Talk to me about gray hairs!

[Anonymous]

So, I'm turning 40 in a month or so, and sad to discover I am getting gray hairs! Most are under 2 inches long, so they must have just come in over the past 4-6 months or so. But I do find an occasional 8 inch long gray hair. which really freaks me out. But every one I've plucked (all that I find!) is always solid gray. As in, the old hair fell out and the new one grew in gray. Is that true for everyone?

If you have gray hairs, how do you hide them/ make them behave? Do they take blonde color, and does the color slide off faster? Mine are wavy and totally resistant to smoothing out. Is stress really a factor in getting them? Is there anything to slow down the progression to gray? Right now it's just a smattering of gray hairs, but the do pop out of my hair like the aardvark's hair in the Pink Panther (anyone remember him?).

[Anonymous]

I'm completely gray at 44. You'd never know it though-I get my hair colored often (the roots). But beware-once you start coloring, it's hard to stop if you want to eventually go gray. When you go gray, it's salt and pepper-mixed in with the hair that has color. But once you color, only your roots will be gray.

If there was a way to stop the process of going gray-I'd have known. But no-nothing you can do about it.

[Anonymous]

PP here-yes gray hair is course. I use a flat iron to straighten my hair (it's down to my shoulders).

[Anonymous]

Feel blessed that its taken this long for you to get gray hairs. Mine started coming in during my late 20s, which I attribute to getting my PhD. Having a child hasn't helped either.

I have never been thrilled with my hair color, so I frequently dye it anyway, so the greys get covered. But I have noticed that the grey hairs don't take the color as well. The best cover was when I had some very light highlights so you couldn't really tell the difference between my grey hairs (which are actually more white than grey) and the highlights.

[Anonymous]

Forget the color and go natural. My mother tells me she's earned her gray hairs. I tell her she gave me mine...my gray hair started coming in in high school. Still don't have a lot (am 26). Still getting more, but I don't worry so much about it.

[Anonymous]

I have very dark blonde hair naturally - so I get highlights to blend my WHITE (not even gray) hairs in a bit. I got my first one (that I noticed) at the age of 31 - I thought it was some wildly misplaced pubic hair growing out of the top of my forehead - and, of course, plucked it right away

I am 44 now and definitely have noticed an increase in the number of white hairs emerging in the last year.

Have also started to get occasional white eyebrow hairs which are even more upsetting to me for some reason. No white pubic hairs yet, but I know that time too will come soon...

I think that covering the white is harder for people with dark hair because the texture of white and grey hairs is so much more porous than regular hair - so they do not hold color very well. A bit easier for those of us with lighter coloring who can do a bit of masking and blending up until the end.

[Anonymous]

I've got lots of gray, and my hair is naturally curly. I color it myself because I found the stylist's coloring process too harsh and too expensive! Here are my suggestions: if you color, go a shade lighter than your normal color; that way the grays look more like highlights, plus colored hair that is very dark can look a little dull. If you decide to keep the gray, get a cute, gamine, short cut. Long gray hair looks witchy, in my opinion, but a short salt and pepper cut can look really cute. If you color your hair, the combination of color and blow drying/flat ironing can really damage your hair, so try not have to do both. Gray hair is often coarser than your normal hair, so keep that in mind when buying hair products. Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Ah, the gray hairs. I'll be 35 in a month or so have noticed the occasional gray hair popping up in the last year. At the moment, I'm plucking them, but, as DD very sensibly points out, that's eventually going to be a self-defeating strategy. Perhaps even worse, my hair has a lot of natural variation in color, anyway, and I find myself plucking a lot of hairs in a panic that turn out to be blond-ish, but not gray, after all. Coloring will follow in the next couple of years, I'm sure.

Is stress really a factor? I'd love to find a reason to blame my DH, but this isn't really early graying, after all. And my mother started graying in her late 20s.

[Anonymous]

I'm 30 and have greys...no sympathy here for the 40yr old OP who just started detecting them

I'm have almost black hair, so I just color out of a box and it looks completly natural. I dye it a dark chestnut brown and it looks awesome!

[Anonymous]

I have a similar situation to the OP: I'm 40 and have just recently noticed a few gray hairs. Question for those of you who color: I would love to do it myself to save $$, but also want the hair to look good, LOL. Is it really easy to do it yourself, and do you get good results, or should I resign myself to using a professional? Also, if yo do it yourself, how do you choose the shade?

[Anonymous]

OP here, yes I know I'm lucky to just be getting them at 40. My dad was completely silver at 35, and my sisters started getting silvers in their 30's.

My hair hasn't been its natural color of basic "mouse-fur" since I was 16 and discovered hydrogen peroxide! Now, I fork over $150/month for highlights. You would think that the white hairs I get would be a plus as camo for my dark roots, but they won't behave!

I always imagined I would go naturally into an ashy blonde (think Murphy Brown) mixed with grays. But now I can't resign myself to the transition... Also, as long as I cover the gray, I can keep the long blonde hair. I also thought I'd do a Sharon Stone pixie when I got "old". Now I'm not so sure I'll ever resign myself to accepting that I'm "old"!

[Anonymous]

I went gray at 17 (thanks Mom and Dad) and have spent a small fortune coloring for the last 12 years. Sorry, OP, no sympathy here! No, there is nothing to slow the progression. And yes, they take color very well, esp. blond. My colorist always tries to make me feel better by telling me how exciting it is to have a "blank canvas" to color on. Ugh.....