Of course, we associate grey hair with aging – something we try to avoid at all costs – so our first instinct is to hide it. But more women are realizing that aging is a privilege and not something they need to spend money to try and deny.
That’s part of the reason we love “Grombre” so much – “a community of women dedicated to celebrating the natural phenomenon of grey/silver/white hair on the everyday woman…” We took a look at their Instagram account where women can submit photos that inspire others and found 50 women who are really rocking the silver tresses.
1. Shining bright
Bright and vibrant are the words we’d use to describe this woman, not old and grey.
2. A change of perception
“For over the past 12 years, I’ve spent countless hours constantly dying my hair to cover what I thought aged me. I got tired but never wanted to take that leap, afraid of how I’d be perceived. It wasn’t until last year while pregnant with my second child, that I decided to embrace my natural hair color…”
3. Seeing herself for the first time
“I was unsure at first as the silver slowly began taking over my head. I had been covering my grey for the last 20 years and it was as if I was seeing the real me for the first time in a long time.
…Each silver strand I saw claim its place gave me so much more of an appreciation for my hair…”
4. Mother & daughter
“Last week I had a working trip abroad and to my surprise, some people stopped me midway to ask whether this is my real hair colour and they complimented me for it (one even asked to take a picture with me, like oh-wow-I’m-flattered!). It’s nice to know that more and more people are embracing their natural hair colour, the all grey and come what may. My daughter (left), along with her older sister, thought that I look nice with grey hair and they encouraged me from day 1.”
5. Buck the system
“8 months of transition have not been easy…for those who see me wrong. I have been mocking a system that I don’t know who invented it.”
6. Not worth the hassle
“I am going to embrace my grey/ silver/ white whatever color this new hair is. Not because I want to prove something. Not because I am against chemicals.
Simply because it’s a hassle to dye my hair every 3 weeks. I was also embarrassed by the grey roots that would sprout out and nearly impossible to hide longer than a week or so.
It’s exhausting, I am exhausted!”
7. It just clicked
“In February 2019 something just clicked. I was done. I was ready to accept whatever was under the dye and make it work! It also helped that there is so much support and inspiration online. I read a lot of blogs, articles, and watched a lot of videos that helped give me courage…I was scared of feeling old and frumpy. But, grey hair doesn’t make you old! It’s just a color!”
8. Gone rogue
“In high school I had white streaks in my hair, earning the nickname “Rogue”. In my late twenties the story changed; I was poised to become a bride and didn’t want my salt and pepper hair overshadowing me…At 36 my silver is shining again and I’ve been rewarded with hair that looks like ME and all the superpowers that go with it.”
9. Happy anniversary
“Today is my 2-year of ditching the dye anniversary! This little picture is specially dedicated to all the women hesitating before taking that decision, or the women struggling during the transition and who’d like to know what a 2-year “silver growth” might look like.”
10. Breaking the cycle
“It’s been over a year and a half since I last dyed my hair and I couldn’t be happier with that decision! Leaving the stress, mess and frustration of the relentless dyeing cycle behind has been incredibly freeing. I love my hair. I have watched in fascination as the silver slowly weaves through the dark.”
11. Accepting compliments
“I’m approaching my 2-year anniversary of no dye. This week a man told me that my hair was ‘gorgeous’ and ‘stunning.’ He’s from Southern California and says he never sees younger women with hair like mine. Granted, he was also mostly silver-haired and may have just been flirting with me, but it was the first time that a man had voluntarily complimented my silvers out of the blue. It’s not easy to embrace gray hair at the age of 32, but I’m so grateful that I have.”
12. Complete transformation
“My journey to grey was a Transformation of my body and hair. I at the age of fifty walked away from an unhappy marriage, the kids are on their own, and I did not like me. I dyed my hair for fifteen years before I stopped. I started to dance and lost 136lbs, in this I saw a lady wearing her grey and I thought I want to look like that so I stopped dyeing my hair. I feel authentic, sexy, and more beautiful than I ever have in my life and it reflects out.”
13. Owning it
“When random grays started peppering my dark brown hair 25 years ago I would ask my 4-year-old daughter to pull them out. Back in December, I decided just to own it. It’s been an adventure watching the gray reveal itself…I’m looking forward to that day when I chop off the last bit of camouflage.”
14. Sparkle
“My grey journey started when I noticed that special spark of silver. It was so shiny and would creep up again in 2 weeks right after my henna application. I loved my henna, it strengthened my hair and grew it down to my back. It had been 5 years of continuous application and I was ready to wear my own sparkle hair color.”
15. An emotional journey
“This has been quite cathartic. I actually cried at the salon. I experienced a lot with the hair that I let go of today and over the last 10 months. It is amazing how much of your self esteem and identity can be wrapped up in your hair.”
16. Facebook love
“I am 4 months into this process, 50, recently divorced, in love with a new man who not only supports me in this process but encourages me. I changed my Facebook profile picture to this photo last weekend and received so much love. It feels amazing to be happy, secure and owning my true self.”
17. True colors
“I had my first grey hair when I was 11 and I started colouring my hair black later in my teens. I never actually hated my greys; I merely loved the colour black and I wanted to fit in – I wasn’t aware of anyone at my age having grey hair. However, I was lacking the confidence to expose my true colours until I turned 30 – just over a year ago and I wish I had ditched my dye earlier. I feel liberated for not having to hide my silver waves (plus tones of money and time saved) which I adore and make me look unique.”
18. Always proud
“My mom noticed my first grey hair when I was in about elementary school. I have never dyed my hair and have always embraced my grey streaks. While I have gotten pressured by family and friends to dye my hair, I never have. Some people even think I have professional highlights! I love my hair and the compliments I get make me feel beautiful and unique.”
19. From duck to swan
“Greek ancestry on my mother’s side destined me to gray early in life. I developed a gray streak in my brown hair at the top of my head during high school. Silly me, I dyed my poor hair for three decades. Finally, in my 50’s, I got a crew cut and endured an Ugly Duckling stage for a year. I’ve had fun with white hair well into my 60’s and I’ll never go back to dye. Now, I’m That Swan.”
20. Before her time
“I started going gray at 15 and wouldn’t have it any other way. 💜”
21. Acceptance is a journey
“I stopped coloring my hair on my birthday five years ago. I’m 47 now and am often surprised to realize that I’m still only about 85% of the way to accepting my hair…This process has forced me to confront my own fears and prejudices relating to aging but, more importantly, it has made it clear to me that I still care too much about what other people think about my hair and my perceived age…”
22. Journey of a lifetime
“Last year, my husband and I quit our jobs, sold our home and all our possessions and bought one-way tickets to Asia to travel around the world with our two daughters for a year…I knew that I would not be able to keep up with dyeing my hair while traveling, so I stopped dyeing right before we left. But as I moved through the transition process, I struggled a bit with deeply ingrained notions about ‘going gray’ in our culture…Part of this process has involved letting go of others’ opinions and the cultural narrative that has told us that women aging is a negative thing.”
23. A turning point
“I started going grey in my late 30s for a while I would dye my hair back to its natural grey. When I turned 40 I decided to just let my grey come through. I am now 51 and I love my all natural grey hair. I have completely natural hair which means I don’t use any chemicals. My grey hair makes me feel strong and confident. I like to show that a woman can have grey hair and still be sexy, beautiful and stylish.”
24. Increasing confidence
“My choice to go naturally grey had to do with that specific moment almost 3 years ago. I took a good look at myself in the mirror wondering what would happen if I quit dying my hair. At first, I couldn’t bear the thought of ‘looking’ older. But once they came through and I embraced my greys like I do today. I even felt more confident than during the time I dyed my hair. Whenever I get the chance to convince others to embrace their greys, I also tell them that they always can dye their hair again.”
25. Off-grid and on-track
“I live in an off-grid cabin during the summer months, and dying my roots every two weeks became almost impossible. This past summer however, I decided enough is enough, and took the opportunity to stop dying my hair once and for all. It’s been 8 months now, and while it wasn’t easy in the beginning, and I had a lot of doubts, I quickly embraced it and never looked back.”
26. Some things never change
“I got yelled at by a man in a deli for supposedly dying my hair gray. He said it looked so unnatural. I just laughed. I went gray in my 20s and kept it. My young students really love it. They think I’m a character from Frozen.”
27. Other people
“You know, those well-meant suggestions to just chop it all off… queries as to whether I’m ‘old enough’ to do this yet… an actual: oh wow aren’t you brave from a consultant at a dress shop. If I own that I think it is beautiful they don’t know how to respond. People are much more comfortable with comedy… I called this my year to be princess glitter skunk and that made it easier… like people can relax knowing I know it looks different.”
28. Feeling younger than ever
“3 questions I get asked the most: ‘Do you feel older?’ Nope! Still feel like 25 inside even though I’m 37. (Won’t lie though, the first few months seeing myself in the mirror took some adjusting of my mental lens on age and beauty!) ‘I wish I could be as brave as you! How’d you finally decide to do it?’ (this question is asked the most) First of all this decision has *nothing* to do with bravery. Bravery is an honorable word devoted to those deserving it, not for us growing out our gray hairs…”
29. All in the family
“…I had fun with color once or twice a year. I didn’t intend to hide anything, just to satisfy my itch for something new now and then.
All that changed when I developed a serious bacterial infection while traveling…I was isolated, unable to work, running out of money and unable to visit a hairdresser…I saw a meme the other day about all the gray roots we’ll see after Covid-19 and I was thankful. Thankful I’ve been through the growing-out already. And thankful to know that all difficult things eventually grow out.”
30. Starting to sparkle
“It’s part of my culture that only spinsters or grandmas stop coloring their hair. God forbid anyone younger than 60 shows your gray! So true to the pressure I spent years box coloring, highlighting, getting ombré, balayage all the things to mask the gray…Why was I trying to hide what was given to me by nature? So that night I googled all I could, checked Pinterest for how to transition to gray and found this HUGE community that was starting to rise on Instagram. I wasn’t alone and I’ve never felt so relieved!”
31. Breaking the rules
“I feel like I read a ‘grey hair rule’ that said to not wear grey … that it’ll wash you out or something? Here is to breaking all of the rules then, because I am discovering that I love the way I look in grey (hair and clothes!)!! And any other color I want to wear!”
32. Not worth the trouble
“I heard there’s a hoarding of hair dye now with the ‘stay at home’ order due to Covid 19. So glad that’s not an issue for me since I decided to let my natural hair grow out and that is one less thing that I don’t have to worry about.”
33. Cold turkey
“I truly feel that growing out my grey has been one of the biggest lessons in patience that I have ever experienced.
I’m at about 16.5 months into the journey now. I spent 20 years dying my hair and towards the end I was doing weekly root touch-ups even as I developed sores on my scalp. I was just never ready to stop. When was the ideal time? Would this negatively impact my life and career? Would I look older? And then after months of indecision, I just stopped. For no real reason… no special occasion. I just stopped out of the blue.”
34. All-consuming
“I realized that how covered up my gray hair was starting to define who I had become and how I viewed myself. The more my TRUE roots were peeking out, the less I felt I had my sh*t together. Even more, the bigger story I was telling myself was that other people didn’t think I had my sh*t together!
So at that point, I decided I would stop consuming myself with how much and where the gray was starting to peek out, when my next appointment would be scheduled, and what other people thought my hair reflected about me and what’s going on in my life.”
35. Silver sisters
“I am almost 8 months in of being dye free.. and let me just say, it’s been a little terrifying, yet very liberating, to watch my signature dark brown hair fade away and witnessing the new silver making its way in for good! Learning to embrace it to the fullest… and the support from my silver sisters definitely helps.”
36. Don’t stress
“As I got older, the grey patch at the very top of my head became harder and harder to cover. My lovely hair dresser convinced me to embrace it and I stopped covering my grey hair at 24. I’ve now been growing it out for 2 years, and get low lights a few times a year to help it blend more since I’m not completely grey. I am learning to embrace it more and more every day. No one ever believes that I am this grey at 26! I am a teacher and my little students are often baffled – ‘you don’t even have kids yet and your hair is so grey!’ I just blame them for stressing me out!”
37. Not defined by a color
“I am tired…. tired of feeling self conscious and afraid!
…Everyone’s words weighed heavily on my decision to not complete the process. I’d hear ‘you are 37 not 50!’ Or ‘you’re to young to start looking old.’ Why does grey have to define our age?! It doesn’t!!”
38. Live and learn
“My mom didn’t dye her white hair and chose to go natural— though cost and time was likely a factor as she had a full time job as a nurse’s aide and five kids to support. As a teen I really wanted her to dye her hair. I didn’t want her to be different. I witnessed how some women treated my mom like she was old— when oftentimes she was younger, stronger, fitter, smarter— and had been blessed with a beautiful complexion as well as a kind heart.”
39. All about the balance
“Last Spring I saw someone close to me taken up to the sky before reaching the age of 50. Instantly my perspectives had shifted, I am not afraid of ageing. Suddenly the reasons to repeat colouring my hair disappeared. It’s clearly to see two choices in the hair salon ‘repeat or evolve’. I chose to evolve.
Now one year has gone, I have started loving my natural self. One simple act that stopped me fighting nature, stop altering myself made me to embrace my age. Before this transition, I was thinking my appearance was fading but now I feel it is softening that makes my natural hair with silver sparkles become well balanced.”
40. Adjustment period
“My gray journey started at age 21! I started coloring my hair and then at age 30, I developed an allergy to hair color. I HAD to embrace every bit of it, and it was rough at first. There were people telling me to color my hair, and I was growing tired of telling them that I couldn’t. I made the decision to ‘own’ my grays.”
41. Feeling beautiful
“I came across the grey hair movement on Instagram and noticed so many young women my age embracing their beautiful silver hair…
It’ll be a year in July and everyday I’m amazed at how beautiful I feel with my grey.”
42. Part of the process
“After getting my first gray hairs at 16, I decided 1 year ago to go natural after dying my hair for years. At 35 I had mental health problems, going natural is a part of my healing process to really accept and love myself for who I am. I’m 39 now and very proud of myself able to say I’m ok.”
43. Aesthetic adventure
“I decided to stop dying because at the rate I was graying, I’d have to get a touch up every week. I’m super low maintenance so this was an easy decision. I was excited to go on this journey and to see who I would become and how I would look with gray hair. It’s been a fabulous adventure so far. Embracing my grays has been very empowering and liberating.”
44. Rebel with a cause
“I’m rebelling…I’m letting my hair be its natural colour, or color, whichever spelling you prefer! Why??? There’s LOADS of it! I’m bored of going to get my colour (I’m used to this spelling now) done every 3 weeks, and I’d prefer to put the money to other things. I wasn’t sure I’d like it. Being faced with the grey brought typical thoughts of ‘I’m old, I haven’t accomplished what I thought I would, time is flying by, and that’s that then.’ I’m not really sure what the THAT is, but whatever.BUT, I do love it. LOTS! It’s liberating!!”
45. Telling the truth
“…the thought of dishonesty was SO uncomfortable, that whenever people complimented my jet black hair, I’d find myself spluttering and babbling explanations about it being dyed and not really mine etc etc. I’m REALLY looking forward to now just being able to say ‘thank you’ when someone says they like the colour of my grey hair. What a joy it will be to be liberated of this burden I put on myself.”
46. A rough road
“It wasn’t smooth sailing, there were a lot of bumps in the road in the first year and a half. Doubt, insecurity, negative comments. But I had started following Grombre and others and was always looking at inspo pics to help me stay the course. I remember telling an older colleague who would come behind me and whisper ‘Dye it!’…. ‘The road is rough, I admit it. But I have seen the destination and think it will be worth it.'”
47. Making a statement
“Three years ago I had to get a bone marrow transplant and decided to let my hair come in naturally. I’ve actually been going great since I was 15 but over the last 10 to 15 years I have been dying my hair. Since gray is such a fashion statement now, I get a lot of questions from people asking if I get my hair done when the reality is all I do is take good care of my natural gray hair.”
48. En vogue
“I was watching tv one day and noticed there were a few celebrities that dyed their hair gray. ‘Wait… this is a thing now?! Gray hair is popular?!’
Our gray hair doesn’t define our youth. I learned to accept me for how I am—skunk patch, thickums, and all. ”
49. Never too young to go grey
“At 21 I started to color my hair regularly. At 25 I had to color it every 3 weeks. I was always told that I was too young for white hair. I was constantly asked whether I had a deficiency or a genetic defect. Either way, it was clear to everyone and so for me, I had to hide it…Today I know: my white hair wants to be seen.
It is a journey and sometimes it is not easy. I decided to go on this trip and I don’t regret a single day. I can’t wait to let go the last bit of color and live my gray to the tips.”
50. It’s natural
“Today someone asked me:‘Does your hair just do that?’
‘Um, yes, it does just ’do this.'”
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