A tip for younger folks: Almost everyone past a certain age with dark hair dyes it

[cthulu2016]

Some folks, due to genetics, avoid gray for a long time, but for most folks the situation is pretty darn gray well before retirement. And it's not like something in the water suddenly pushed graying (on average) back 25 years since the 1950s.

Antonin Scalia, for instance, does not have black hair. And Antonin Scalia is rather old. Nothing wrong with that, but it is easy to forget sometimes.

He is waaaay older than the typical crazy-old-man in old movies and old TV shows.

I am fine with the current pro-dying environment. We live longer and are active longer but go grey about the same time as always and and there is no reason to go through a full half of one's life looking like Gandalf if one prefers not to.

But it creates a disjunction (probably a word...) from the past. Many of the crazy old coots on old TV shows were in their 50s, or even 40s. It's amazing when you start looking up ages of old time actors.

Walter Brennan in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT... "You ever been stung by a dead bee?" That guy. Bogie and Bacall and crazy old Walter Brennan... the quinessential crazy old man who would have been tapped to play Methusulah was 49 when that movie was filmed. Notably younger than Obama or George Clooney today. (And then continued to play the same feisty senior well into the 1960s.)

Hell, Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard is only in her late 40s of something. (Silent moves ended only about 25 years before Sunset Boulevard was made.)

Ronald Reagan really *made* the trend. If the most rugged, authentic, frontier he-man alive quite obviously dyed his hair... well, why that put away any notion that is was effete or phony.

And again, I agree. It is fine. I am Obama's age and am not in a hurry to look older than Ronald Reagan... the oldest man ever.

But it confuses cross-generational age comparisons. A lot of grizzled old characters from back in the day were what we think of as fairly young. And today's old people are very old, by historical standards.

And Scalia really is a crazy old man.

[unblock]

1. almost everyone??

i suspect it's rather more common today than in yesteryear; for women more than men; and for the famous more than the non-famous.

but "almost everyone", i think is quite overstating it.

[Glitterati]

3. I don't. I've earned every one my grey hairs

raising a child. And, I'm damned proud of every single one!

[notadmblnd]

34. My child didn't cause my grey hair. I had it before I had him

My husband used to stand over me and pluck it out one by one. It bugged the hell outta me. So I decided he couldn't pluck it if he couldn't see it and I began coloring it. My husband's been dead 10 years now and I still color it. Course, I let it go longer in between colorings since I no longer have anyone to pull on it.

[cthulu2016]

4. I reserve the right to write colorfully when writing about general culture

"Nobody" uses their turn signal, either. Though many million do use their turn signal.

And "everybody" is texting all the time.

[unblock]

11. look, i've told you a million times not to exaggerate!

[GeorgeGist]

2. Hardly ...

but you go on believing.

[frazzled]

5. I watch a lot of old movies ...

TCM is sort of an addiction, and an escape. At any rate, I've noticed how the portrayal of "older" people has changed over the decades. I was watching The Jazz Singer one night, and when Jolson is asked to come home for his father's birthday, it's announced he is turning 60. The guy looks like someone who's 85 at least, by today's standards. The mother, too. Stooped and wrinkled, with gray hair, moving slowly. Heck, my parents are older than that (88 and 97) and don't look that bad.

This caught my attention, and since that time I've noticed that whenever someone elderly is portrayed in movies of the 30s, they're usually said to be around 60. It's announced in hushed tones, and the other characters are solicitous to these gray-haired geezers. Heaven help us if 60 is ancient now!

I swore I'd never color my hair. When it first started getting some gray, in my late 50s, I was fine with it: just a streak of brown hair in the front that had faded to a kind of gold. It looked like I'd had it streaked or foiled, and was subtle. Unfortunately, in just a few years, as the fading spread, it just started looking dull and washed out: it wasn't turning nice silver at all. Now I do get a rinse when I get my haircut: a nonpermanent toner that fades out in a couple of months, but it looks very natural. Where the nongray-gray is, it's just a bit gold. I've succumbed. I don't want to look like Al Jolson's mother: yet.

[Foolacious]

19. You STARTED getting some grey in your LATE 50's?

Wow. My ex is in her late 50s and has still not started to grey, but she's the only person I've ever known like that.

Lucky for me, I got the early grey from my father and the early thinning from my mother's father. :-|

ON EDIT: And no, I don't dye it. If I wanted to (I don't -- I think I would look odd having an old face with young hair), I'd want to find a dye that yields my natural colour, which was that of a shiny copper penny.

[MuseRider]

25. I am 60 and it has just begun.

I have had the occasional grey hair, actually thankfully bright and shiny white hair, but just now am I getting enough in a couple of places framing my face that it is obvious but still not until I am in a bright setting. My father was dead long before he could have shown me those genes and my mother died in her mid 60's and she was getting there but still had some black hair. Everyone else was either dead before my age or soon after so I don't know what will happen but at 60 it is just beginning to show. I would not color it for the world but when I was younger I used to color my hair just for the fun of it.

[amandabeech]

22. I'm in my late '50s, but my hair started to fade in my '40s and gray later in that decade.

It's still not too bad, but I color it, taking up the dark brown shade a bit and adding a little copper and gold.

I also have a lighter streak at the front. I wonder if that is common?

Anyway, I don't want to look like Al Jolson's mother, either!

[shanti]

28. That sounds like mine

It started with a white streak in the front when i was about 45 (when my vision started going downhill too, go figure!), and now at almost 59, it's pretty much all white except for the back at the nape of my neck. That is still the reddish brown of my youth. Dad and his mother were both white haired by 40, it runs in his family. Now, I mostly let it stay white, occasionally putting a blonde rinse on it for "special occasions".

I often get "why don't you color your hair"? by several people in my family, but I'm retired now, so it doesn't matter to me, cheaper upkeep too! My concern now is that it is getting thinner every year . That's way more important than the color to me!

[eShirl]

6. "Most of the crazy old coots on old TV shows were in their 50s, or even 40s."

it's called acting

with the help of makeup, wardrobe, lighting

[flamingdem]

7. Dying ones hair takes 10 years off

but of course the chemicals can kill you off at a young age so YMMV!

[shanti]

29. meh

undereye bags are a dead giveaway, dyed hair or not. lol.

[joeybee12]

8. Reminds me of when the brain-dead Reagan was first running for Prez...

What was he, 102 at the time, and he claimed he didn't dye his hair!

[cthulu2016]

12. As Gerald Ford said, Ronald Reagan doesn't dye his hair...

...he's just prematurely orange.

(The dyes RR used in the 1970s faded to some pretty weird colors. He looked younger in 1980 than he had in his 1976 campaign when his hair was often orange.)

[joeybee12]

13. That would be interesting to google and see that...

But also sickening to see that putz again, so I won't.

[immoderate]

30. You made me laugh, JB12!

--imm

[joeybee12]

33. Good!

To much bad news today...always nice to get a laugh in!

[pnwmom]

9. I think a lot of people who dye their hair are fooling themselves. They don't really look younger

except from the back or from a distance.

[frazzled]

26. From the back!

I agree with you to a certain extent. I was in a store a while back, waiting at the counter, and I saw a saleswoman from the back: pretty nice figure, hip clothing, modern hairdo. Then she turned around and I saw she looked older than me! From the back, she'd looked great; from the front she looked totally out of kilter: a ravaged old face on a too-young outfit. It was kind of "yikes"! I try never to make that mistake: dressing too young can age you incredibly, and look embarrassing to boot.

But I think it kind of depends on the hair, with whether to color or not. If you have the kind of hair that turns silver (or salt and pepper, or even gray) I say go for it all the way. It's going to look marvelous. But many people don't get gray; they just get faded and tired looking. You should never dye it dark, because that will really age you. But if you just tone it up a touch with a color slightly lighter than your original, it can improve the texture and body and make you look less washed out. It all depends on what kind of hair you have.

My husband has dark hair that started receding when he was in his late 20s. It's now turning silver at the temples, and I think it looks swell that way. I held out for a long time, but finally acceded to the lightest wash-out rinse, because with pale skin (fortunately, it's in good shape for my age) and faded-out mousy brown hair, I just looked like I had iron-poor blood. I depend on those nearest and dearest to me to tell me if it looks wrong. I hope they're telling the truth.

[pnwmom]

35. My mother in law colored her hair, lighter and lighter as the decades went on.

At the end, it was light blonde and I was guessing she'd stopped dying it -- wrong. I found out when she had surgery and did stop dying it that her real color was a beautiful, shiny white. The yellowish hair was dull by comparison. My mother has beautiful platinum hair that goes well with her skin. So that's where I'm aiming, eventually.

[Blue_Tires]

10. Never did it; been going gray for awhile

Ah, and here is a little nugget from the archives, almost 10 years to the day:


Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Feb-27-04 10:33 PM
Response to Original message

24. 27 y/o


i've been getting more and more single gray hairs for the past 3 years...when the weather is warm, i just shave it bald...

I've been thinking that maybe the experiences of my life have stressed me ahead of my years...If only i could retire now to some oceanfront paradise, maybe I could actually add time to my life instead of eating it away with a crap job and bills


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Don't ask me how much closer I am to retiring to that 'oceanfront paradise'

[lumberjack_jeff]

14. Ask the Balrog if hair dye is important. n/t

[KamaAina]

15. Many older men have rugs.

Case in point:

[justhanginon]

17. I've gotten better bathroom rugs than Randi Paul wears

at the Dollar Store. He looks and acts like an idiot! Can't stand the man or his views.

[Xithras]

16. I hope I have my dads hair genes, and not my moms.

Mom started going gray in her early 30's. Dad is pushing 70 and still doesn't have one (his mom, my grandmother, just passed 90 and only recently went gray, his 72 year old brother only has a few stray grays, so it runs in the family).

I'll be 40 next year without a gray hair in sight. Hopefully my dads genes won out. My youngest sister, who will be 36 this year, already has a few.

[hunter]

18. Most of my hair would rather fall out than turn gray.

I used to have a pony tail but it got shorter and shorter.

Now I just set the buzzcutter to "5," everything above my shoulders, including my suddenly crazy eyebrows.

[djean111]

20. My hair started turning white when I was about 20.

I dyed it black, brown, bleached blond, etc. until about 10 or so years ago, then just stopped.
I wouldn't trade my all-silvery-white hair for anything now, and wish I had known it looked like this many many years ago!
Oh, and my eyebrows and lashes are still black as can be.

[Bluenorthwest]

21. Swanson (a liberal story unto herself) was 51 when Sunset Blvd was made, Bacall

in To Have And Have Not, 17 years old.
Editing to add that Scalia is 78 years old.

[pansypoo53219]

23. people need to get a clue. greying hair looks younger than a dye job.

[DiverDave]

24. Found my first at 19

took awhile but by 40 I had silver.
My friend started losing his in high school, I complained about
my gray, he said "at least you got it"
I stopped bitching.
He was a great friend, I miss him terribly

[malaise]

27. Yes Scalia is a crazy old RW fool

but not all of us dye our gray hair

[Laelth]

31. Excellent post. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[pnwmom]

36. Not almost everyone. I've read that it's about 80% for women and significantly less for men.

That's a lot but not everyone. I bet it also varies by region and occupation.

And I look at faces and necks, not hair, if I'm wondering about someone's age.

http://www.angieslist.com/articles/5-reasons-color-your-gray-hair.htm

Does she or doesn’t she? It's very likely she does, says Anne Kreamer, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based author of “Going Gray." For most American women, to dye or not to dye is hardly a question, since 80 percent color their hair.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Eh, screw that. I started finding grays when I was 20. Never dyed it.

It is what it is.

[Tikki]

38. My mother either bleached, dyed or color rinsed her hair until she passed at an advanced age.

I had no idea how my gray would come in or how soon or whatever.

It has shown itself in an amazing way, naturally. At 65 y. o. I have gotten the Deborah Harry (Blondie)
shades I have always wanted…pure white and gray in the front and on the crown and still very dark brown in the back.
I am so glad I have never colored my hair.

Tikki

[Avalux]

39. Is this about Scalia? Or you think old people dying hair black is bad for society?

I'll address both.

I'd say the vanity quotient of our society has skyrocketed exponentially with the advent of technology and the relentless selfies...I read the other day that trips to plastic surgeons has gone up because people want to look better in selfies. It's an obsession that's only going to get worse as we figure out more ways to keep us 'young'. Good or bad? I can't say.

Scalia on the other hand, is a bad, bad man; an old piece of shit who deserves to be (insert whatever you wish here), and fed to the vultures. However they may not even want his rancid carcass.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

40. Denver Pyle was another one who always played much older roles.

He was barely 60 when he was on Dukes of Hazzard (Uncle Jesse) and during the early 1960's when he was closer to 40 he was playing old but generally feisty characters like Briscoe Darling on Andy Griffith.

[RebelOne]

41. I am 75 years old and was born a blonde.

But when I was a teenager it turned into what was called "dishwater blonde." I started coloring it to keep it light blonde and have been coloring it ever since. Fortunately, I don't have to do it as often because the gray is blending with the blonde, so my hair still looks blonde.

[quinnox]

42. Yep. To me, most people don't look good with gray hair

I am starting to get a little grey hair now, and when it gets worse I will dye it back to black, my natural color.

I grew up under Reagan as president, and I guess he kind of set the trend that way. Hate to say it, but it's true.

And I think women especially don't look good with grey hair, whereas some men do, and it makes them look distinguished. But not women. I noticed most women of a certain age dye their hair these days, and I think they look much better for it!

Of course, when you reach a certain age, it kind of is silly to color the hair, like, I'm talking 70s and 80s. Then I can understand letting it go. But even then, I can understand those who do it, and I bet it makes most of them look better, even at that age.

[Nye Bevan]

43. The George Clooney salt and pepper color looks much better than the fake jet black.

But it's more complicated to do and makes his dye jobs take much longer and obviously costs more (not that that is a problem for him).

[fascisthunter]

44. I'm Letting my Hair go Gray!

Let the graying begin!!!