting ready to go to a quilting lesson and
he said it looks good if you like gray hair................
he doesn't know how lucky he is that I didn't hit him
with something for that remark!!!! ha ha ha

I've been coloring my hair since the first gray started showing when I was thirty, so 25 years later I am working on transitioning to gray. My favorite hair guy Don is doing some sort of magic to make it less noticeable. We'll see...if I don't like it I can always go back! Those little magic markers for hair work great for hiding white roots!

I have been using a sage/rosemary herb rinse on my grey hair and it is now champagne. I was a light blonde as a child so this is close to my youth color.
I now use it about every other week, I leave it in for a day before washing out.

Check out this site for some hints,
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=974735

I stopped coloring my hair & it is White as snow & I love it & so does everyone else they say do not color it I also put serum on it to make it shine & shine it does & I keep it short. Happy quilting

I am in my late 50's and have never colored my hair. Every time I go to the hairdresser, she asks me if I would like to try a different color, but the answer is always "No, I EARNED every one of these gray hairs, and I am not going to cover them up". BTW, for my age, I actually have more brown hair than gray.
nanac

Starting to get some gray. Don't know if I'll color or not. We'll wait until there's a little more of it before I decide.

I went gray but I looked so washed out. One side was gray almost white and the other still had mostly brown. So I let my hairdresser talk me into coloring.

I to, have been going gray for awhile and I let my hair dresser and hubs talk me into coloring a very long time ago, i will never let my hair go to gray, it looks awful. Some people look fabulous with gray and I envy them, but I'm not one of them. I told my hair dresser when I die she better come and do my hair and make sure NO gray is showing.

I stopped coloring about 15 yrs ago..I'm lucky enough to have a sopportive H so I'm mostly Silver , not gray. I can't wait for it to go all over..

My kids talked me into letting it go gray. I am sure its because they didn't want me to look younger than them lol.. However I do like not coloring it. My mother swears I color it to get the look I have. She is 82 and her hair is just turning gray.

I wonder what it would do on white hair? At least I would maybe learn what my natural color was. lol I was a honey blond as a child , it drastically changed when I got pregnant with my first. Weird.... brown roots, blond ends . Every one thought I bleached my hair.

I went grey a few years ago after coloring for a few years. My hair is thin and fine. After chemo treatments a couple years ago I was hoping for thick and curly....it came back just like it was before! ha In case you wonder I'm doing good.

I can't imagine having grey hair by choice! I have bleached my hair for a very long time and plan to continue. I have always done my own hair so the cost isnt that much but would do it anyway!

I never colored my hair. I decided early-on that I didn't want to spend the money on hair color, so I've been going gray for years now. People have commented that my "salt and pepper" hair is beautiful. It's more gray than brown now, but I'm not going back!
BTW, if your husband complains, just tell him you'd rather live longer and avoid all the chemicals in the hair dye! If it's good enough for him, it should darn well be good enough for you!! :D

I used to wear mine colored and long - but it became too hard to keep up - almost weekly I had to touchup, and got so tired of it- One day my dear daddy said "You earned those gray hairs, leave it be natural and enjoy them">>>> and he was so right - I left them grow out - cut the length off, and became a middle aged woman - and enjoyed my hair so much; no messing around with dyes any longer.. no regrets! :)