How old were you when you started getting gray hair?...

[Jenny in Atl]

About 40. It's only been this last year that I have noticed a bunch more. I wish they would all come at once in a cool way... not spread out and standing straight up! :001_huh:

[Lisa at Home]

Dd pulls them out regularly.

 

I used to find them on ds as he slept in my lap during church. Now that he's 8, I rarely look, but I'm sure they're there.

 

Dh was going gray when I met him at age 17. Like Ree recently posted of Marlboro Man, it's one of the things I found attractive. :blush:

 

~Lisa

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

I started getting it last year....at 44 years of age.....geeze. LOL

 

Tammy

 

Seventeen. I am 42 now and significantly grey.

[Mrs Mungo]

I got my first gray (actually, white, not gray) hair the first time my hubby was deployed. I was 30. I'm now 35 and have quite a few peppered in there. My hair is curly so they are hard to see but they are there.

[runningirl71]

I think around 30 y/o as well. I really can't remember now that I am 36! I just remember feeling way too young to have grey hair! Actually, I think mine is white. I am one of these "natural" girls and won't color it, so I call them my natural highlights! :) If I wear my hair down, you can't really tell, but if I wear it up (which I do mostly) you can definitely tell!

[Harriet Vane]

I first noticed a streak of gray hair when I was in fifth grade (age 10). It wasn't very noticeable because it was not on the top (it was under other hair).

 

By college, that streak was quite noticeable, and folks thought I dyed it that way purposely. It was in the front of my head. When I french-braided my hair (pulling the streaked hair back into the braid) it looked really cool.

 

Everyone expected me to dye my hair for my wedding, but dh wouldn't hear of it. He loves me just the way I am and said he woulnd't know who on earth he was marrying if the streak was gone.

 

Pregnancy rapidly accelerated the transition from dark hair to white. After dd was born I was heavily salt-and-pepper. My pregnancy with ds pushed my hair color all the way over to white.

 

I actually prefer the white hair to my former dark brown and have been complimented by many on the color.

 

I have never dyed my hair, though these days I use a shampoo that helps silver it up a bit.

[Lisa in Jax]

I started getting gray hair about ten years ago, so 32(ish)?

 

I *LOVE* my gray hair. It turned my dark ash blonde hair lighter and gave me natural highlights. ;-)

 

Lisa

[Lolly]

He is taking it in stride. Dh started graying in his teens as did his mother. Ds seems to have won the family youngest gray award though. He just grins and tells people that he has the gray hair gene, and that means he won't go bald! (Those in dh's family with extremely early gray keep their hair.) I told him if it ever bothers him we can have it colored like mine.

[LaMere Academy]

About 30.

[nakitty]

I'm 33 and none yet....however, I haven't even seen my natural hair color in close to 20 years...so who knows???? LOL

[Mesa]

My first gray, I was 22 yrs old.... I'm 29 now and I dye my hair regularly! I do have a few gray's in my eyebrows now too..... it really sucks.

[Staci in MO]

Ever since then I've always been able to find a few.

 

I'm thirty-six, now, and they're really ramping up. It's starting to become noticeable at my bangs and temples.

[FlockOfSillies]

I was pregnant with my oldest (:svengo:). I blame her, LOL.

[Plaid Dad]

I was in my early 20s. One side of my family goes gray very early; one aunt was almost completely gray by the time she turned 21. I keep my head shaved, though, so only my beard is "distinguished." ;)

[gardenschooler]

Late twenties, although I did have a few strays in my mid-twenties.

[BamaTanya]

but they didn't start bothering me until last year (when I was 41).

 

I don't know why exactly. It was gradual. But one day I looked in the mirror and thought, "That doesn't look like me."

 

Maybe it was when I had the last baby and the guy peeking into the nursery window beside me asked if my "grandbaby" was in there. (I was wearing a robe and slippers in a hospital at 2 in the morning, for crying out loud!)

 

Maybe it was when my dc asked me what color my hair used to be. (They were trying to figure out where their hair colors came from.)

 

Maybe it was when I went on job interviews and the people interviewing me were OLDER but looked YOUNGER than I.

 

Maybe it was looking at family videos and thinking, "Who is that old lady with the big behind?" Ouch.

 

Oh, well. Now it's light brown again. :001_tt2:

[Kate CA]

I started getting it last year....at 44 years of age.....geeze. LOL

 

Tammy

 

That's pretty late, Tammy! LOL I started mine at 36 and many of my friends in their early thirties. :)

[Julie in CA]

...I'm just noticing them here and there. What's a bummer is that I don't really mind the color, just how "contrary" they are! They stick out every which way, and they are dramatically coarser than the rest of my hair. :eek:

[scubamama]

Man! Some of you girls are late bloomers - I had my first gray at 16. It runs in the family, unfortunately. Now I'm 32 and it's really taken over...so much that folks point it out to me like they're doing me a favor - or maybe theyr're getting kickbacks from Miss Clairol? :glare:

[Guest Virginia Dawn]

The first couple at 40. I'm 43 now and they are increasing in frequency.

[angela in ohio]

My first few were at age 18. By my mid-20's, I was 25% gray. Now, I'm 34, and I would be almost totally gray if I didn't color my hair.

[cricket1178]

I'm not sure. I've colored my hair since I was 14, but I think I was around 40 when I saw my first gray hair. My eyebrows have had gray in them that long. I'm 45.

[nmoira]

Between 30 and 35.

[Christi/NC]

But now, at 39, I'm nearly all white. I'm naturally white but lovingly Clairol's Nutmeg Brown. My father was white by 40. Sigh---gotta love genetics (and Clairol!)

 

Christi

[Doran]

I'm 44 and would look very distinguished as a man! I have a lot of white/grey hair at my temples. (I don't think it's fair that it looks good on a man but tends to make a woman look washed out!)

 

 

If graying temples makes woman look washed out, then I must look positively drowned!

 

I was 28 when my gray hairs were becoming noticable (maybe just to me). At around 30, I decided I wanted to use natural henna. I have very thick, very curly hair, so henna was kind of like spreading peanut butter and mown hay into my hair. Not a pretty sight, but I continued to use it for many years until switching to permanent vegatable based dye. Used that until 18 months ago at which time I decided I was sick of having to color my hair and pretend it was not actually gray. The longest ends are still a blondish red, but the rest of me is silver/gray with some of my original dark red/brown underneath. People tell me they like it. I've come to terms with it. If I was 44 and only just starting to go gray, I would NEVER start coloring. Never.

 

Why are men thought to be distinguished and woman washed out?! It's nuts, completely nuts!! (But, I'm not mad at you, Jean...;))

[sweetbaby]

I did not like grey hairs and spam.

I do not like them, Sam I Am!

No, I will not look at them on a plane.

I will not look at them on a train.

I will not look at them, you see.

I will not look at them. You let me be!:D

[Jean in Newcastle]

If graying temples makes woman look washed out, then I must look positively drowned!

 

Why are men thought to be distinguished and woman washed out?! It's nuts, completely nuts!! (But, I'm not mad at you, Jean...;))

 

LOL! BTW I like your picture in your profile. You look very distinguished!

 

I don't color my hair. My scalp is very sensitive and I break out with most shampoos. So I am not brave enough to try to color it!

[Jenny in Florida]

I actually thought it was funny at first.

 

It's not so amusing now.

[KIN]

but a month or so ago I decided I was going to just let it go. Then I saw a friend from school at a ball game, and she was gray. My dh said she looked 10 years older than me and we were in the same grade- so I'm gonna keep coloring for now! I'm 34 and don't want to look older than I am. :)

[Reesegirl]

Why is it that men look so distingished when they start to gray and women don't? My hair started to gray about 44 but i just pulled them out. I am coloring now to cover them. Reese

[Jennifer in SC]

I was 19/20 when I first noticed a few. Now, at 32, I have a TON of gray. Apparently, one of my great grandmothers was totally gray by the time she was 40. I have no doubt I'm headed in that direction. I die it now because it's so random, but I think if it were all over I would just let it be natural.

[mcconnellboys]

Yeah, I'd say it was about that time that I started getting enough of 'em to notice....

[LynnG in Arizona]

I'm 39 and starting to notice quite a few, just in the past year or two. :glare:

 

I have a baby less than a year old and really do not want to be taken as his grandmother. ;)

 

I'm realizing that it's time to start coloring.

 

For those of you who have BTDT, what do you recommend? I've never colored my own hair before. I sometimes get professional highlights done, but don't really have the time for that anymore with 2 small babies at home.

 

I'm willing to spend a little bit more for a really nice product. What do you recommend?

 

Oh, and my hair is light brown with a few natural dark blonde highlights.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Lynn

[mcconnellboys]

I know nothing about this, really, but have been using Loreal's Preference Creme.

[sabrina]

I was 27 when I got my first grey hair. I was teaching school at the time and one of my lovely 8th grade students pointed it out to me. I really think that he gave me that grey hair now that I think about it. Just don't pluck them - they will multiply - I learned that the hard way. Or it could be that I have two of my own children now and on is very strong willed!

[Jennifer on Earth]

I was 24 when I started to get comments! There weren't that many gray hairs, but still, some people noticed. It was around the age of 25 when I started coloring my hair (I'm 38 now).

 

BTW, I remember seeing something on the news one time that said the same gene for premature graying was linked somehow to the gene for osteoporosis. Apparently women of European descent with small (or fine) bone structure are lumped in with this too. I qualify for all of this - which means I better start taking some calcium!

[missplacedalaskan]

I think I was 33 when I first found a gray...it was a LONG hair so it had been there a while!

I have tried coloring with the temp color a few times, but I am too afraid that I'd be too lazy/cheap to keep up the permanent color. So far I notice the grays, but no one else has said anything. I pray it stays that way!

[Bells]

My first ones came in around 43, 44, I'd say. I'm nearly 50 now and have a handful - enough to notice at point blank range, but not enough to add interest to this dark dishwater mop 'o mine.

 

Bells

[Guest Amy in MS]

Sigh,

I'm 32 and seeing plenty of white/grey around my temples. Whined to my mother about this, and she informed me that all of my paternal great-aunts were snowy-white in their 40s! (I'm NOT going gracefully! I will invest in hair products! Much against what I once insisted. sigh)

Amy