Ple might be able to guide you through what you need to do to color it yourself and cover the gray, but the only way I've found to do it is to have a professional like my daughter do it for me. There's a much more complex formula required to cover gray and you'll never get the really bright reds you used to, but it will cover the gray.

There's a much more complex formula required to cover gray and you'll never get the really bright reds you used to,

Yeah, that's just what I've found by unfortunate self-experimentation. Dammit.

but it will cover the gray.

And the flip side, of course, is that I've talked myself into a whole frakking crisis about whether to even try -- rather than just coloring or not coloring, and not worring about What It All Means.

(Plus? Still only 35, at least for 3 more days. Double Dammit.)

My grey is coming in at the temples. It's so cool.

Hell, amych, I started coloring my hair in my 20s. I was having problems covering gray in my 30s, too. My mother wasn't kind enough to give me the good genes (she was barely gray in her 50s.) Nooo, she saved the big boobs for my daughter, and, I'm willing to bet, the late blooming gray hair. Bitch.

(And I have to admit to a deep resentment of people who get all OMG! I HAVE THREE GRAY HAIRS! Bite me, babe, I'm Steve Fucking Martin.)

Oh boy, I hear ya. Started going gray in my early teens and I hate having to color my hair. But I do it every three weeks, unless I want my completely gray roots showing.

I'm still able to use store bought box color (Feria) but I have to do it more often than most other people. The alternative, however, just isn't an option for me at the ripe old age of 34. I'm not ready to look like Heloise.

I'd love to wake up one morning and find myself entirely white-headed. It'll save me bleaching $$. In the meanwhile, I really can't tell how grey it is, since I barely get to see it before I bleach again.

Heck, I'd be happy to look like Heloise! She's got awesome hair. But, nooo, I've got that muddy, dull looking gray. Still too much of the natural brown in there and it's just not flattering. And box color just looks flat on my hair. It's like the color fades so quickly, that even if the gray doesn't show, the color goes really dull. And I use shampoos meant for colored hair. Frustrating, which is why I have my daughter color it. I can be absolutely sure of the color lasting for the 5 weeks between color and cut.

ita, can I ask a personal question that I hope isn't too invasive?

Why the blonde?

amych, what's your natural color? What's your grey percentage? Target color, if you decide to dye?

Usually, as I recall, covering grey works best if you do a neutral brown followed by an overlay of the color you want or something like that.

I haven't had to try that, yet. When we were doing Paul's hair still, we dyed it black, avoiding many of the issues one finds with reds.

I've been getting a few grey hairs. Nothing really too noticable, but they've been there since I was about 19.

I'm really not sure where my genetics are going with this. My mom had significant grey by 35. My dad, at 59, is getting kind of salt-and-peppery.