To dye or not to dye?

I'm 69 and I wish my hair would go silver. At the moment it's a mix of brown and grey and though other people say it's nice, I'd far rather have it all silver. But I don't want to go down the road of expensive hairdresser appointments, or start bleaching it at home - with my luck, it'd probably come out in pink and green stripes.

So if you've got silver hair, be glad of it - I think it can look so elegant.

I stopped dying my hair when it was nearly all hacked off for brain surgery and that was when I realised it was white! The dye used to make it itch anyway. I got some pink powder with a sponge which is purely temporary to use just for fun!

Mary does have a new mac to replace the red one in Pompeii and some unusual shoes I wished they show in closeup! I think I heard her considering pink streaks.
Author Anne McCaffery once turned up to give a talk at a Sci Fi meeting with the front of her snowy hair pink, purple and blue. She said: 'The hair - I'm over 60 but didn't want to look like every other old lady on the plane!'

I thought the radio 4 programme was excellent and I quite expected to be shouting at the radio after seeing Mary on Newsnight the other night. I hate the implication that I should let my grey show purely because I'm 64 now and that I colour it because I'm a silly female who won't admit to getting old.

Anyone who knows me knows I am the very last person to give in to any advertising pressure, my makeup regime consists of a face cloth and soap with a bit of foundation if I'm going out of the house, a manicure is getting the gardening dirt out from under my fingernails and I haven't owned a skirt or a dress for about 10 years!

The programme actually vindicated my choice of hair colour, saying that, if you are going to dye, the best colour is a very light blonde. I've always found that works better with my sallow skin that my natural grey.

On a slightly different note, am I the only one who hated turning 64 more than 60? I think it must be the damn Beatles song.

Totally agree with Alea about Mary could look much better with a decent cut. I don't think her hair colour ages her as much as the length. It just looks untidy to me.

I( probably shouldn't say this but Mary Beard l;ooks SO much older than 61!

Thoroughly enjoyed Mary Beard! As you may know I am a total convert since I achieved my present silver hair. Last night somebody complimented me on my hair "colour" and said it brought out the blue of my eyes [smirk] emoji
Mind you, Mary could do with a cut, a sleek bob would look fantastic.

Or being mistaken for a young woman until I turn round!

Super programme on BBC- "Glad to be Grey" just been on. My hair went from nearly black to white and it's long. I don't have a problem with the colour but the length as I hate short hair on myself but feel self concious about wearing my hair down. And being mistaken for a witch!!

The announcer has just implied he's a silver fox, smooth voice too ...
The title is 'Glad to be Grey'!

Programme about the grey hair/coloured hair dilemma on Radio4, started at 11am. Interesting, presented by, surprisingly, classicist Mary Beard, she of the flowing grey locks!!Enjoyed her tv programme about Pompeii last evening too.

Growing mine out at the moment. Had it in a bob for years but now it's sort of Bob shape at the front but cut short at the back. Still have lots of dark hair at the back but a mixture of the blond dye l had and grey so it looks sort of streaked !! My hairdresser puts foils in the top but does less each time. She says when it's grown through l could have dark ones put in the front. Unless l give up and go back blond !

Oh and I do colour my hair, every six weeks good cut and colour, stylist young and very helpful with suggestions of colours for highlights. I think that the cut is possibly more important than the colour in many cases, nothing more ageing than straggly hair, irrespective of its colour.

Hello Ethel how are you getting on with the treatment? Well I hope. I think the problem with the clothing you so accurately describe is that some women dress the same for decades and dont move on. I know it is tricky changing styles, and I also assume that nobody wants to look silly in teenage clothes, but surely a look around, a look at some magazines, just stopping and considering before buying and wearing the same old stuff. I find it tricky buying clothes myself, but as a guide if I find someone of the 'blue rinse'brigade(beige elasticated waist) browsing the same rails as me, then I move away.

I see many older ladies with the same old grey perm, I wonder at what age do we get the desire to have the perm. Its the same with beige blouson jackets and beige trousers, elasticated and tapered to the ankle. As my daughter would say 'like your budgie has died'.
also as the fine weather comes back so many women wear a blazer type jacket with a summer flowered skirt it is so ageing. What on earth hap pens to our self esteem and when does this happen. I wonder. I cant see me wearing these sort of clothes, but neither will I dress like a teenager, I will just dress like I do now.

I think I will leave my hair the colour it is, and be proud of it. A new hairstyle, and a new hairdresser I think. Anyway, onwards :- I am campaigning, along with others, because a local farmer has "gifted" a piece of land to the Villagers. It is in a very sensitive spot, in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Please sign and support our petition. It is important to stop building on this green field land and keep it for future generations. Many thanks, #new lease of life
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-31452633

I know! So many women keep the hairstyle they had when they were young, which suited them then, but their faces have changed. MiL was given an amazing haircut when living in Brussels, she then came back to her local hairdresser who carried on cropping her hair and giving her the hairstyle she had as a young swimming instructor. It makes her look like an aging bulldog. Yet when I suggested that she just ask for the hair on top to be left a bit longer she gets cross. Just an inch longer on top with a bit of a tousle made such a difference. It took years off her.

Take note our, own dear Queen. Every time I see ER I could scream. I suspect she couldn't care less and people are frightened to tell her that there is not left in the land with that hairstyle.

Isn't it funny, what some people like and others, don't. I quite like to see the 'mink' colour. My hair is layered, long and curly although I straighten the top of my head, and I don't have much grey yet. Last week an elderly lady approached me and a friend and said how much she envied our lovely thick shiny hair. I looked at her, and thought - if only she stopped setting her hair in rollers! If she had a feathery or spiky cut it would take years off her, especially with a bit of a fringe. But she had rollered it up from her forehead, which is very aging. Even in the forties, it made all the women look 40!

Well, it's not gold.
So silver is preferable

What colour is 'mink'? Is it....beige ??

Saw Julie Walters on the Graham Norton show on Friday night.

No-one could call her an 'old lady' but she has let her hair go silver - it looked great.

PPP could you describe an 'old lady feathery cut.
I'd be interested..... Just to consider if that is what I've got

I used to have it always short and spiky and tousled. Then decided to let the sides grow in a bit more, it's a little longer but still razor cut and tousled.

I'm also a blonde with various shades of blonder meshes. Colour it myself and hairdresser adds the meshes. Yikes!!! Am I also a mink blonde. ??

Aaaaggghhhh.... am I a mink blonde with an old lady feathery cut.

Thank you for all your lovely comments, and taking the time to write. Very interesting. I have enjoyed reading them all. Think a new haircut and having a makeup session will revitalise me. ;o ......Oh! and I now have a new campaign! lol!

Good advice dartmoor.
Serenity makes up for a lot
Welcome if you are new.

Oh, how we all agonise over this! I do understand, because like my grandmother before me, I was going grey in my 20s, and had highlights added to try to hide it. By the time I was 35 I was almost entirely grey, and the technology did not exist then to dye my hair.

I was sad for my daughter, who was asked whether 'Granny' was picking her up from school. Now, the genes are doing the same to her.

I couldn't afford my lowlights, which darkened my white hair with grey, after the end of last year, so I let them grow out. I had my already short hair 'roughed up' in a very short and spikey cut, which is brilliant for washing and 'styling' and sends out a very modern message. I feel I have grown into my sparkly white hair now.

I think perhaps the most ageing thing of all is the worried look we get from being bothered about it! Lots of good friendly advice here, but it is really all down to what is going on in our own heads. Accept whatever you feel is right for you, Leah11, and you will smile and look great. Good luck with it.