My hair was slow to start
graying. By my mid-40s I had a
dozen gray hairs. My hairdresser
was great at cutting hair, but wanted to be known as a great colorist. When I
was in my early 50s he talked me into
trying a new product called Castings that would just “brighten” my hair. By then I had several hundred gray
hairs. I ended up with orange
hair! In a few weeks the orange
was gone and it was blonde. I let
it grow out.

Everything
was fine for a while. I moved and
in my mid-50s decided it was time to color the gray—a few hundred of them at
most. I had a new hairdresser. One day years later I brought a photo
to show her from my 40s and she about fainted. Although she was using the same color the gray formula, my
hair had turned quite blonde on the top layers, so we went to lowlighting. According to her my hair was still less
than 20% gray.

She
quit, and now I have a new hairdresser who has done a pretty good job and has
been using the same formula. I don’t
like my hair this color. Over the
years I have earned some rosacea and my skin is more pink-looking.

Last
month I talked to her about gradually going gray. She says her clients usually do it by gradually adding
blonder highlights and letting it grow out over a year or two. I have trepidations. Most of the gray is at the crown and
temples and beneath it is dark. I
am not going to turn into a silver-tressed Helen Mirren. I will probably be two-tone but who knows?

I wonder about how I will feel about myself. I guess if I don’t think it suits me I
can start with the real hair dye, but I hate to do that. I’m ready to go natural. My hair is very straight and fine. It is getting drier. I assume I’m going to be changing the colors I wear.

Some photos from the past:

#1 Mid 30s: My
sister and I and her twins. (One
is now an MD and one a Ph.D. Boy
and girl.)

#2 40s

#3 Late 40s

#4 50s

#5 Late 50s.
Now with cover the gray.

#6 mid-60s. You
can see I tried some highlighting until I realized my hair was coming out that
way anyway.

#7. Last year.
You’ve seen this one before. I
will say that my hair does photograph much blonder than it looks in real life.

Need advice: Is
highlighting the right thing to do?

For those who have gone natural, did it change how you feel
and dress?