There was recently a thread on here about this very thing....with the low lights & high lights, too. See if you can find it because it had good info for you!

I just searched for low & high lights grey hair & the thread came up...it's from June

Lyban just added low lights. She looks fabulous.

I sometimes wonder how I'll handle this. I started going gray in my late 20s so I've been coloring my hair to some degree for 20+ years. Not ready to stop yet but I wonder when I'll feel like it's time. A friend's mom recently stopped coloring her hair -- I wasn't forewarned, and when I saw her with gray hair, my initial thought was that she must be seriously ill. She has similar coloring to me so I figure I'll look "sickly" too when I stop coloring!

My 87 year old mother still has her hair colored. I've never seen any gray in her hair. I'll likely following her footsteps. Fortunately, I can go 6 weeks or so between cut and color appointments.

Eh, I want to be Jane Fonda

at 80.

I started going gray in my 30s and pretty much dealt with it, aside from short periods of color. Because it evolved, it wasn't a shock, although there are times in the middle where my hair wasn't really gray, just faded. Not a great look. Now it's fully gray, a good silver color, and I'm fine with it, but then, I'm 72 and things could be worse, right? ;-)

The hardest part of being gray, depending on the color you're used to, is how it affects your skin tone and clothing colors. That was a real adjustment for me, going from being able to wear any color and print to a handful of shades.

I have a friend my age who colored her hair until about a year ago. She dyed it very dark brown and it was beginning to look severe and aging. She bit the bullet (she's retired) and just let it grow out cold turkey. Her hair is short and she's fond of wearing hats, so the worst part didn't last long. Now she looks wonderful, her hair is a great shade of wavy gray.

Do it! It's quite liberating.

Do it! It's quite liberating.

It sure is! And you can always go back to coloring it fi you don't like it.

I have weird hair which gave the impression of being dark auburn when i was young, but if you put a hair under a microscope there wasn't any dark pigment at all. For years I used to use henna, mostly for body, but as my hair became super fine, for color also. But mine grows about an inch a month, so I had about four days before the skunk line reappeared, and two years ago I just said the hell with it.

I get lots more compliments on the color now than I did before, and other women often ask me what I use to keep it so shiny. i have no regrets at all, although I do wish there was a completely neutral henna that would just give it more body without changing the color. (There are so-called neutral hennas, but they aren't, not really.)

writersblock, I've wished for the same thing, something that could just impart more shine (body I already have) to my gray hair.

My hair grows fast, and I used to see grow out after 5 days. Nothing looks worse than gray/white roots. It looks like your skull is showing.

The past few years there's been a trend for younger woman to dye their hair gray. Anything looks good when you're young and dewy-faced. But I've been asked at the Mac counter if my hair is natural. They seem not to realize that "gray" is actually a mix of white and darker hair. You can see separate strands that differ in color. It makes me smile.

My mom was still having her hair colored at 90. After she had a massive stroke that changed. Hair color was the least of her concerns. When she passed a few months later my brother & I asked her hairdresser to color her hair before the funeral. Just another reason why I'm being cremated.

I am in the process of doing it. I have been blonde since i discovered Sun-In as a teen (except for a brief henna phase in my 20s). I planned on having a very few blond highlights in every few months to help blend the transition but it has been four (the only colorist I trust not to do too much was out of town the last time I was in town). I have enough gray that it still is blending well with the blond and enough dishwater light brown (my natural color) that it looks more like I have quit all over coloring and switched to highlighting only I'll probably add a few more highlights in a couple of months, but won't go back to all blonde. So far I really like how it is growing out, but I will be happy when I can cut off the last of the all over blonde. It grows pretty fast and is thick, but I like it shoulder length so it will probably be next spring before the all blonde ends are gone. At that point I will decide whether to keep a few highlights or not.

I am not sure what I will do. I would be salt and pepper. Distinguished on a man, not so much on a woman. I like all gray or all white.

I think the trick to staying youthful while going gray is to have a current up to date hairstyle.

I have said this before, I believe you can look good with gray hair, but you look "older."

I think that coloring your hair "fools" the eye, and although we are not really fooling anyone, I am 63 after all, there is a question of just how old.

While when you go gray, you are automatically put in the senior category.

I have been natural blonde all my life. My skin coloring is very fair. My stylist started low and high lights when I was about 60 so my hair color has pretty much stayed the same color all my life. A year ago I decided to stop all highlights and let it grow out to its natural color. The color is a very very light blonde. I really tried to get used to it. I am 76. The only thing I like about it is not having to spend the time and money every three months. But what I didn't like was I had to change my makeup colors, the color of clothes I wore and that I just looked older even though I have a youthful bob haircut. My stylist loved the color and said that was the color all the younger gals wanted. Not for me. So she now adds a toner that takes about 15 minutes and lasts about six weeks but gives me back my natural blonde color that I love.

I would just go for it.especially if you have short hair. I just turned 69 and started letting mine go naturally gray about 6 months ago. I retired in June. I started thinking about it last year around this time and my hairdresser suggested low lights so I went with that for a while, but I wish now I had just let it go. I have chin length hair so it will take mine longer to be fully grown out.

One thing....I've had to be mindful of products I am using. I've had to change up a few things I am using. Using color seemed to give my hair more body, and I have fine, thin hair. So I've had to use some additional volumizing and texturizing products that don't add dryness.

Lots of good suggestions here and on the previous thread dark to light hair

I hope I have the courage to embrace the gray.

Thank you for your suggestions.

This topic is always interesting. I think about it sometimes but no intention of going gray while I'm still in the workforce. I would have the mousey brown-gray not the lovely silver gray so not very attractive in my opinion. At this point I think it would make me look a lot older so will likely wait until I actually am a lot older to go natural.

My mom's 100 and still colors her hair. When she goes gray, maybe I will too. Or not.

Writersblock, mojomom do you mind sharing your ages?

I am in my early 50's and a few years ago I stopped dyeing my hair, i became resetful of the time cost and the $. My gray hair looks good, but I do feel that I am perceived as older now than I would be if I continued dyeing.

I am thinking of starting again. I might go blond or brunette or auburn, the sky could be the limit.

I'm curious Local. What exactly happens? Your family and friends know how old you are, so that's a given, whether you color your hair or not.

How does how old you are come up in a conversation?

I'm 60, localeater. I can't honestly say that I've seen much difference in how people interact with me since I stopped dyeing, and whatever they may choose to think isn't of much interest to me if it doesn't directly affect me, so that's okay.

I have been embracing my gray since I was 28. I'm 55 now. I never wanted to color it because either you continue forever, or it's so obvious when you stop. My hair is medium brown, lots of gray on top now. I wish it would just get it over with already! The color contrast between the top and the sides is dramatic. I think it will be a nice color if it finishes.

It very first went gray in a streak off the back top "corner" of my head. Just about a finger wide, everything else was brown. Women loved it. One man I was acquainted with at work saw it, and said "what on earth have you done to your hair??" Gee, thanks, Chuck.

Bonnie, I think your short hair with high and low lights would look great. I imagine your hair to be full and thick. The highlights definitely gave my straight, baby fine, very blonde hair some body and color so it actually looked like I had hair. I tried going without color for a year and it was not good. It was not a pretty white or gray, just very, very light blonde with no body. I tried so many products to try and give my hair texture and body. I didn’t find any that worked great. I have returned to adding a tint and am liking my hair again. Eld, for me, I noticed so many people I didn’t know were calling me honey, dear, sweetie when I was shopping or running errands. A sure sign you look old. My husband and I had a good laugh. And sure enough, darker hair, no more honeys or dears.

A friend of mine, also 72, is a high school therapist. Her natural hair has gone white but she (reluctantly) still has it colored blonde as she finds gray/white hair to be a negative barrier among the kids she's working with.

I was taking to a coworker who is thinking about going gray (white really, I think). She's been dying her hair black and it is going to be a dramatic change. She complimented me on my hair which currently has magenta and purple mixed in with a liberal amount of my natural color. I've never been much for root touch-ups, so I currently have 2 inches of white root. But since my colorist didn't color the hair at my part to star with (so roots wouldn't be obvious), it is growing out fine. With magenta and purple, I'm certainly not trying to pass it off as my natural color.

I made the decision long ago to accept what nature gave me. Thankfully I got pretty silver feathered in around my face and the rest is still raven black. I accept it as me. I don't need to mess with chemicals because of my health issues. So I never colored and have been very happy with my decision. My mom colored till the end. My sisters color. It's costly and they are getting tired of it so they may change their mind.

Raven, you are fortunate that your natural color is black, IMO the most beautiful hair color. It also goes gray the most beautifully.

I'm gonna have to start coloring mine soon. I am 57 and will have to work until I am 70 and age discrimination exists whether I like it or not and I have to deal with it. My current job may not be my last and I'll have to compete with many younger people so can't afford any little downside to my selling mysellf for jobs. Age discrimination is not imaginary, and the more you need to work and compete on the job market, the more acute it will feel.

I am 65 (and a half!) and I have only a few strands of gray. I love it and welcome more. I used to highlight my dirty blonde/light brown hair when I was younger, but just decided to let it be what it is when I was in my late forties.

When I decided to stop coloring my hair was because of a "cool hair" compliment. I had gone to a Federal agency to conduct a mediation and had to park in a pay parking lot. The mediation was in the summer and last nearly all day, it was successful. Regardless, as I was walking to my car, the young (probably HS senior) attendant told me that he loved the purple color of my hair and he thought it was cool. I thanked him. Inside I was humiliated. I decided right then that I would quit coloring my hair. Evidently the pigment needed to darken hair (my natural hair color was a dark brown) was red or purple. Regardless, even though the young attendant thought I was a cool grandma, I decided it was not cool for me. Still laugh about this.

Update, thanks all for the comments. Lots to consider here. I canceled my hair appointment and did my own root color using Clairol. It covered the skunk line and did not irritate my scalp, which the professional color had started doing. Not sure what the next step will be because I am vacillating so much! I'm telling a few people at work that I am retiring in June and they ask why. When I tell them it's because I will turn 65 in September I hear comments like "you don't look your age", which is nice to hear and makes me wonder how much of that is my hair!

My hairdresser suggested I use vegetable dye so that there is no outgrowth. The color just fades away in about one month.

Rita, just a warning that that stuff leaves traces behind for a long, long time on gray/white hair, even if the real color washes out fast. Unfortunately there isn't such a thing as truly temporary color, not in normal hair shades.

Thank you, writersblock. I get my hair colored and cut every six weeks, so there is some fading. The color looks like a highlight. I have white hair only around my face. I dread the day I have to use real color and deal with outgrowth.