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I can relate to this - there seems to be two camps at odds with each other. I'm in my sixties and like you, I have the time, money and desire to have my hair taken care of professionally and I absolutely love the way it looks and feels. Many women have asked for my stylist's name and I've sometimes run into my referrals at the salon.
Yet I have friends and neighbors who have gone grey who are trying to convince me to do it too even though they know it's not something I want to do. I sometimes feel like I'm being recruited and they don't let up. I'm happy for women who are happy with their own grey hair and I would never tell someone with grey hair that they should do what I do.
Also, the time spent at the salon I go to is so much fun! It's all women there and we talk and laugh about everything under the sun. No holds barred. Some of the women are completely grey and come in for cuts and others, like me, come in for color and a cut.
Some women will parse it down even further. The camp who home dyes their hair, and the camp that goes to a salon and has their hair colored. I've seen women try to make it some kind of moral judgement. lol
I used to color my own hair because basically, being a single mother for years, I couldn't afford getting my hair colored in a salon.
Then my kids grew up and paid their own bills, and I was married...and I had the money to get it colored in a salon. And for a few years, that's what I did. It is certainly nice to get pampered a little. I certainly think I'm worth it, to spend the money to color it...if I ever decide to go that route again.
Some women will parse it down even further. The camp who home dyes their hair, and the camp that goes to a salon and has their hair colored. I've seen women try to make it some kind of moral judgement. lol
I used to color my own hair because basically, being a single mother for years, I couldn't afford getting my hair colored in a salon.
Then my kids grew up and paid their own bills, and I was married...and I had the money to get it colored in a salon. And for a few years, that's what I did. It is certainly nice to get pampered a little. I certainly think I'm worth it, to spend the money to color it...if I ever decide to go that route again.
I still can't justify the expense of a salon coloring, even though I promised myself I was going to do that at some point. It's just so crazy expensive. I can do mine for $7 LOL. I am going to try and force myself to get some highlights I think...that is much harder to do yourself and do well.
I couldn't give a rat's patooty whether someone colors their hair or not. My gosh I have been coloring mine, of some sort, since I was a teenager and used "Sun In"!!!
I still can't justify the expense of a salon coloring, even though I promised myself I was going to do that at some point. It's just so crazy expensive. I can do mine for $7 LOL. I am going to try and force myself to get some highlights I think...that is much harder to do yourself and do well.
I couldn't give a rat's patooty whether someone colors their hair or not. My gosh I have been coloring mine, of some sort, since I was a teenager and used "Sun In"!!!
The thing is, drugstore brands can be damaging to some women's hair, and if you miscalculate the shade, you're stuck with it, especially if it's darker than you want because to go lighter then you have to bleach and start over. Not every woman is good at figuring out whether she should use a warm or a cool shade, either. I see a lot of women walking around where I can tell, "That's Clairol 7a when she really needed a 5," "that's Feria, it makes her skin look green, and that's too bad because she will NEVER be able to color over it and will have to wait it out."
Also, it depends on how your scalp reacts. Some women actually have LESS of a reaction to the drugstore brands than the salon processes, so if that's you, I'm happy for you. A bad reaction on the scalp can be devastating. Ask me how I know. That said, the reason I reacted to the salon chemicals is because my ex-stylist didn't put the foils on right, the chemicals leaked out of the foils while I was under the heat, and I got chemical burns on my scalp. The color was all wrong, too. That is why I will not go to bargain salons, and why I deliberately seek out people who specialize in fine hair in older women. Percentage of gray hairs, rate of hair growth, thinning skin on the scalp, natural loss of volume (thinning hair), female pattern baldness, all of that comes into play as you get older, especially past menopause, and it really takes an experienced stylist to do it right. I am at a point where I cannot afford to lose a lot of hair to someone's ineptitude. I am naturally blonde, so I had a lot of hair to begin with, but after the burn I lost about 40% of it and it's still not right over 2 years later. Only about half of what I lost grew back in. It really was a horror show. I will not go back to drugstore brands, however, because they are always too dark or yellow and I am afraid that now that I have had one reaction, I will have another. I will not trust color touching my scalp ever, and with box dyes, there is no way to avoid that.
I dyed my hair for about five minutes back in the day. What a waste of time and money, not to mention a stinky mess! Low-maintenance (in all things) and lovin' it.
I good friend of mine is a colorist, and her hair is always "colors not found in nature" LOL She's a lot younger than me, but I love that she does that. It's cool, it's creative...I think it's neat.
I think that’s cool too, I know a woman who does the same. She has her own salon, and you never know when you see her if she’ll be purple or hit pink or aqua blue.
I don’t have the courage for that, personally! Although I’ve considered doing a few hanks in green gold and purple for Mardi Gras!
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That said, the reason I reacted to the salon chemicals is because my ex-stylist didn't put the foils on right, the chemicals leaked out of the foils while I was under the heat, and I got chemical burns on my scalp. The color was all wrong, too. That is why I will not go to bargain salons, and why I deliberately seek out people who specialize in fine hair in older women. Percentage of gray hairs, rate of hair growth, thinning skin on the scalp, natural loss of volume (thinning hair), female pattern baldness, all of that comes into play as you get older, especially past menopause, and it really takes an experienced stylist to do it right. I am at a point where I cannot afford to lose a lot of hair to someone's ineptitude. I am naturally blonde, so I had a lot of hair to begin with, but after the burn I lost about 40% of it and it's still not right over 2 years later. Only about half of what I lost grew back in. It really was a horror show. I will not go back to drugstore brands, however, because they are always too dark or yellow and I am afraid that now that I have had one reaction, I will have another. I will not trust color touching my scalp ever, and with box dyes, there is no way to avoid that.
