{Day 3} Hair Color: Fashion & Beauty For Women Over 40

Here we are, Day 3 and we’re talking–Hair Color.

Um…I have lots of personal experience with this one! I’ve been coloring (or having my hair colored) for at least 10 years. Hair color can make you look years younger especially if you’re covering gray hair.

First, lets talk about NOT covering your gray hair. Some women have gorgeous gray hair and look very classy. But Charla Krupp writes this in her book, How Not To Look Old, “Before you join the sisterhood of silver foxes, know that although silver hair can look cool, it will never look young. Truthfully, it adds ten years.”

So, its up to each woman to make that call. I can’t ever imagine having plastic surgery or botox but I will color my gray! 🙂

Second, you don’t want to do an extreme color change because it can damage your hair. It can cause breakage, which will not give you a healthy, glossy, young look. Of course, I learned this one the hard way! See this blond streak? It caused a lot of damage to that area of my hair.

Quoting Charla Krupp, “Crazy color changes are better left to teens in their experimental stage. At your stage, you want to look elegant, classy, and, well, sane.”

Ouch! I wish I had read this book before I went through that mid life crisis!

What are we looking for as women over 40? We want fabulous hair color that’s bright and bold. We want to add highlights around our face and darker toward the back.

Dark brunettes will look beautiful with lighter highlights and Blondes should not go darker than when they were a kid.

Be seasonal: In the summer you should be at your lightest and brightest, so add more highlights. In the winter, you should be darker and warmer.Use highlights more sparingly and make sure they’re in warmer tones too.

As you age you should always lighten your hair, right? Not true. With hair color there are no absolutes. If you like your dark hair, it just might be perfect for you even beyond sixty. Just make sure it’s not a black-blue!

I had this head shot taken this past weekend at the Bloggy Conference thanks to Angie from 2 sisters and a blog. This is my hair color right now. My stylist uses two different colors by Paul Mitchell.

You don’t have to go to a salon to have your color done. Here are some good products you can use at home.

  • Clairol Natural Instincts
  • Clairol Nice ‘n Easy Gray Solution
  • Garnier Nutrisse
  • L’Oreal Paris Superior Preference

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Beauty For the Heart~~Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Luke 12:7 

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  1. I color my own hair and then go in for the “foil”. I get complements from the hair designer as they always say my color looks great! My secret- I put the color onto the roots, and take a wide tooth comb and comb it through. This keeps my highlights longer!!

  2. Hi, I am 53 and decided to stop coloring my hair almost 4 years ago, and yes it makes me look older but I get so many compliments on it and I feel so much healthier inside and out not putting the chemicals on my head. If you color, fine, if you don’t color, fine…it is what’s best for you and truthfully at this point in my life and all my life experiences…I’m ok with my hair color. Having gray hair should not make you anything less that what you are…and that is a beautiful woman inside and out.

  3. I like Loreal Healthy Look for hair color. It’s semi permanent that has good grey coverage that lasts for 30 days if you use products for color treated hair. It wont dry out your hair and make it feel like straw like permanent color does to mine.

    If you’re worried about using harsh chemicals on your skin then pull the hair through a frosting cap and color it that way. You wont get total coverage that way but you can still color your hair.

  4. Love your cut. How do you style it? What do you use when you fix it? I need a style that is not time consuming. My hair is very straight and will not hold curll unless I get a perm. I am not really wanting to go there.

  5. It would be nice to live in a world that embraced aging as a natural part of our time here. There is so much pressure to colour grey hair. Does anyone question the long term effects on our health with the use of harsh chemicals ? What about the environment? For a long time I have resisted colouring my hair, but recently tried highlights. I’m not sure. Maybe henna will be next. I would like to let it go grey, but find it hard in this youth-obsessed society.

    (Note I use Canadian spelling, if some words look odd to you).

  6. What a great photo, and great hair! I colored my hair for many years, but stopped a couple of years ago. I’ve tried coloring at home a couple of times, but it’s always a disaster. I have naturally red hair, and it “pulls” red, too. So when I use something over the counter, it doesn’t just cover the grey, it makes me look like Raggedy Ann. This happens even when I choose something light, like a strawberry blonde color.

  7. Cyndi, could you post a pic of the back of your hair? I want to take your cut to show my stylist
    Thx!
    Sandi

  8. I color my hair, but it only lasts a few weeks before the gray starts to poke through. And in the summer I love to get highlights along with my color. I like a deep brown with red highlights!

  9. Your tips and advice are great! Thankfully it’s just what my hair dresser does for me. 😉 I do have lots of gray to color, and I’m not in the leave-it-gray group. 😉

  10. I only started coloring my hair last summer (’11). It’s been a journey to find the right color/colors for me. Thanks for the insight. Love ya! Lisa~

  11. I do believe everyone has to be comfortable with what they decide to do. I always think of the lady from What Not To Wear. She has a gray streak and leaves it. She looks fabulous!
    Blessings friend,
    Cyndi

  12. Your cut and color are stunnig, especially with your beautiful face! My stylist
    discovered that my hair look better when mixing two different shades of matrix color. I have all over color with no highlights, but the mix of two shades gives my hair “natural-looking” highlights. She and another stylist worked together to concoct this color one day when I said I was not liking the same shade all over my head. I happened to be the last appt. in the salon that day so they weren’t rushed for time. I’m sure if you mentioned this to your stylist or used two shades close in color if you color at home, you would get nice results.

  13. I don’t color mine anymore — I’m in the “keep it gray” group. I have a gray streak in my hair and I love it! I colored mine for years and never was happy with it. I realized my own color was actually really nice! Yours is beautiful. I always wonder why some women “suddenly” go blonde, like platinum blonde. To me it seems like they are trying too hard to cover their gray that way and it makes them look older than they really are. I guess you know my opinion now!! ha, ha!

    Becky B.
    http://www.organizingmadefun.com
    Organizing Made Fun

  14. Great post my friend!! I’ve had many hair experiences too. I agree with eveyrthing you’ve shared! It is a real challenge…to grow old gracefully…and look our age…and not try to look like we are still 20. lol

    I love to go lighter in the spring/summer…and darker in the fall!! Sadly, I started to gray when I was 14…so color has been my friend since I was 22. BOO!

  15. I think the streak was fun, and age appropriate. It didn’t make you look crazy, like a pink or neon green streak might have done. I think there is a balance between being youthful and acting like a teenager and I see the streak as the former – probably too because the rest of your style is youthful and classy, not tacky teenage try-hard .

    About colouring – I find it odd looking when a woman definitely ought to be showing signs of aging, ad the face does but there is nary a gray or white to be seen and the hair has this weird flat fake kind of tone to it. As one hits their sixties I generally think it needs to be evaluated with a professional stylist in order to maintain a youtfhul classy look.

  16. I love your cut and color–yours is the photo I am taking to the salon! And, what is that lovely shade of lipstick you are wearing? So pretty!!!