How to Embrace Grey Hair

I know that many women are worried about going grey and it being ageing and I totally get that. It took me ages to face up to the fact that my hair wasn’t actually dark brown anymore and let the grey become my thing. I had it purple for ages and used to have to do it every couple of weeks to keep the white halo of roots from showing – even though I did it myself it was extremely time consuming and became a burden. Embracing my grey has been quite liberating to be honest. 

 

If you are thinking that this could be the ideal time to go for it check the support groups on Facebook – there are a few. They have all kinds of tips to help you with the transition. Personally, I went from using permanent colour to semi-permanent do the colour didn’t show as it was growing out. This is easy to do if you have short hair. It didn’t take that long. Once the permanent colour had fully grown out, I allowed the semi-permanent one to just fade until it was fully natural. 

 

I kept it like that for about 18 months – then I did it purple again for mum’s funeral because it was her favourite colour. These days I play around with fun colours depending on my mood. Sometimes it’s magenta, sometimes its purple – last time I coloured it I did it blue. It’s faded now and I’m leaving it for the time being. Until I get bored again. 

 

If you are worried about not being able to get your hair done take solace in the fact that we are ALL going through this together. One thing I will say is that your natural hair colour is ALWAYS going to suit you. As we age, we lose pigment in our skin and eyes too, so they are fading accordingly. What suited you when you were 20 isn’t necessarily going to still suit you at 50. You might look a bit like Morticia if you are still dying it as dark as it was then. 

 

When you have a colour analysis your consultant should be able to advise you on what colours are going to suit you best. As a general guide don’t go more than a couple of shades darker than your current natural colour if you don’t want to look washed out without makeup. If having lighter hair is more your thing, to keep it looking more natural I’d stick with not going more than 4 levels lighter. 

 

Also, bear in mind your natural colouring in terms of warm or cool undertones. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see. Your hair is always going to look best if you stick with your innate colouring. So, no ash blonde, platinum or the synthetic grey that is currently in vogue if you have warm undertones to your skin or are naturally honey blonde or have any kind of red tones naturally. Avoid the reds and golden blondes if you have cool undertones as they won’t sit nicely with your skin.