Do You Color Your Hair?

[Gash]

Hey! How are you? Glad to see you back!

Hi!! I’m doing well. Thanks for asking. I’m super busy with school. I have finals in a week but I think semester is going to turn out alright. I come back to this site every few months when I have a new issue/question. I occasionally lurk around in threads also. Hehe.

How are you doing??

 

[HoosMommie]

I have had predominantly gray/white hair since my twenties (thanks, Daddy ) and colored it for years. Husband told me a couple of years after we were married 35 years ago that he was convinced hair dye would make my hair fall out and he would rather see me gray than bald. Never dyed it again. Sorta. I lost my mind for a few months and went back to the dye about 10 years ago, but it was far too much trouble so I quit again. Had chemo a couple of years ago and a goodly portion of it fell out, so it’s quite short now (Husband buzzed it all off for me when it started coming out by the handsful LOL) and looks pretty cute on this 63-year-old

 

[Jennifoo]

NO!! It always looks fake when you dye it. You should be proud of your gray hairs!!

Depends on the quality of the hair color. When done well it can look very natural.

I say if you want to color it, go for it.

 

[Deltadeliquent]

I’m 53 today!
I used to colour my hair with henna and an herb called amla. I made a really nice soft copper colour on my naturally mousy colour.
However I am not getting fed up with the up keep. S I’m starting to go natural with a bit of sun in every times blow dry. The Sun in is slowly taking out the henna copper, and replacing it with blonde. I can’t see my greys coming on now since the blonde and the grey are mixed.
The Sun in is not that great for your hair so I baby it.

I do miss the henna. Every batch was a little different and it made my hair so healthy. And the sun sparkles are so beautiful. I might go back to what’s called a henna gloss…basically deep conditioning with a touch of henna.
Lots of info on this site: long hair community forum.com

 

[Oh_Charlotte]

As to my opinion on people coloring their hair, I think its all fine. More outrageous colors are not my personal taste for* me*, but I appreciate it as an art form. And I also appreciate that some people have no art/color sense and that’s okay too. I expect them to have really great gifts I don’t have. It just always works they way.

As for non-flamboyant colors, like for us ladies with greying hair, I agree, its like lipstick. And like lipstick, it looks really nice and polished and attractive as long as its the right color for you.

I don’t dye my hair. Its going grey; originally it was a nice med.dark ash brown. I am artistic and have always been picky about color and its an art I am always refining. I started wearing my “summer” colors only when I discovered Carole Jackson’s “Color Me Beautiful” in the Eighties. As to coloring hair, she said that Summers go gray most gracefully - they do the best without coloring. So she was my incentive to leave the gray when it started.

And I occasionally get compliments about my graying hair color. And one or two who tell me I ought to dye it! My sis-in-law is the main one, but she has long thick black hair, and covering her grey beginnings really does look good on her. I don’t believe it would do the same for me. Which brings me back to what I said about being picky about color and artistic. With browns its hard - the dyes are almost always* warm* brown (and I am cool) and so many brunettes complain of unwanted redness showing up in their hair dye color, and I do NOT want to mess up the balance of my natural coloring with a warm brown or a red brown hair color!

So I save myself some work by not dyeing, but I work at other things, particularly my color palette and style type.

So if you don’t think gray looks good on you maybe it doesn’t. If it makes you happy to correct it then I think you should. Yet I can’t help but wonder about what Jackson said because it seems like God is the great designer, and everyone’s grey should look right on them. As long as its paired with clothes in the proper color for their season of course!

When I shop I don’t hold a thing up to myself without selecting by color first. It sure makes clothes shopping easier because I know my palette inside out and I pass up most things. I look at everything, though, hunting down my colors; only then I will look at style.

I was thrilled to discover prettyyourworld.com’s 12 color system. I had already refined my colors within the Summer color palette, so I was able to pick out my “Soft Summer” very quickly. Some of the “Summer” colors I wore back when I first discovered Jackson’s book were really some other Summer’s colors. But I soon began to refine my color more. And the “prettyyourworld.com” web founder is onto a new 16-color system, and sure enough, Soft Summer one of the colors that split into two categories. I am a “Toned Soft Summer”… I have yet to see color palettes on these but I can discern what they are by her description.

The other thing equally important to me as discovering my colors is discovering my style. The best ever style book is David Kibbe’s Metamorphisis.** He has about 12 or 14 distinct style types, based on the old Hollywood style system, and each style has famous people linked and complete descriptions for how to dress - hair, shoe, makeup, which prints, which fabrics, how much contrast and where, how much detail and in what style, pant style, skirt style, sweater style, blouse and dress style and how your type should mix and match etc., etc.! Its mind boggling but it works magic when you find your style.

I have helped a bunch of people find their styles and their colors because i do have an eye for that. I spent a great deal of time helping a friend follow it for a complete total makeover who was a completely different style than me. (I am a Soft Classic, she is a Flamboyant Gamine). A total wardrobe overhaul, starting at the Goodwill stores. She really shined with her new look and got so many compliments!

So that’s the kind of nonsense I enjoy.

---

**This book has been out of print awhile. I have lent out mine many times and I am on my third book bought two years ago, used, when my other two never came back. Now I am careful with that. I see the used price on Amazon is up to $73 but there are likely other places to get it used much cheaper.

I agree with reviewers who say the following of it:

“This is my top pick of all the books I own.” --not counting religious books for me!

“This THE fashion book.”

“David Kibbe is a genius. And he doesn’t “make you over”; he helps you express and bring out what you already have.”

“…you will be able to shop out of catalogs.”

“Be forewarned that Metamorphosis may dispel some of your most cherished ideas about your clothing style, but only those which obscure your individuality and ultimate style potential. In return, you will obtain the knowledge and courage to express yourself like you probably never have before.”

“David Kibbe’s METAMORPHASIS …changed the way I see myself.”

 

[peace2u2]

Yes, highlights but no bleach. My hairdresser uses Scruples hair color to highlight with so it looks more natural and not so drying. I also don’t sit under the dryer because my hair takes really quick and the added heat fries it.

Some tips for those who color or highlight:

1. Don’t wash your hair the next day - let the color set; it will last longer.
2. I also don’t wash my hair everyday (every other day) and I think this helps.
3. Use a product like John Freida shampoo and conditioner; it really helps the color last longer. I switch back and forth between the Sheer Blonde for darker shades and the Brillant Brunette.

johnfrieda.com/en-US/ProductDetail/Hair-Care/Sheer-Blonde/Highlight-Activating-Enhancing-Shampoo-For-Darker-Shades

I have been doing this for 3 years and prior to that I would wash in a color from the store. The professional highlights cost about $80.00 for highlights and a haircut. I have tried the store highlights, but I wear glasses and its really quite comical trying to see without glasses, and the store highlights actually come out pretty good.

 

[SachieWhitby]

Nope. My hair hair color is naturally reddish-brown with highlights that are a bright metallic copper red. If I go into the sun a lot [which I don’t anymore], my hair color will bleach out on its own to the extent that it looks even more red and less brown. So I don’t see a point in coloring it as red hair [including variations] tend to not come out good when people use dye to try to get it.

 

[JackieMom]

No, but I have in the past for fun, and will do it again if I ever start to get grey hairs or my natural shade gets dull. I think grey hair looks fine on men and some older ladies but I doubt I’d ever go completely grey since it doesn’t run in my family. Not a fan of “salt and pepper” on women.

 

[Della]

Well okay!

Next question, do you wear your glasses or contacts? I proudly wear glasses. (They hide the wrinkles)!

I wear glasses because I have to. With my prescription I can’t wear contacts, not even glasses without the line between my lenses for close up reading and far distance, so I have the “granny” line in my lenses because I also have prisms. Trust me, if could go without glasses I would.

I’m one of those people with a baby face who hasn’t gotten a lot of wrinkles to hide–at least not yet and I’m not a young girl any more. It’s just my genetics–nothing I did has kept my face virtually wrinkle free. I have no fear of aging. It’s just that with my skin tone, eyebrow color and baby face, black hair looks best on me.

 

[CradleJourney]

Haven’t colored my hair ---- yet.

I’ll be doing that for the first time this summer. Currently, my previous brown with red highlights original color is slowly but surely being taken over by the grays.

Like the OP I don’t particularly mind the grays, but I don’t think the combo looks particularly good so my plan is to first cut my hair (currently it reaches 3/4 the way down my back), then try coloring it as close to my natural color as possible. If that works, then I’ll stick with that for a few years till the grays are more established, then revert back to uncolored. My oldest is 27, so hopefully I’ll be a grandma by then … and grey hair is perfect for grandmas in my book!

Being 40 with natural colored hair (even with a gray highlight or two or four) was fine.
Being 60 or older with partly, mostly, or entirely gray would be fine with me.

It’s this in-between era that’s got me planning on coloring.

Oh - and my rule for my daughters was once they got to high school, they could do whatever then wanted with their hair, provided they paid for it from their own funds. (Makeup however remain regulated to some extent or another until graduation.)

For me the big question is still whether someday I might get my ears pierced. I don’t have anything against anyone else having them … just have felt (so far) that it wouldn’t be right for me to add holes to the body God gave me.

 

[gh4]

I started coloring my hair in the 8th grade. I finally let it grow out when I was 52. I LOVE it! For the first time in my life I have great hair! The color is almost white in the front with some light brown in with the white in the back. I make sure to use a purple shampoo for gray hair so it will get rid of any yellow tones that would dare show themselves in my hair! I’m still not 60 yet, but heading that way way too fast!

I’ve always heard that you should never go darker as you get older, but lighter as it softens one’s face. There’s a 75 year old lady up the street with long curly hair that would rival Lucille Ball’s red hair! It accentuates her wrinkles and brown spots on her face. But I’m not going to tell her that!! And it looks pretty bad when it’s about an inch grown out and she’s not dyed it yet.

 

[LoveJesus13]

I don’t color my hair because I don’t feel the need to right now. I help color my mom’s hair which we get from any drugstore, Target, Walmart etc… She feels she has to because of some grey roots present. I say go for it but go with a color that complements your natural hair not something that looks totally off and fake.

Btw, I didn’t know we can post non-religious or non faith-related threads on here. I’m a newbie so Im learning.

 

[qui_est_ce]

You have lovely hair…and yes, I’m quite aware that no one thinks this is my own real shade. The effect is more like lipstick, that’s absolutely true.

Good analogy. I do wear bright red lipstick at all times!

 

[TheRealJuliane]

I don’t color my hair because I don’t feel the need to right now. I help color my mom’s hair which we get from any drugstore, Target, Walmart etc… She feels she has to because of some grey roots present. I say go for it but go with a color that complements your natural hair not something that looks totally off and fake.

Btw, I didn’t know we can post non-religious or non faith-related threads on here. I’m a newbie so Im learning.

Well, this thread should probably be in the Back Fence forum…

 

[EasterJoy]

No, but I have in the past for fun, and will do it again if I ever start to get grey hairs or my natural shade gets dull. I think grey hair looks fine on men and some older ladies but I doubt I’d ever go completely grey since it doesn’t run in my family. Not a fan of “salt and pepper” on women.

The problem with going from full-color to full-grey with no time in “Salt and Pepper Land” is that the people at church flock around you because they’re afraid that it was some terrible disease made your hair go grey so fast (which does happen sometimes). I think dislike of salt and pepper is why my mom never stopped dying her hair to full dark brunette, though.

Betty White is over 90, and she says “I color my hair now, and I always will. I’m never going grey.” Her choice, I figure! Still, on my mom and her sister it seemed a little funny…and yes, judging by the roots, they were all grey by the end.

 

[EasterJoy]

Well, this thread should probably be in the Back Fence forum…

I put it here because I was curious what the family had to say about hair color–what husbands had to say about their wives’ hair, what children thought about their parents hair coloring, and what parents had to say about their children’s choices.

Well, what do families say about it? My kids think the lowlights added to my hair are clearly an improvement, no question. They also think that teenage boys coloring their hair are nuts, even when it is a color found in nature. They think colors not found in nature are idiotic on anybody, but hey, it’s their hair. Gotta hand it to boys, they’ll tell you what they think!

 

[PatriceA]

The problem with going from full-color to full-grey with no time in “Salt and Pepper Land” is that the people at church flock around you because they’re afraid that it was some terrible disease made your hair go grey so fast (which does happen sometimes). I think dislike of salt and pepper is why my mom never stopped dying her hair to full dark brunette, though.

Betty White is over 90, and she says “I color my hair now, and I always will. I’m never going grey.” Her choice, I figure! Still, on my mom and her sister it seemed a little funny…and yes, judging by the roots, they were all grey by the end.

I think older women can get away with dying their hair a lighter color for much longer than someone that wants to stay a brunette until they are Betty White’s age. In fact, I would have said her color was actually in the “grey” area if you hadn’t told me she dyes it to look that color.

 

[Kamaduck]

I get highlights each summer. It looks kinda weird when it grows out, but I like it and am not about to spend significant time on my hair every few weeks.

I like unnatural hair colors if artisically combined with natural ones, but that’s against my school’s dress code. Girls do it anyway, though- a lot of times they only dye the underside of their hair, so that the color is less apparent at first glance.

 

[Unicornlover]

My only experience coloring my hair was with temporary kool-aid dye and that turned out really bad. It made my hair really sticky, and there was no noticeable color difference, and it made my head itch. And that was the end of my hair-coloring experience. I’m 17 and I really like my hair, so I don’t really have much of a desire to change my hair color right now anyways.

 

[HoosMommie]

My only experience coloring my hair was with temporary kool-aid dye and that turned out really bad. It made my hair really sticky, and there was no noticeable color difference, and it made my head itch. And that was the end of my hair-coloring experience. I’m 17 and I really like my hair, so I don’t really have much of a desire to change my hair color right now anyways.

You’re young enough that this color would look cute on you