gray hair tips

annbeck62
annbeck62 Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭✭
edited September 2020 in General Health

Been covering my gray professionally for years then came lockdown....

So I've decided to just go gray and see what happens. Does anyone make any gray hair care products? Would love some recipes? Also would love the names of some really good store bought all natural products. I have long, thick hair and am hoping to avoid the witch hair look. Added bonus if I can end up with the gorgeous gray hair that you see on some people :)

Comments

  • Gail H
    Gail H Posts: 359 ✭✭✭✭

    @annbeck62 I really like the shampoo bars from Chagrin Valley soap. When I used regular shampoo on my graying hair, I always had this sort of frizz of gray fluff above the rest of my hair. I went to baking soda in water with a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse after that. My hair behaved better, but after a year or so, I noticed it was getting kind of brassy.

    I actually think my hair looks pretty good now. I still follow up with the vinegar rinse, but I think the shampoo bars are really good for my hair. I also only wash my hair twice per week now; that seems to help a lot as well. I put a tiny bit of coconut oil on my hair while it's still wet.

    Welcome to the club! :o)

  • RustBeltCowgirl
    RustBeltCowgirl Posts: 1,403 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I'm planning to let my hair go gray. I fortunately inherited my paternal grandmother's gray. Those beautiful shimmering silver strands. My maternal grandmother had the more iron gray color.

  • HearthForYou
    HearthForYou Posts: 52 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2020

    I LOVE Morrocco Method Int'l Products. They are completely natural, vegan, paleo, sulfate free, and gray water friendly. Their Saphire and/or Diamond Mist product is helpful for gray hair. Check out their website: https://shop.morroccomethod.com Here's a quick video on uses of their mists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1tcxXXYIZo

  • fivelawrences
    fivelawrences Posts: 33 ✭✭✭

    I use a ACV "tea" rinse. I simmer 1/4 c dried chamomile and 1/4 c dried peppermint in 4 c water for 15 min. Strain out the herbs and let cool, then add 1 c ACV. My hair is thicker and healthier than it has ever been and it's so soft! I just wash my hair and then put the ACV tea rinse on it. Then rinse out with cool water. Just keep a small bottle in the shower and put the rest in the fridge.

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I am not so sure I should make this comment but through my mother I have very good genes. I started turning gray when Covid hit but I was 74 at the time. My hair is showing very little gray now. It is coming in pure white on the sides. My picture was taken last November and I cannot see any gray in there.

  • ltwickey
    ltwickey Posts: 369 ✭✭✭

    I too have decided to let the gray come in!! I am currently using a shampoo bar and rinsing with homemade ACV twice a week. I had to get used to the "residue" from the shampoo bar, but my hair is definitely less frizzy and much stronger. I have a skunk stripe of gray, so not sure how this regime will work with more gray....

  • Lisa K
    Lisa K Posts: 1,933 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I too am letting my go gray since I am to lazy to try to do it myself, I my temples were white by the time I was 45 and now I look like a reversed Cruella with mostly white in the front with a dark streak and gray in the back.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have been gray for several years. The only true gray is at my temples, the rest of my hair is striped with a lighter color. My aunt told me my hair is ash colored, a sort of blonde.

    We have to let our hair go natural before we decide what/if we want to shade or color it.

    I like my striped hair.

  • I used to look forward to getting gray hair lol. Some of the women I went to school with would rag on me because they were gray and I wasn't. This past year I started going gray; I just turned 59 this month. So far it is only by my temples with some odd ones sprinkled about. All my life my hair was straight as a board. It's getting curly now but that is probably due to the different texture of the gray hair. The color is very light but not quite white, kind of silvery under the lights or the sun. It reminds me of my mom's hair and hence of her.

  • bcabrobin
    bcabrobin Posts: 251 ✭✭✭

    My grays are also coming in curly. I call them "God's since of humor". I had board straight hair, now have few silvers sticking out as curls. Gives a untamed, wild look. Which my granddaughter told "me looks good on you Grandma O", she kinda likes that look.

    I have found that it's better if I don't wash about every 3rd day. I also work coconut oil with what ever herbs I felt like trying (think one that are good for your body), I make those up ahead of time, so they can fuse together. Leave on for a few hours, some websites tell you over night. I'm lucking to do the few hours. and I'm not sure how you keep from getting everything oily. I have do it for shorter period of time, with ok. Work it into the scalp and into the hair. I try to work it in 2-3 times, let sit for a while then again. Wash as normal but it will be greaser for a few days. Try to do it every month or so. It really calms the friz for me.

  • Sharie
    Sharie Posts: 276 ✭✭✭

    Bovine collagen has made some people's (3 vegans I know) hair turn dark and thicker again. Worth a try and great for the skin too!

  • happy-trails
    happy-trails Posts: 170 ✭✭✭

    I was growing and drinking Butterfly pea flower, as the literature says they reduce grays. Another item I'm curious about but haven't tried on hair is the natural henna dyes for hair. My hair is soft except for the scraggly, wiry grays that grow in and that's frustrating. I agree with taking collagen for hair health and vibrance, thickness, etc.

    Long, gray, white, or silver hair is SO beautiful! My grays have been coming in steadily for about 5 years! I don't mind it at all, except for the fact that my husband has ZERO grays and I just don't want to start looking like I'm his mother... I'm in my late twenties. Of course I want him to find me attractive still, too. He says he doesn't mind and that it's "exotic" and "hot." =) haha

  • sudborough
    sudborough Posts: 36 ✭✭✭

    I used to use a half henna half indigo mixture as a dye (left it in for a few hours then rinsed out) to cover my greys ... covered greys well & left my dark hair color just "highlighted" ...only drawback was the powerful earthy smell that lasted for a few days?

  • stephanie447
    stephanie447 Posts: 404 ✭✭✭

    I'm planning to just let my hair go gray...I really don't want to deal with the chemicals in hair dyes.

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 989 ✭✭✭✭

    I admit I've been a bit bummed. I'm 36 and I found a few silver strands in my hair in the last month. I think they are pretty but I'm not sure I'm ready haha. I guess we'll have to wait and see what if anything I'll do about it.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭

    I have always said "Gray is better than gone". Well maybe not always, but started saying that when I was in my 20's and have been saying it for over 40 years.

  • tomandcara
    tomandcara Posts: 712 ✭✭✭✭
  • annebeloncik
    annebeloncik Posts: 62 ✭✭✭

    I started having a couple of gray hairs at a time when I was about 13, and a patch that I was self-conscious enough to cover when I was about 20! I have a couple of 2nd cousins who were salt-and-pepper when they graduated high school, so it was just in my gene pool, I'm afraid...I wish I had been brave enough to let the gray be, but I was trying to be a classical/opera singer and was afraid it would make me look too old for my voice type. I missed 3 hair appointments for COVID, so my roots were about 2 inches long, and I took it as a gift! We took the next 2 appointments to do the color lifting highlight thing, so now it is ready to just let grow out on its own. (The only time in my life I have been blonde!) I SO wish I had just owned my gray 25 years ago...or had the face shape to cut it all off and start new, lol! Anyway, gray hair rules!

  • dipat2005
    dipat2005 Posts: 1,289 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @stephanie447 I do not believe in using hair dye and my hair will just go grey. I am sure I will enjoy whatever grey hair I get!

  • naomi.kohlmeier
    naomi.kohlmeier Posts: 380 ✭✭✭

    @karenjanicki I always called my strands silver as well. When I was your age I would pluck them out. Then I started dying my hair. I went back to gray when my youngest son was 2, and I was 44, but when he turned 5 I colored my hair again because I didn't want people to call me his grandma. About three and a half years ago, I'd had enough, grew my hair out so that a 2 inch stipe of gray was showing and cut off all the colored hair.. I have always had long hair. I 'bout froze to death. But, my hair grows fast, and I've grown it to my waist and cut it to my shoulders since. I've never regretted going gray. My hair is all sorts of gray with silver and white highlights. It's as soft as can be and I love it. The one thing I didn't realize when I colored my hair was how self conscience I would become once that gray stripe would show up in my part. Letting my hair go gray was so freeing. I've never looked back.

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 989 ✭✭✭✭

    I like that. I'm a natural kind of girl anyway. I never really messed with my hair before. It's been dyed maybe 5 times in my life and I've had a couple perms. Not much into makeup. It makes sense to let it take shape. I know in my head that it can happen even earlier. I guess I see myself much younger than I actually am, but it's a reminder I'm not haha. It's actually pretty. Maybe just being ok with it is the way to go. I admire women that rock it. Thanks for sharing that with me :).

  • nksunshine27
    nksunshine27 Posts: 343 ✭✭✭

    i just go natural. but ive read that roemarry covers grey up

  • Melissa Burford
    Melissa Burford Posts: 69 ✭✭✭

    @annbeck62 There's a book from Lorraine Massey called _Silver Hair: Say Goodbye to the Dye and Let Your Natural Light Shine: A Handbook_ (she's also the author of _Curly Girl:A Handbook_). There are some recipes in the back of the book for hair care. I was able to get a copy from my local library network. It goes over transitioning from dyeing to going natural and how to transition to natural color changes - everything from styling your hair and even changing what you wear to look your best.

  • Karin
    Karin Posts: 272 ✭✭✭

    So glad I found this thread! I decided to let my colour grow out over covid and let the grey come in, but I'm really in 2 minds! I'm about to turn 57, and really not sure if I want to look "old" or not yet lol. Also society is so anti-aging, so sometimes its hard to just let things be. I'm hoping that I get my maternal grandmother's soft silver hair - I just want it now, instead of salt-and-pepper.

    Thanks for the positive comments that have been made, maybe I will stay away from the hair dyes a bit longer........

  • brownjoelle
    brownjoelle Posts: 23 ✭✭✭

    I made the decision to grow out my natural grays 2 years ago. I had beautiful long dark brown hair, that I used henna on. The grays didn't get as dark as the browns did, so it looked like highlights. Unfortunately my health declined, and from being deficient in Vitamin D my hair started falling out. I decided to chop it off and start fresh. I tried different things to strip the henna, but it didn't work. Henna and other commercial products don't work well and will destroy your hair. Anyway, hair keeps growing though, and starting fresh was a good idea. I take supplements to keep it healthy and i have much more free time on my hands being gray. Fair warning... it can be frustrating to grow it out. It is worthwhile if you have patience.