I never colored mine when it started going silver. I was lucky that it started along the front edges feathering around my face. I have very blue black raven hair andand the silver is pretty against it. I didn't want the expense or hassle. I have seen several people who actually looked better with the gray.

Try it you can always go back to color.

I stopped colouring and highlighting my hair 2 years ago and it was the best thing I ever did. I am rocking the gray hair and loving it. I keep getting compliments on my hair and someone told me yesterday my hair sparkled in the sun haha. If I had to do it over again I would get my hair dyed gray instead of letting it grow out until all the grow out was gray. Took a year until I had enough grow out to get a decent cut. I am not 60 yet and i started going gray when I was 16, I just got tired of all the up keep and expense. Edited to add my hair is shoulder length now

One way to ease the transition is to do low lights, and have many of them start well away from the root. You could do them the same reddish-blond as your current highlights so it all blends. As your hair grows out, you'll get an ombré effect.

Something to try first is ask your hairdresser if she has a swatch the color of the majority of your gray, and even better if she has extensions that color. Hold it up to your face in good light, both inside and in sun, and make sure the color your hair is growing in will be flattering. Some grays, especially transitional ones between the natural color and the final color, are more tired and faded looking than they are beautiful. If you're lucky, it'll just be a wonderful new color to discover.

Gray is what"s popular now. Let her color it gray now with silver streaks for a natural look. Then you're set for it to grow out. Plus you will be hep!

I never did color at all. Here is a picture, of my sisters and me.

I am in the middle, I am the oldest. Birgit is the only one ever coloring, and did already at that time. Last year, just before visiting India she got her hair cut REALLY short, and never colored again. Need to find a picture of her now.

We are all past our 50's.. with the youngest turning 60 in four years.

I say, go for it. We love the ease and convenience of our short hair, the way it is. :)

Moni

I watched my mother-in-law with dyed jet black hair until she was well into her 70's (while most of her adult children were well on their way to gray/white), and swore I'd never look that garish, so I've never changed my natural hair color as it shifted from dark brown, and now I'm mostly salt with about 25% pepper at 63 (I'm going gray like Jay Lenno - the front bangs stayed darker a lot longer than the rest).

Eventually, her stylist suggested the black wasn't becoming (thank you, thank you, thank you), so she started to use a henna treatment, which was even WORSE. My mother-in-law (a winter - if you remember doing your colors by the seasons from the 80's) had a light olive complexion that is never seen on a "natural" redhead (autumn) - and it made her look "ill" all the time. The henna "crap" the stylist used flaked off and my mother-in-law had to cover her head with a plastic bonnet at night, and put a bath towel on her pillow. What a pain somewhere lower than the neck. Finally, around 80, she stopped this nonsense and she had the most beautiful head of hair and she looked much younger with her own soft natural color. Why she changed it all that time I'll never know?

I remember how my mother-in-law was so concerned about the chemicals in the shampoo after reading a magazine article (she had her hair "done" once a week). I thought, what the heck do you think is in that black dye you use???? But kept my mouth shut.... The actress who plays Abby (Pauley Perrette) on NCIS issued this warning about hair dye after a severe allergic reaction: http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/07/21/ncis-star-pauley-perrette-issues-hair-dye-health-warning-after-severe-allergic-reaction/

I think you will find lots of encouragement here. I admit that some people rock the gray!

At this point, at 62, I'm not there yet. I would be salt and pepper. Both my parents were, so I don't think I have the chance to go all white or silver.

Sephia, if it's the expense that you are tired of, go single process. Also, look for another stylist that is cheaper. It's amazing the difference in prices.

I used to go to a very high end salon. My hair stylist now is half that price and better!

I'm 95% silver, have been for the past 10 years. I'm 54 now. I love it. Fortunately my 5 brothers and I have all silvered the same. Generally the men do it better than us women but I am blessed. We all have some black at the nape of our necks but the rest is silver. Mine used to be naturally curly but the silver stopped that, I'm good with that as well. I keep mine very short, wash and go. I haven't used a hair dryer since it was long in the 80's. No products expect for an oil that keeps it shiny. Go for it.

Moni, you look just great!!

I'm with you, Sephia, hate the time and expense of coloring. It's just such a waste, isn't it? I tried going grey, and it looked awful, not pretty at all. Dark around the nape of the neck, texture of the grey was bad, fuzzy and coarse. Family and friends asked me what I was doing??? Went back to coloring. Not saying this will happen to you at all. If you can manage it, I'm sure you will be happy. Good luck!

I wish I had gray hair but my roots always come in dark and I like blonde highlights. I'm 76 and not a darn gray hair yet.

I am 91 and just began turning silver last year. Wish it would cover my entire head. Can't help but think of the dyes entering all the pores on one's scalp...could that be healthy? Plus the time/expense! Natural seems sensible.

I'm 75 and just starting to get a few gray hairs. I won't be coloring my hair. I don't like the thought of all those chemicals and dyes as pink mentioned.

My family grays early. A few of them got the snow white hair, like my dad, and a few got the more salt and pepper look like my mom. I started getting gray in my 30's....and only colored it once. What a hassle that was to grow out. Never again. My hair is very white around my face, which would make me have to touch it up often if I dyed it. That is too much effort for me. I am not a "hair" person. I wash it and let it go. I don't even like getting hair cuts, although I wear it short. To me, anything more than washing it is more than I want to do.

I got my first gray hair at 18. By the time I was 30 I was heavy salt and pepper. By my mid 30's people thought I was my baby's grandmother. That is when I started coloring my hair. I have gone back and forth between color and not color. My gray is not very flattering. My mom had beautiful silver hair by now at 64. Mine is a dull lifeless washed out gray mixed with brown. So I go through the expense and hassle to keep it colored than get tired of that so cut it all off and let it grow out. Don't like it, so start coloring again. I will be happy when it is all white someday.

My brown haired mother was just that till she died at 91, using Ms Clairol. To me it looks artificial. I rarely colored my light ash brown hair , but then decided I'd stop forever. I have silver streaks around the front of my blunt cut and the rest is mixed. I don't want the expense nor the hassle, and I don't like chemicals in my body. I read once Jackie Kennedy blamed her constant hair colorings to her leukemia. Whether or not that's true, I don't know.

I was strawberry blonde growing up. seems redheads do not gray well. I am 65, use a light Auburn color.

Probably 60% gray now, but I don't know how you tell percentage. Just remember a stylist saying that . I really wish that my hair would gray to a beautiful silver. The gray roots just look yellowish. So tiredof coloring my hair.

The last time I coloured my hair, I went with a blonde tone so that when my hair grew I didn't end up with the "skunk" look. I haven't coloured my hair in 3 months so I have a lot of new growth. I'm not going to cut my hair until the new growth is a good 2" longer than it is now, then I will get all the coloured hair cut off so I can see just how grey I am now. I too, am 56 but I colour my hair from a box. Much less expensive. :) But I'm lazy and just don't want to colour it anymore.

I mostly lightened my hair all my life and let it grow out in summer when I was in the pool with chlorine often. When I was about 58 or so, DS suggested letting it continue to 'go grey' and it went pretty close to a 'golden white-grey' as it is today. Well, the gold has gone. I have loved it ever since. Actually, this white is a pain in that it is so coarse and has lost its' softness....much more disappointing than color!

Okay, so what we did was my hairdresser applied a "demi-gloss" or "demi permanent" color. It's not a color like when she typically colors it, but a gloss that fades after about 24-30 washes or so. The gray will come in, the gloss will fade, and that will happen about the 6-week time frame, and that's when I get my hair cut. So the next time I go in, she'll cut off the color, apply some more demi-gloss, and more gray will grow in. She estimates it should take 2 more cuts to completely be free of my colored hair. I won't have that "skunk" stripe as it all blends together. And - it's...just....hair. I can always color it again if I don't like it.

Marilyn I love your hair! The color and cut. Looks great on you.

I'm not yet 50, but my hair (on top) is 50% grey, and the back is 30% grey. I work in a highly competitive field where youth is valued, so I'm going to keep coloring until I retire. I can't afford to lose my job because I look old - and grey hair instantly ages people, no matter what you think. Before I read Moni's photo caption, I thought the photo was of two sisters and a daughter of one of them. :( A girl I went to high school with never colored her hair, and she is often mistaken for her children's grandmother.

If your grey is 'silver' or 'bright white', great. If it's 'stainless steel', not so flattering.

I have a two inch long streak of my original very dark brown/black above one side of my forehead. I'd look awful unless I colored that, so...I'm still coloring brown, a lighter shade than my original, natural brown.

I'm 69 and still have mostly honey blond hair, greying a bit at the temples and in the back...I'm not sure what I will do, maybe dye it for awhile, maybe not...I know when my mother gave up having her her dyed a medium blond and let it go totally grey she did look much older, this was in her 70's/80's. By then she didn't care if she looked old or not. My daughter says she will tell me when would be a good time to start coloring it if I want to...

I am 73 and have colored mine at least for 7 years now. My natural color was dark brown but I use a lighter shade on it . I would hate to see what it would look like all grey. When I see the grey showing, that is enough for me and it is time to color again! My mother's hair turned a nice pretty white which looked nice on her.

I started getting white hairs my senior year in college. I frosted it to hide the grey at about 30, saying I did not want to find myself in the maternity ward with all those young mothers and me with grey hair. In my 40s, I had an allergic reaction to a permanent and decided the chemicals on my head had to stop. I got a very short haircut to remove all the old frosting. Lo and behold, the greying looked exactly like the frosting, only the frosting was white now instead of blond. I am in my 70s now, and my hair is snow white and has been for 20 years or so. I was so glad to quit the trouble and expense and time devoted to coloring my hair.

This decision is so individual and personal. It really is how you feel about yourself when you look in the mirror.

At 74 I am getting rather ugly gray around my face but did not want to get started dying my hair, so my hair dresser suggested some "low lights" and it gave my hair some color and depth and I do not have to worry about root lines.

I'm 56 and so far the only gray I have is a spot over my left temple. It looks like a blonde stripe of highlighting more than anything. Unfortunately though, my natural hair color, a dirty blonde/brown color is not very pretty and it makes me look washed out. Years ago, my sister (who does hair for a living) suggested I put some high and low lights in just around my face to brighten it up a bit, so that's what I do. I don't particularly like spending the time or money for it, but I don't like the alternative even more. :c)

In the immortal words of the latest Disney princess.. "Let it go...let it go...can't hold it back anymore!!!"

You might be surprised, and it is entirely possible that my friends and I are an anomaly of my generation but; .. we truly aren't obsessed with perpetual youth and age defying youth anymore.

To be honest, my friends and I are kinda sick and tired of the rhetoric that we should appear to be in our 20s until we die.

Those I know, from 20s-40s dye their hair for fun in unusual tones, I don't know anyone that dyes to hide gray, that seems to be a thing with my mother and grandmothers generation, even when they were our age.

I started getting gray hairs in my early-mid 20s, never dyed my hair in my life until I was 30 and decided, you only live once so why not try crazy hair and I had my hair bleached and dyed bright red fading to yellow on the tips, a "flame job."

It was awesome and I got tons of compliments on it but the upkeep was rough and the damage the bleach did was untenable so I had to stop.

It was fun for a while though!

As you said, it's only hair and, IMHO, you should only dye it if it is fun for you, just like wearing makeup. Once it stops being fun and starts being a chore, it's time to stop.

Go for the grey. You'll look distinguished. My hair started going gray when I hit 57 and was completely gray, nearer to white, by the time I was 65. It goes well with my maturity.