Accepting Your Grey and When Did You Go Grey

[BaldWriterBob]

I started to go grey in my late 40s. Never gave it much thought, but I like the sly look better.

[Razorhead]

I was OK with going gray at first, but when I started shaving and would skip a few days of shaving i hated the silvery stubble that started to come in. It looked like a fungus! Plus the gray really stands out against a tan. I'm much happier sly!

[Troy]

My hair was so short, and I didn't have a beard then, that I barely noticed when I started going gray at around age 48.  I had a goatee around age 45 that was naturally dark brown, so it was somewhere between those ages where the gray took over.  Very happy now with my shaved head and gray beard. 

[Razor X]

Does the chin area typically turn grey before the mustache?  I've got quite a few greys on the chin but none in the mustache yet.  I'm wondering if my beard will go completely grey before the mustache starts to turn.  I'd prefer if things were more evened out.   

[TheSlyBear]

My partner has the same issue. He'd prefer it a bit more even too, but it's gonna do what it's gonna do...

[Razor X]

... it's gonna do what it's gonna do...

Sometimes I think it would be less traumatic if it would just do what it's gonna do a little faster.  I remember feeling this way at a certain point in the balding process when I started to wish the rest of my hair would just fall out overnight.

[sailor61]

49 now and I guess the greying started around 40.  First to go was the beard, mostly on the cheeks/jawline. Goat and 'stache area are still darker though it is cropping up there.  Next place it infiltrated was the chest followed by my temples.  Chest is still a pretty dark mix but the temples would defintiely be 2 tone if I let it grow in.  Since the goat is evenly mixed I guess I'll be leavingthat when the winter's fu8ll beard goes away.

Only times I've ever resorted to Just for Men have been a couple of times in falls when I had something important to get to.  Spend alot of time on the water in the summer and the dark brown up top used to bleach out through more shades of brown/red/orange/red blonbde than I knew existed.  Looked fine at certain points and at others it was awful looking so the JFM came out for a quick job to try and get the curtains even close to the carpet again....

One year it had almost turned to a pure blonde but had a funny shade to it - wasn't quite to a decent shade and I was going to be in a wedding party (in an inland area where summer blonde just doesn't exist as much).  I was onthe fence about coloring it or getting something to speed up the sun bleaching.  I went with the color and it ended up a decent looking approximation of what nature made it.  What I never paid attention to was that my eyebrows were bleached out almost cornsilk blonde.  Ended up with a bridesmaid and her makeup kit doing some touchup work to make thigs look even close to normal.  I'llnever understand how women have the patience to go through that nonsense every day.....

[buddha]

Boy, do I feel left out or innattentive or something because I never really noticed when the graying started. I know that my beard has been gray/silver/white for probably 10 years but no idea when it started. Must've been worrying about something else but no idea what that was either.

[tomgallagher]

I shaved mine for many years and never noticed until I had to spend a week in hospital and didn't feel like shaving. When I got out and looked in the mirror I said "holy sh*t" when did that happen.

[LiquidCougar]

I'm 29, and I first started noticing grey hair mostly on the sides of my head a couple years ago. I've gotten more and more progressively since then, but it honestly doesn't bother me. I could really care less about it.

My fiancee calls it "sexy," whatever that means.  

Oh, BTW- marshd, your beard ROCKS. 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I got my first gray scalp hairs during high school, and my facial hair started out with a few gray hairs.  I'm 36 now and it's been steadily advancing the entire time.  I think I only have about 10% gray, and I have some in my mustache as well.  Once it's largely gray I think I'm going to use that as a chance to play around with different colors since I always wondered what I would look like in red, light brown, or whatever.

I think it's weird when a hair falls out and part of it is one color and the other part is another.  What's up with that?  I think I've even had hairs where part was gray and part was a color.  Strange...

[Razor X]

I'm 29, and I first started noticing grey hair mostly on the sides of my head a couple years ago. I've gotten more and more progressively since then, but it honestly doesn't bother me. I could really care less about it.

I really wish I didn't care, but the truth is, I do.   A lot of people think grey beards are great.  And they are -- on other people.   But I'm never happy to find a new grey hair in my beard.  I know it happens to everybody sooner or later.  I can learn to live with it.  But I'm not sure I can ever truly embrace it.

[cvasara]

Grey Beard, for most of us, it means we didn't wake up this morning, reach out, and hit wood.  A good start to another day.   I use to have a full beard,  since 1975, but when I started getting thin on top, it was time to shave all that crap, and not have to worry about keeping an upside down sideburn line.  A gray goat works pretty good, IMO, and the rednecks in the bar I frequent, (and their brides) want their men to take a lesson. 
Wear it with pride.

[marshd1000]

Oh, BTW- marshd, your beard ROCKS. 

Thanks for the compliment!  I actually shaved it off last month but started growing it back when a buddy of mine decided to fly me up to Fairbanks to visit him.  I firgured that there are a lot of beards in Alaska.  Also I plan on visiting Santa Claus House in nearby North Pole and plan to get Christmas card pics taken there.  So I am hoping to look more Santa like!

[Razor X]

Grey Beard, for most of us, it means we didn't wake up this morning, reach out, and hit wood.  A good start to another day.   
Wear it with pride.

Well, at 42 I still pretty much take for granted that I'm going to wake up each morning and not hit wood.  It all gets back to what somebody said about earning all the grey hairs.  I don't feel like I have yet.