Thanks, ladies!

Well, I took this outfit out for a walk today after my brief errands. It was warm and humid but windy near the water downtown. Wrap skirts + wind are often a disastrous combination, but this one isn’t too bad. I only held it down one time. I got a bit warm towards the end of the walk (uphill), but not overly so, considering I have this wrapped snugly at my waist. I’d say it’s pretty breathable for something of this type.

Heh, the wind + humidity made my hair definitely expand. And my bangs currently do this little flippy thing at the side, which some people might like but I always hate (a holdover from my youth). LOL

Love the skirt on you!i may have to try one. It looks good.

That skirt is a great summer look. Like you just stepped out of a resort. In the additional colours that you posted, I really like print no 3 for you. (And for me too but, wrong season!)

The skirt is fabulous on you. I’m sorry your other choice is sold out in your size. You are wise to look for some black and/or white in the print. Then it will not be an orphaned skirt. How does the sizing run?

This is a great outfit. I love your ring. Your hair is so not that grey. Mine is extreeemely grey - I am also 54. When I tried to grow it out I realised the pale hair against my pale skin made me look at least ten years older, so going on with the brown hair dye.

I have to look into ripskirts now!

Re grey hair: Ok. I remember thinking my 35-year-old boss was 55 when I was 25. Hahaha! He didn’t have grey hair. He was just kinda stodgy...

I’m with Brooklyn, I love this look for you and skirt #3 is gorgeous. Janet, you are naturally beautiful and have amazing style. Whatever you do with your hair will be lovely. I really liked the blue streak you had, so if you were to let the grey grow in, adopting coloured ends (I am thinking like Alaska Girl’s colour) would be lovely.

Your brunette is divine, so no need to change if you don’t want to. I cannot see me changing my blonde hair as the greys multiply. My greys just mean I can be a platinum blonde rather than the honey shades I wore when younger. My hair is a significant part of how I see myself, so I am . not ready to part with the blonde just yet.

I loved the pic of your hair once it was dry, I could more easily see some of the silvery streaks and they look amazing. The rip skirt looks great. IKWYM about walking in the wind with a wrap or rip style skirt! I also find myself tugging at them when I sit in chairs at work which is why I always wear my wraps over trousers of some sort.

I forgot to add that the little grey you have looks pretty and interesting.

Great look, Janet! I’m also tempted by that skirt. (I struggle with wearing tropical prints when not on tropical vacations, so I’d choose the same one.)

Fab look! I agree with RunCarla, grey hair would really highlight you eyes!

Love the outfit. But I want to chime in about your hair. I agree with the others on the silver hair. That hair color makes your eyes pop! Think about letting it go to all silver. It is going to look smashing. If you find you really don’t like it- you can go back to coloring it. Just my humble opinion...

You look gorgeous! Don't go grey if you are not ready - you would look great either way. But I do think grey hair is actually more youthful looking on some people than dyed hair these days.

You are such a rock star and I love it!

This one says it's "charcoal" but in some photos looks lighter than what I would think of as charcoal. Maybe worth a look?

Fab hair and very flattering skirt. Love.

Great outfit Janet! I think your hair looks great too - I love natural colored hair.

Thank you for the support and lovely comments, ladies!

Nemosmom, I like that one but since I already got the black and white print, this one is a little too close to it. If I were to get another, it should have some color in it, not another neutral.

Joy, I find the skirt very TTS. A M fits me perfectly.

Hey, I appreciate all the thoughts about the grey hair too. I don’t know what I will end up doing with it. For now just letting it go and seeing where I end up. I alternate between not giving a (bleep) and being discouraged by all of the signs of aging I see in myself. It’s silly, I know. Pure vanity.

Hi Janet —

Great outfit on you! Thanks for the in-motion report re wind and flashing risk, too.

You know what I’m gonna say about your hair. And agree it’s really interesting how the lighter strands enhance your eye color and skintone.

I think you’re going to be a heavier pepper, lighter salt blend for a while vs reading as silver. Even if I’m wrong about the ratio, I would see if you can continue growing it out longer and evaluate.

Maybe it’s a brunette thing, but — for those of us who are SO USED to being dark up top I think there’s a bit of a window.

Like either one eases into a dark/light mix, or one keeps coloring until stopping later on and has to wake up every day and re-acclimate to being “blonde-adjacent,” or one dyes forever.

IDK, maybe it’s just me since my hair coloring was always about covering the grey vs fun / different shades — I’ve always self-identified *as* a brunette haha. Even though it’s been 5 years of grow out to S&P I still get a shock.

But it’s an angle I don’t hear discussed much. The focus seems to be on how the longer you wait the more extreme the grow-out process (true) or the aging piece vs the shift to light after decades of dark!

Light and breezy, the perfect summer look. Well styled!

Vix, it’s so nice to see you and thanks for chiming in! I know exactly what you mean about that window you mention, and the either-or choice. This may be a test for me of that choice. My sister stopped dyeing a couple of years ago, at age 62ish, and looking at her and at my mother (who still had lots of dark hair at 80 — the photo below was taken only a couple of months before she passed away), I will never be silver — I’ll be salt and pepper for the rest of my life. I feel like it would be a whole different challenge to go silver/white — a more dramatic change, but also a more dramatic look! I suppose I fear I will look sort of “neither here nor there” in salt and pepper, as I relate very strongly to the same thing you mention — having notably thick dark hair has been part of my identity for my whole life. It will be an adjustment for sure!

What a beautiful picture, Janet! Both of you are stunning! You can’t go wrong whatever you decide to do about your hair. Wow!

I've been going grey since I was 16 years old, so I feel you! Right now though, I find that having a few grey strands around my temples actually adds a little definition to my hair (since mine is pitch black, it can look a little 'flat' without the grey streaks) - I like to think of them as nature's highlights So I don't usually dye my hair to cover the greys but, when I have it up (i.e. so you can see more of the greys), I find that making it look 'purposeful' can help. For example, rather than scraping everything into a simple ponytail, I try to encourage a little more of a wave or curls (so the greys really do catch the light like highlights) - you might have seen from my more recent posts that I've taken to piling my curls on my head, to help exaggerate this effect. Or I pull a few strands in front of my face, to help 'soften' things up.

This 'done up' balance can sometimes be difficult to achieve because, like you, I'm generally more of a 'natural' person (e.g. I usually wear my hair long with minimal to no makeup most days). So I actually found that it was easiest to pull off when my hair was shorter - because it looked like more of a 'purposeful' cut (instead of just 'letting' my hair grow long), I found that I could get away with less makeup when my greys were showing. Whereas when my hair is long (like now) it can look a little sloppy & ironically *more* ageing on me. Go figure

Hi again Janet —

Such a great shot of you and your mom! She sure kept her “pepper” and fabulous smile!

I hear you on more / all silver being dramatic. TBH after years of hearing my colorist characterizing my grey as “too much to stop so young”* and lots of psyching myself up with visuals of stylish silver YLFers etc I was rather...unimpressed with the results, ha. Luckily I have the streak I fought to hide about from my 20s on.

I will say S&P would give you option for cuts and day-to-day style shifts that play up your unique patterning — and because you’re a wavy, length can shift things too (in my case, longer = more “entwining” / color swirling).

Since there are many many role models here on YLF I know you don’t need reassurance that stopping will impact your stylishness — and if you decide to push out your testing phase you know members will provide moral support!

FWIW, I wasn’t really ready to show my grey — I was just intensely ready to stop coloring. Alas, it failed to add gravitas and make me more presidential.

* once I was determined to stop coloring my stylist was lovely and helped me with the initial months of transition

Pss current shot from my personal style challenge plus a “keeping it real” post-rain shot featuring my former side bang that’s itching for a chop!

I think you look fabulous. The ripskirt seems like just the thing for summer. I need to look into it.
Your hair always looks so beautiful no matter what you do. I think Lisa is right. As a blonde, my eyes disappear without makeup.

I totally understand the dark vs. light identity. Although I dyed my hair from my late 20s it was always in an attempt to get back to my original very dark color. But one look at Vix above reminds me that stripey hair is beautiful too.

Weather has been crazy the high 90s for the past few days. You look cool and comfy. Live skirts that provide air circulation

I’m 46 and the grey had breed popping lately more and more

I hear you @Janet. I always identified as a warm Autumn, and I didn't think grey hair would work with that. Also, I hadn't seen many photos of women with darker skintones and curly hair like mine going grey. But I loved the way Fabbers like una, @Shevia and @Vix looked - and I was just sick of colouring:

https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....the-plunge

Although I am really salt and pepper, and the rest of my hair is mostly dark, the grey part in the front, like Vix's makes it seem more grey than it is.

I did my funky haircut in part to edgify the grey and make it look purposeful and younger, which I think worked. It's such an intensely personal decision - but know that I wasn't ready for it either, it just sort of grew on me (lol.)

Roxanna