What does it matter if I cover up the evidence that my hair is also getting older?Įxcept committing to covering your grays with a little more finesse than your standard box dye takes two things: time and money. I already have Botox in my forehead and between my brows to stave off fine lines, and filler in my cheeks and lips where my volume has started to drop. Now that my grays have started to account for a much larger percentage of my hair (I’d say I’m about 30/70 at this point) and I inch even closer to 40, I’m asking myself how exactly I want to approach aging in general. But I have clients that are in their early 20s, and some that have told me they started getting gray hairs at 16,” Flaherty tells me.

“I think in our society, gray hair means that you are.

The central issue for me, a woman in her mid-30s, is that I’m simply beginning to look old. Some have a standing appointment with their colorist every month, while others more or less ignore it. I also have plenty of friends encountering the issue at this point in our lives, with varying degrees of acceptance. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to playīeing a beauty editor means I’m particularly attuned to the ebb and flow of industry trends, including how vehemently people (mainly female-identifying) are trying to either cover up or embrace going gray. Finding them at this age didn’t quite qualify me as prematurely gray (which, according to a 2018 study, is prior to age 20 for Caucasians), but it was definitely early enough to make me nervous that I too would be fully silver within the next decade. Now almost a decade later, more than a few gray friends have joined the party on my scalp. I plucked it from my head without a second thought. Sure enough, after I graduated and prepared to leave for a job in New York, I finally spotted one-short, wiry, and gray-sticking straight up from my hair’s part. I settled on a few variations of sun-streaked blonde by high school, and my mom’s hair transformed from a soft salt-and-pepper hue to what it is today: full-on gray.īy college, I discovered through glossy magazines that stress and cortisol could cause hair to turn silver even faster. While I busied myself in my teens experimenting with brunette, pink, and auburn box dyes, she never once asked her stylist for even a little bit of coverage. My beautiful mother had grays when I was born (she was 36 at the time), and in truth, I’ve never seen her without sparkling flecks of silver in her hair. I always knew I was destined to go gray early-I just didn’t think it would be right now.

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