having 3 kids in hs at the same time and one in college, so at 46? lol...(and all at home) now at 67, I do use a light blond every once in a while (temp color)..dd2 says I should go a bit darker but no thanks! when it starts growing out you can't tell....like her xmil? she looks like 90 with black hair...

Mine is very much sprinkled. I don't have sections. I am almost 45. I've noticed the last 2 years it's all over now.
Both of my grandmothers were like this, because my recollection of them in their 50's and 60's was salt and peppered. They were both dark haired as am I. I have a lot of natural red tones too. I color every 8-10 weeks..mostly because I love the shine and depth.

My mother is a strawberry blonde with white highlights. ;)

My great grandmothers were both white in my memory. (Dad's Grandmothers)

Yea, my younger sister has it throughout is what made me think it. I really don't, just around my face. It's my boss that makes me white haired! kidding.

I started to go grey in my early 30's and it started at my temples.

I have one very small spot at my forehead on the right side and it's been there for 20 years or so and a few hairs sprinkled here and there but you can't tell unless you're up close. BTW I'm 76 years old.
A couple years ago my DDs asked what color I was using on my hair as I used to rarely color it when they were small and I told them none, that's my real hair color.

I don't have much--but then I don't have much hair either--haha! Before radiation, I'd notice a few here and there but I think they must've all fallen out. I haven't colored my hair since I worked back in 1993. All the rest of my family is blond. 4 by the bottle and the two youngest naturally. My hair color has been described by mean sisters when we were teenagers as "mousy brown". Well, IMHO, mousy brown rocks!

But mousy brown is better than dirty blonde!

I don't have many but one of the good genes I have is natural dark hair. I am 69 and have over 95% of my natural hair color. I do have a place on my right side with some gray, really white, and what I call my sideburns are mostly white but otherwise I am a dark brown. I just keep those sideburns cut shorter. I wish I could trade this gene for a health wise one but we don't get to choose.

I don't really know. I have been colouring my mousy brown hair since the day I turned 30 because I hated the colour. I am now 61 and still colouring. I have an absolutely fabulous colourist who changes the highlights as I age through the decades as my skin tones change. I just do highlights and don't have to do a base coat so I'm assuming that I still have my real hair colour(?) under there somewhere.

I started getting white hairs on top of my head when I was 21. By my 30s, I frosted my light brown hair to disguise the grey. By 50 I had all white hair.

This post was edited by sheilajoyce on Tue, Feb 18, 14 at 13:22

I'm snowbal white!

Kept my hair colored for years, blonde, and last time it was colored, 17 years ago, it didn't take.

Hair dresser told me to go natural and it came out the pretty white that I have. I am blessed.

People even ask me what I put on my hair and I say AGE :o)

I was a red head in my youth. Over the years it became more auburn in color, never dyed. Now it is more grey in my 70's. My husband started turning grey in his 20's as did our sons. I just go with the flow.
Mary

My gray is throughout, no areas where it's more obvious than others. I've highlighted, streaked, amped up the blonde for decades so I don't really know what it would look like naturally, but I do notice gray in the outgrow at the base that week of my appointment - I go every 6 weeks for cut and color.

My mothers hair is a pretty soft brown and silver, she hasn't colored it for years. My sis, just three years older, has been 99.9% gray for at least a decade. She got tired of sacrificing her scarce spare time for touchups, color, and let it go natural. It's a pretty white color, although I've heard her DH complain ;) He shaves his head Kojak style of what hair is left, but complained of her luscious thick silver....

Had to edit a typo, my sis doesn't have scare spare time, it's scarce :) Job, commute, a DH, grandchildren, church, and 2 big dogs on 5 acres for starters.

This post was edited by morz8 on Tue, Feb 18, 14 at 16:38

20 :( It runs in the family. I have very dark hair so the white/silver is very obvious and of course the only place I have it is at the very top of my head!

I started right in front with a silver forelock, it is now sprinkled all around my face surrounding it but the back is still pretty much all the raven black it has always been. I have never colored it to cover it up, I don't mind it. My father had his blue black raven hair till the day he passed away, no gray. That's those Cajun genes.
Mine is very silver and sparkly thankfully not the yellowish gray.
My husband had blonde /brown hair and his first started with the yellowish color but now he is entirely a beautiful shiny white /silver. It looks good on him.

Sorry if this is considered a thread highjack but I'm just wondering if you believe that hair dye is a carcinogen.

My hairdresser suggested color before I had grey. He lightened my hair from my natural very dark brown to a lighter brown about 25 years ago; I'm 72.

When I began to grey, I noticed it at the sides and back of my head and at the crown. Today I am seven weeks since coloring and debating whether to wait until we return from Maui March 4.

I have a quarter of an inch of grey above my forehead -- and probably all over underneath my still rather thick hair. However I have this swath of my natural very dark brown right in front. I'd like to stop coloring, but then I'd be grey with this *thing* right in front!

For those who did just 'let it happen', did you get a very short haircut while the grey came in? Do some highlighting? Just 'look strange' for awhile? What is the texture of your hair -- changed after becoming grey? Suggestions welcome!

DH was a nice silvery grey by age 35. It's more attractive than his 'mousy brown'. He used Rogaine for several years to slow the male pattern balding and still has some hair in front.

I'm 52 but started turning gray in my teens. Natural color was black, colored it for a few years but gave up on that about 10 years ago. I am completely silver now with black at the nape of my neck in a nice "v" shape. I get allot of compliments on it, most people think it's been professionally colored silver but I'm fortunate. I have 5 brothers that have all grayed/silvered the same way. From the back we all have the same black "v" around the neck. I keep my hair about 1.5" long on top and 1/2" everywhere else. It used to be naturally curly but silver doesn't curl like the black did. I don't mind. My hair hasn't seen a hair dryer in 25 years or so. I keep it simple, finger comb -- don't own a brush or comb for that matter. Some Suave mousse and I'm ready to go. I also use Ban De Terre serum to add moisture in the winter.

At 25 - my husband at 26 - although his hair is a nice silver salt and pepper. My grey is horrible iron grey - and I have a yellow based complexion. My original colour was auburn and I have coloured it that shade for 35 years. Hair type has always been very dry, extremely thick and naturally wavy - Irish heritage type of hair. I used to colour it myself and then I couldn't get the colour any longer and there is the issue of the "stripe" that can occur when your hair is all grey. I have never had highlights - fortunately, since the cost of single process colour at a salon is high enough. My colourist uses Goldwell on my hair and my hair seems to like it (I am very acidic). I only get it cut every second time due to the cost and do not have it blown dry on colour only days since the cost of the blow dry is almost the same as the cut. My hair grows extremely quickly - roots are very visible at 4 weeks - good thing I always wear a hat. But at 63 and my husband looking at retirement I am looking at the cost. I wish I had a pink complexion with white hair - I would just go for it. But I don't and auburn is the only colour that suits me.

Chisue - should the day come when I decide to go with the awful grey, I would get my hair cut short since I would not want to deal with the roots issue. Of course with my hair type I would look pretty wild - much like a Brillo pad. I

Ooo. This reminds me. I have a friend who colored her hair all the time until she had chemo. She finally got "brave" and let it go all white and everyone LOVES it. She looks a billion times better. Cute cut, and snowy white. I always think of her when I am worried about letting it go all natural. No worries!

This was my hair color 11 years ago, and still is today.

Nothing added to it but age.

This post was edited by glenda_al on Tue, Feb 18, 14 at 16:23

At 67 I'm starting to get grey at the temples, it blends onto my med. blond hair.....for now.

I'll be 64 in April and I have very little grey. Just a few near the ears and a random one here and there, not very noticeable. But my eyebrow are turning an ugly yellowish white color and are very course.

My paternal GM was 82 when she died and had very little grey. My mother is 88 and also has very little grey.

I just turned 48. No grey hairs except a couple scattered throughout, not concentrated in one spot. Really hard to see them unless I look in the magnifying mirror. My 3 sisters have been dying their hair since their 30's, guess I'm lucky!

I have been a red head my entire life. The shade and depth of the red changed with time and the seasons. I was in college the first time someone asked me, after complimenting me on my hair color; "What do they call that color"? Confused I replied red? She said "oh, I assumed it was from a box". At 40 it began to fade. It was as if the color just washed out. No specific places went grey it just all went DRAB!! I went to the store and found a box that matched "MY" color. "Natural Light Auburn". For $6.00 every two months I have the color God gave me and no one is taking it away!! At 54 it still looks natural and people are surprised to hear it comes from a box. So far my freckles keep my hair and skin color a good 'match'.

Ladies, I have a question - What brand temporary colors do you use? Most say that they are semi-permanent or last 7 to 8 shampoos. My concern is also that they would not completely wash away! My hair has always been very dark brown/black but now that it is at least 60% gray, I would like to put some kind of temporary color on it. Preferably a blonde color but don't know how that would look. I am 68 and would just like to experiment with no lasting effects!
Thanks so much.

eccentric -- We probably share some genes. I'm Scots-Irish and French. My natural color was very dark brown, but not the true black of some lasses. Heavy, medium coarse hair. Some wave. Very fair, see-through-thin skin; blush easily. The skin/hair contrast was typical "Irish Rose" -- that beauty that fades fast! Now, my French nose is the 'standout'! LOL

Maybe I could wear a hat for six months...then see what my hair looks like. Oh, I know! A wig! Or...a wig AND a hat!

Hi chisue - yes, we seem to share the same genes - and it makes life tough! I realized I only suited the auburn hair by trying on wigs. My sisters had the Irish black hair but they peroxided the heck out of it in the 60s to platinum blonde. Only one aunt and I inherited the auburn hair. Since black is my favourite hair colour, in my early 30s I tried on a black wig - I couldn't stop laughing. I looked horrible - and was clearly able to see that my complexion did not work with the black hair. Next up I tried on a blonde wig - who would have thought anything could look worse than the black - well, the blonde. So auburn it is. I always suggest to people who think they would suit a different hair colour to try on a wig - forget the computer enhanced "visions" of how wonderful they would look with X hair colour, because the computer will not take into account actual base skin colour - same with skin care companies and their machines - they recommend everything that I for one know I can't use. You can get some pretty nice wigs - and wear them with a hat! Now, hopefully, you don't have a big head - I do - XXL in a man's hat, yet my head does not look big. I am wide across the temples - all those brains I guess! But thin skin is the devil. I do warn the young ladies of today that they need to stop with the multiple applications of acids/retinols etc. at a certain age because, depending on skin type, it does thin the skin - sooner rather than later - and of course they will only know if I was right when they are in their 60s (but of course it will NEVER happen to them....).

eccentric -- Are you adopted? Actually Polish, not Irish? LOL

DIL is about fourth generation Polish-American. Her first delivery was really rough because DGS has her ancestry's huge head -- 99th percentile.

I'll have to look up how fast human hair grows. I could be hot and sweaty in a wig for longer than I can stand it.

chisue - no, I am not adopted - sorry to say!

But there are lots of Irish ladies out there with big heads. There used to be a store in Toronto called "The Irish Shop". All of the women with big heads used to go there looking for hats to fit them. No luck - the hats were made in the U.S. - as in one size does not fit all.

German women often have the same complaint. My husband had a meeting in Germany so I went hat shopping at a milliners. The ladies were appalled. The store was filled with hats of every price range. Only 2 fit me - one that cost 46 euros and that cost 1,000 euros - obviously I bought the 46 euro hat. They were sure that I would be max a size 7 - I wish. And, yes, Polish women can have major hat issues as well.

My best hats were purchased brand new at a consignment shop. One of them cost me $100 Cdn. and it was never worn. A week later I saw the same hat in Canada's version of Saks retailing for $600 - so I did well. I try on hats everywhere - hoping. People are shocked when they see the hat sitting on top of my head like a plate.

Eccentric and Chisue, I share the same genes. Auburn hair, way too thick, wavy, dry. It was so gorgeous when I was young that strangers would stop me on the street to compliment me, but I started to go gray (and frizzy!) in my mid-20's. Started coloring in my late 20's and have no plans to stop. My hairdresser says I'm pretty much all gray with some white now, but I feel better with my original hair color. And a flat iron.:)

Hair type/texture makes such a HUGE difference. I have very straight,course, thick hair. From high school on I had an over the counter boxed perm in my hair (thank you mom!!) and hot rolled or curling iron curled my hair every day until about 40 when I began coloring it. I decided something had to give. When I would go to get my hair cut the salon gals were always amazed at the beating my hair will take--and not show it. It is the "course" factor I was told. I wish I could stand my hair straight. I just don't like ME in straight hair. The hair color did not add the body I was told by friends that it would. My hair is naturally straight as a bone but with gel and hair spray most days I can have the bounce I desire. Clairol's permanent color works well for me. I read that RED is the toughest color to maintain. It likes to wash out. What I notice is the hair spray and sun exposure makes a HUGE difference. I can color my hair, get it fairly dk and with one day in the sun the highlights appear and the strawberry blonde really blossoms. I think the fact that I am coloring it as close as I can to my "natural" color makes it look believable. I prefer hair to be a color God would have given and I prefer it to be the color God gave that person--from what I see He is right every time!!

I was born blond, my hair darkened over the years. From my 20's and on, I tried coloring both blond and red shades, got tired of the constant growing in of brown roots. Around age 50, I gave up and let my natural hair grow, surprised to see it's brown and gray salt and pepper. My daughter the beautician says the gray looks like highlights and I should keep it. At least there's no "upkeep".

If I play my cards right, I'll never know!

My cousin inherited her mother's Irish (I think-McCallum?) genes & her beautiful dark hair.
She, like everyone else in that family, started to go gray in high school, & by the time she was 30 she was totally, breathtakingly, gorgeously, silver.

About that 'big head' thing:
I think it's the other way around.
Hats are made for people with *small* heads.

The only place I can find a knitted hat for cold winter days & nights is in the men's department.

My hair was light brown to start with, therefore it did not have to change much to go gray. It began over the ears and temple and progressed to an even distribution over the entire head. It took a number of years to change, maybe 10 to 15 years. My hair is almost white now, but the central core of the hair shafts still has color. It shows if I wet my hair. By the way, I still have a full head of hair. My Dad died at the age of 82 with a full head of hair.

oops.

This post was edited by party_music50 on Sun, Feb 23, 14 at 8:05