I might have told you I started to go gray a while ago. It's definitely not an easy transition, especially when you're a woman. I can attest to that. There is so much pressure on ladies to hide their grays, and I succumbed to that in the past.
However, lately, I'm seeing so many beautiful ladies rock their grays that I decided to embrace mine! Let me prove a point by showing you women who are doing so with a passion. They're a true inspiration to us all.
"Today someone asked me:‘Does your hair just do that?’ ‘Um, yes, it does just do this.'"
Haha, that's a funny thing to ask? It's as if people forgot that hair could naturally turn gray. Am I right? Newsflash, it does.
“Say hello to my ‘Skunk Patch’. That’s what I call my gray patch of hair. My first handful of strands appeared when I was in high school and I would try my best to hide them. In college, more appeared and people would point them out, call me ‘old’, tell me I need to dye my hair, tell me that I’m too young to have gray hair, etc. I was so embarrassed!
Ha, ha, I love the confidence this lady has now.
“My mom didn’t dye her white hair and chose to go natural. As a teen I really wanted her to dye her hair. I didn’t want her to be different. I witnessed how some women treated my mom like she was old when oftentimes she was younger, stronger, fitter, smarter, and had been blessed with a beautiful complexion as well as a kind heart."
So happy to see this lady is now embracing her own grays.
“I vividly remember finding my first grey hair in the car on the way to school. My 14-year-old self was mortified so, of course, my gut reaction was to pull it out. ‘Oh, you shouldn’t pull them out, they’ll grow back tenfold’ (did anyone else get told that?!). There began the start of my life as a slave to hair dye (I’ve got the damage to prove it!). I was dying it religiously every 6 weeks, going through cycles of using box dye then regretting it and forking out at a salon."
"Until lockdown began. In April 2020 it dawned on me how many years I have left ahead of me in that constant cycle of dying my locks, just trying to delay the inevitable...! So here marks probably the midway point of my Grombre journey. It has been nearly 11 months since I last colored my hair, and I actually think my greys add a little bit of something special. Bring it on!!”
Right on!
“Around sixth grade, I started dyeing my hair just to fit in and to be accepted by my peers. Growing up, my self-esteem depleted because I'm not like any other kids who are ‘normal’. I got teased a lot when I was in grade school, calling me ‘lola’ (granny), ‘tanda’ (elderly), and some asked me if they can pull my gray hair to get rid of it so I can be like them, ‘normal’ for which I sadly obliged."
"My gray hair became more visible when I was in college. My roots have gone gray and since then, I'm getting a lot of questions and judgments about my hair. Like, ‘When did you start having gray/white hair?’, ‘Why don't you dye your hair black cause it's better’, ‘Oh Ella, the girl with ‘uban’ (gray hair), and I felt more insecure at that time. So, I dyed my hair every month just to ‘fit in’ and to gain more self-esteem."
"One year ago, I decided to stop dyeing my hair. I wanted to let my hair and scalp be free from all the chemicals and to let myself be free from all the insecurities and the stress that comes to it."
So happy to see that this young woman is in a better place now embracing her gray hair.
“I'm currently 24. I found my first gray when I was 11, but my mom recently told me SHE found my first gray hair when I was 8! I have been growing out my greys since February 2020. I'm destined to be a silver sister, so why fight it?"
Oh, my goodness. I love this.
“2020 was a tough year, and it didn’t go well with my mental health. That's why, I decided to eliminate things that worry me too much, and I realized that the attempts to hide my greys gave me a lot of anxiety. This includes: hating the process of dying hair, panicking over stained bathroom floor, and worrying if the hair dye will give me cancer... to name a few. But for years, I colored my hair anyway. I was scared of how others perceived me because grey hair means old, and old means ugly. So much time, energy, and money wasted on hiding my true color, and it's all done in the name of insecurity."
I can totally understand that.
"In December 2016, I was 42 with an 11-month-old and bemoaning my 'disrespectful' grey halo that I needed to henna/indigo. Two younger colleagues at work who always expressed their love of silver hair said to me, 'Why don’t you stop dyeing it and let it grow out?' My response was, I’m not ready yet, maybe when I’m 50. They responded (due to my length), 'If you start now, you’ll be done by the time you’re 50!'"
I totally agree with them on this.
"My mom found my first grey hair when I was 12 years old (I didn’t even know that was possible!!) She always warned me that I might go grey earlier than most, but I never imagined I’d be so young. As I got older, the grey patch at the very top of my head became harder and harder to cover. My lovely hairdresser convinced me to embrace it and I stopped covering my grey hair at 24. I’ve now been growing it out for 2 years, and get low lights a few times a year to help it blend more since I’m not completely grey. I am learning to embrace it more and more every day."
And you know what? That's the way to go.
“I stopped dying my hair in February 2019 and I’ve been waiting patiently until my hair has grown out long enough to truly show itself in a photo. I’ve always associated grey hair with negative terms — being old, being frumpy, giving up. I dyed my greys for years, trying to fight back time by appearing ‘younger’ and ‘better’ with darker hair. The thought that I could love myself, grey hair and all, or that I could embrace myself and my sexuality as a 51-year-old woman, with grey hair, seemed unattainable. Many people close to me, including my husband and some of my dearest friends, commended my continual dying and agreed that I looked ‘better’ with dark hair and that I should wait until I’m much older to ditch the dye. I almost followed their path."
"Until, and seriously, one of those friends directed me to this Instagram site. I instantly found support and courage through all the posts of women my age, women older than me, and those much younger, who’ve decided to let go of their need or desire to cover or change their aging appearance."
Aww, that's beautiful to hear, no?
“When I touch my hair, I always think about my mother. She and I have exactly the same hair. She was about my age when she passed away in my motherland, Japan. Growing up, I’d dislike my hair: thick, coarse, frizzy, and wavy. And then I started to have gray in my early 20s. Exactly the same as my mother did... I vividly remember my mom’s last haircut — it was done by me, my teenager self. She was too ill to go to a hairdresser."
"When I close my eyes while brushing my hair, I can always feel her hair. When I see my gray, I see her last days... When my young child touches my hair, I always hope that he would sense his never-seen grandmother through his delicate fingers. As I decided to ditch the dye, I was just so tired of this repetitive and seemingly endless process of touching ups. When I let go, I reconnected with my mother... It was so unexpected and miraculous."
I'm not going to lie, this touched my heart.
"I’m rebelling. I’m letting my hair be its natural colour, or color, whichever spelling you prefer! Why??? There are LOADS of it! I’m bored of going to get my colour (I’m used to this spelling now) done every 3 weeks, and I’d prefer to put the money on other things. I wasn’t sure I’d like it. Being faced with the grey brought typical thoughts of ‘I’m old, I haven’t accomplished what I thought I would, time is flying by, and that’s that then.' I’m not really sure what the THAT is, but whatever. BUT, I do love it. LOTS! It’s liberating!!"
Ha, ha, I love that!
“How did I do it? How did I become so okay with going gray? - these are the questions I've been regularly asked. Now, after I've reached one year of going gray, my transition seems so natural and so right, I own it, I don't notice people staring at me anymore (whether they stopped doing so or I stopped looking for their stares). But I still remember the beginning: vulnerable, caring too much about what others say, disliking my reflection in the mirror, feeling old and ugly."
"Oh, I would dye my hair immediately at those unconfident times! And I did! After 4 months of growing out!!! I dyed my hair, but the euphoria disappeared too fast — a couple of days after the dye when my white roots started glimpsing in the sun... That was when I realized there was no way back and re-started growing out."
Wow, nice!
“My gray journey started at age 21! I started coloring my hair and then at age 30, I developed an allergy to hair color. I HAD to embrace every bit of it, and it was rough at first. There were people telling me to color my hair, and I was growing tired of telling them that I couldn’t. I made the decision to ‘own’ my grays.”
And you can do it, too!
“I found my first grey when I was 18 and was devastated. For over 10 years I continued to spend lots of time and LOTS of money making sure to hide my roots every four weeks. It became exhausting. I came across the grey hair movement on Instagram and noticed so many young women my age embracing their beautiful silver hair. I wasn’t sure how mine would look since I never truly gave it a chance. Last year I decided to let it grow and I freakin' loved it."
Hee-hee!
“I had just turned 27-years-old. I had just moved into my own apartment. I found myself driving back to my mom's house to dye my hair — I didn't dare to stain my own beautiful, white, bathroom. I had spent the last year on a journey to accept myself. I had gone into therapy, traveled, solo backpacked through the Canadian backyard, heck — I even performed and hosted a stand-up comedy show. Yet, there I was — running back to dye my graying hair black."
"My maternal grandfather was fully grey at 25. My own mother and her sisters have been dyeing their hair since their early 20s. Everyone I knew with grey hair, masked it. I wanted to break the chain. I was BORN with grey hair - it's not even a symbol of age for me. I grew older, and my greys grew with me. I grew into me and I grew into my silver crown.”
How amazing is this story, right?
"I'm 24-years-old. I started to grey when I was around 10-years-old. Though I battled the insecurities of having grey hair at such a young age, I never dyed it. At 24, I love it and am curious about what it will be like down the line. I also had to learn to love my curly hair, and now I'm proud to have both."
Wow, that must've been hard, but this lady just proves that it doesn't matter when you go gray. It's all about feeling good about yourself.
“ONE YEAR ago I decided to #Grombre. Three questions I get asked the most: ‘Do you feel older?’ Nope! Still feel like 25 inside even though I’m 37. (Won’t lie though, the first few months of seeing myself in the mirror took some adjusting of my mental lens on age and beauty!)."
"‘I wish I could be as brave as you! How’d you finally decide to do it?’ (this question is asked the most) First of all, this decision has nothing to do with bravery. Bravery is an honorable word devoted to those deserving it, not for us growing out our gray hairs. I’ve been thinking about growing my hair out for YEARS but it wasn’t until last March I officially decided to."
I totally agree with this lady on everything she said here. I don't call this bravery. I call this having the balls to do it, hehe.
Not only is gray hair beautiful, but these ladies are totally in love with their looks. It might have taken them some time to come to terms with their silver strands, but now that they did, they feel much better about it. And looking at their lovely pictures gives me the confidence to do it, too. How about you?
