Grey hair at the age of 18!

I was particularly interested in this article because I had my first grey hair when I was about 18 years old.

Dying my hair for fun

I have dyed my hair for a few decades now but the purpose has not been to cover the grey. I did it because I wanted a change in the way I looked. I’ve had red streaks, returned to my natural colour, had highlights and finally switched back to dark brown after feeling bogged down by having to get the highlights refreshed. I didn’t want to bleach my hair, so the choices of colour were limited.

Colouring my hair to hide the grey

After that, I was quite relaxed about the grey hair. I would make an appointment when I could see enough grey that it bothered me. Until then I was quite happy to ignore it.

I generally don’t and haven’t been prone to inspecting my hair to see where the grey is. I know some people look out for it, inspecting it from all angles. I’m grateful that I didn’t feel drawn to doing that.

The grey starts to appear sooner!

Over the last year or so I noticed that the gap between salon appointments began getting shorter! About six months ago, I considered stopping the dying altogether. It felt like too much of a faff. However, when they started showing enough for me to notice it and that was followed by a frown, I realised I wasn’t ready to embrace the grey and I’d book an appointment with the salon.

Admiring women with grey hair

Ironically, I found myself admiring women who had lots of greys and looked elegant, natural and quite gorgeous with it. I found myself thinking, ‘they don’t look conscious of their greys’, ‘their hair doesn’t look dry’, ‘they don’t look old because of it.’ I started noticing this and thinking it more frequently.

Discovering going grey with (grohm)(bray)

Writing this article resulted in me discovering grombre on Instagram. It’s a celebration of the natural phenomenon of grey hair. With their permission, here are some photos of women looking gorgeous with grey hair. Most of the photos, but not all, are featured on grombre.

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COVID: the choice was taken away

Then there was the lockdown and the choice had been removed as salons were closed. I took it as an opportunity to let the colour grow out, see how much grey there is and see if I can cultivate another area of minimalism by embracing what’s natural, rather than, hiding the grey. This would mean no more appointments to dye my hair, therefore less travel, a reduction in money spent and not feeling the need to wash my hair within a couple of days of it being coloured because my scalp had colour on it and it was uncomfortable.

The journey: going from a full head of dark brown to discovering what lies beneath

I’ve felt a range of things whilst growing it out.

• I felt shocked that there was so much
• I have been, and still am, excited about seeing how much there is
• I feel hopeful about embracing the real me
• I have felt worried that I won’t be able to handle the new look and would want to dye it again
• I’ve chuckled to myself about how people will react when they see me after weeks and weeks instead of seeing the change appear gradually

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Let’s see what happens!

Either way, I hope that this inspires others to sit back, observe and embrace what they see.

Related content

Roots manoeuvre: embracing grey hair
Going grey
Why I embraced grey hair in my thirties and have absolutely no regrets
These 50 Women Who Ditched Dyeing Their Hair Look So Good It May Convince You To Do The Same