I found my first gray hair several years ago, years after most of my friends found theirs and began spending hours and mucho dollars in the salon getting colored or the drugstore shopping for the perfect DIY hair color. I had a few years’ respite from that process but now you can find me in the salon, touching up my grays every few weeks. I’m not complaining. Well, maybe I am. But I never considering allowing my grays to come in naturally. I admire women who do but going gray is not for me. My grays are, frankly, not that attractive. They are a completely different texture than my non-gray hair. They stick up in all directions, corkscrew when the rest of my hair is just slightly wavy and they are as dull as the proverbial dishwater. Not pretty at all.
Believe me, as much as I adore my colorist, I have tons of better things to do than go to the salon for color every five or so weeks. Or sit naked in my house, freezing in just a towel for 25 minutes as the DIY hair color goes to work. (And this is to say nothing of protecting my newly-redone bathroom from hair color drips and drops.)
When I first started EverBeautiful.com in 2010, I wrote about a pill that was in development that was supposed to prevent or recolor grays. I don’t know that I’d take it – but I was sure hoping it would be safely available by now. No such luck.
So yeah, I hate my grays. But maybe knowing a bit more about them will help me to reconsider.
GRAY HAIR FACTS AND MYTHS
To pluck or not to pluck. When many women notice their first gray hair their first reaction is to reach for the tweezer and pluck that sucker out. Not a good move – but not for the reason you may think. Tweezing a gray hair will not result in more grays from the same follicle. Hair doesn’t grow that way, so you won’t create more grays by plucking out one or a few. You may, however, damage the hair follicle, preventing a hair from growing in at all which is a horrible alternative, in my opinion.
The “50/50/50 Rule of Thumb” isn’t valid. Despite the common belief that 50 percent of the population will be at least 50 percent gray by age 50, research conducted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes, which studied 4,192 healthy male and female volunteers worldwide, found that between 45 and 65 years of age, 74 percent of people had some gray hair with men showing significantly more gray than women. The study further determined that age at onset and the rate of graying were “clearly linked” to ethnic and geographical origin with Asians and Africans showing less gray than Caucasians. In their final analysis,they found that at age 50, six to 23 percent of the worldwide population is 50 percent gray, debunking the 50/50/50 rule.
No Butts About It. Need another reason to kick the cigarette habit? How about the fact that a recent study of 207 subjects found that smoking causes premature hair graying (PHG)? Yup. The study, published in Indian Dermatology Online Journal, indicates that smokers are 2 1/2 times more likely to develop PHG than non-smokers.
Gray Hair IS Different. According to WebMD.com, gray hair occurs when hydrogen peroxide builds up in the hair follicle, causing the hair to bleach from the inside out. Says dermatologist Debra Jaliman, spokesperson for the American Academy of Dermatology, gray hair is coarser than hair that hasn’t grayed. Sigh. But not for me. In my case, my grays, while straggly, are soft and cottony. Perhaps if my grays came in coarse and fuller, rather than fine and flyaway, I’d let my hair go gray. But hair color adds not only pigment but weight, volume and shine to my hair.
So, no, for now, at least, I’m not going gray. But that doesn’t mean I have to spend hours in the colorist’s chair either. There are dozens of products on the market that help you touch up grays between coloring. Some are better than others. I know. I’ve got a closet full of them. (The bad ones impart a dull, black color – in the case of dark hair; rub off on pillow cases and clothing and drip down your face if you get caught in the rain. See? Bad, bad, bad.) One to try? EverPro Beauty’s Gray Away Temporary Root Concealer. I recently received a complimentary sample of Gray Away in Black/Dark Brown, applied it yesterday and it’s still holding up today. Gray Away is free of dyes and gets the job done with mineral-derived pigments, making it safe for pregnant women. A pinpoint applicator ensures precise placement of the product which dried quickly and didn’t rub off on my hands or clothing. I did apply it rather generously, which was completely unnecessary because it caused the product to drip slightly. Therefore I recommend judicious application. My hair is dark brown with a healthy dose of red in it and the black/dark brown color, with “self-adjusting color technology, blended in nicely. Gray Away is also available in a Light Brown formulation. Get Gray Away at CVS, Walgreens, WalMart, Rite Aid, Bed Bath & Beyond or you can get it online here for $12.99 and Free Shipping.
To gray or not to gray, that is the question. Either way you choose to go, love your look and rock it, babe!
And don’t forget to enter EverBeautiful.com’s Giveaway for a chance to win either an IlluMask Anti-Aging or Anti-Acne mask. It’s a great Giveaway. Click here for the info on how to enter.
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Well I seem to do all body things early – first cycle at 9, menopause at 39 and gray- well they started before I was 18!! My maternal grandfather was white before he was 17!
I have been coloring since I was a senior in high school, and other than when I was pregnant {in the 80’s it was taboo to color while pregnant my Doc told me} I have always have colored hair {not just for the gray either- LOL}
Like you mine go in funky directions and mostly frame my face- but at least not a skunk stripe thank goodness!
You, Ms. Debra, have an excellent colorist and fabulous hair! You always look beautiful. Your body does everything early – Mine does everything late! My dad, whose hair was so black it shone blue, still had black hair, albeit not that much of it, when he died. I didn’t inherit his gorgeous hair color – but I got the “late-to-gray” gene. (Thinking of you, babe.) xoxoxo
Great info as always! Worse than the gray is the mousy dishwater blonde that my once vibrant blonde has become, so color I must!!