A Practical Walk

I started dyeing my hair around age 25. I had noticed some grays. I decided to go to a beauty school to get a cheap highlight job. It turned out too striped and ugly, so I ended up paying even more money to get it fixed. I just kept dyeing all my hair from then on. (Just as a side note, I’ve heard of a lot of other people with positive results at beauty schools, in fact as a teenager, a friend of mine in beauty school gave me nice highlights).

Me at 19 with my natural hair color.

Then later, in my early 30s I stopped dyeing it. Here’s the benefits I’ve found:

I won’t have to go through the awkward stage.

I’ve known of ladies that decided to stop dyeing their hair later in life and the dark to white contrast was so bold it made it difficult. You can just let it go, and have that drastic demarcation line (unless your hair is already light-colored). You can get highlights or low lights to help blend it. You can get the hair dyed lighter. But all of those options invovle a period of not having the hair you want or more maintence.

When I stopped dyeing my hair I had quite a bit of grays, but not enough for it to be a stark difference, it was only noticeable in the right lighting (and by observant people, some didn’t notice). So I was at a stage where stopping cold turkey wasn’t too big of a deal and saved myself the future trouble of figuring out how to grow it out when I’m completely gray.

My hair while I was dyeing it.

It saves space.

Okay, most people don’t have this problem, but I lived in Africa. I can get hair dye there, but there’s fewer places that sell it and I don’t have as many options of colors and brands. So I usually stocked up when in the US and brought it over with me. Each time we’d fly back to Africa we’d spend so much time trimming down all our lugguage trying it get it all under the weight limit, and the last couple of times I kept thinking, “At least I’m not trying to squeeze bottles of hair dye in these bags anymore!”

In Africa I often wear headwraps, so my hair color wasn’t visible anyways.

Saves Money

I love trying to save money, it’s like a fun challenging game. I no longer spend money on hair dye. Now I have to admit when I did the calculations, I’m not saving as much as I had hoped, because I was already being economical with it. I only dyed maybe every 2-3 months, most of the time I did it myself and I didn’t buy any expensive brands. So I think I spent less than $100 a year. However, I know some people that get it professionally dyed every 6 weeks, plus the gas for going to and from the salon, plus some people add other products to counter act the chemicals being put in their hair.

Grays growing in!

I like being less high maintenance and more my natural look

There’s just something about it being my natural color that I like. I guess it makes me feel more “me”. The best compliment I’ve gotten was someone saying it looked like natural highlights!

I can see more silvers from this angle!

My hair has less chemiclas on it.

While I never noticed adverse reactions to my skin or hair like some people do, I still prefer having less chemicals around me. I do think my hair is healthier and maybe even more voluminous now.

Saves time.

This one is kinda like the  money saving one, in that it does save, but not that much. I notice a lot of people talk about how much they love this aspect of not dyeing their hair, but for me, because I only did it ever 2-3 months and I did it at home, it’s not really saving me that much time. But for those who drive to a from a salon every other month, it can really add up. I also realize that as more whites grow in, I probably woudn’t have been able to get away with dyeing it so infrequently.

If I miss my dyed hair, a good cut often helps me feel better.

What I don’t like about it.

Really, there’s only 2 things I don’t like about it:

• Sometimes I just miss the color. I usually dyed it a little darker than my natural brown and I liked that shade on me. Now that my hair is brown with gray mists throughout I feel like the color is just duler and less vibrant. This however is just an aesthetic thing.

• I don’t want to look older. My whole life people thought I was younger than I was. As a teen, I hated it, as an adult I started to love it. Now I worry that people think I’m older than I am. But ultimalty I have to remind myself, that my worth doesn’t come from what age people think I am, my worth comes from God, so it really doesn’t matter.

In these pictures you can see the gray on top and the dyed hair growing out.

Tips if you’re thinking of going gray:

• There’s blogs and facebook groups you can join and I’ve enjoyed being a member of one. It’s great for inspiration and tips.
• If you feel the color dulls you out, try doing pops of color in other ways. Again a community of ladies can really help with ideas here. I like putting on some lipstick if I want to look extra fancy, or you might even try different colors of clothes.
• I know there’s lots of other tips out there, like purple shampoos, and different products, but I’m really not the one to give any of those tips, so just search the internet.

While being dye-free has been beneficial to me, I don’t think everyone has to make the same choice, I just know that I have enjoyed hearing other people’s honest thoughts on it.

Here’s a recent picture of my all-natural hair.