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I'm only 34, but I already have quite a bit of gray in my hair. Not that I have a problem with that. In fact, I'm quite fond of long gray, or even white, hair. I would love to someday maybe have the Gandalf the White look. :) Anyway, I have what might be a silly question. Does the thickness or overall quality of hair change in any way as it goes gray? Does it, for any reason, require more maintenance? Again, I know it may seem silly of me to ask such things, but I just want to know if I should change anything about how I manage my hair. I'm in the awkward stage right now and really can't wait to get out of it. Time is absolutely the worst part of growing hair. I'm just trying to be patient.
Hi Patrick,
to answer your question, gray hair per se does NOT require any changes in hair care strategies. - By the way, I, too, think the "Gandalf the White"-look is great.
Happy Growth! (hair-wise and wisdom-wise ;-)
Hans-Uwe
Thanks Hans. At least I don't have any balding problems right now. LOL Hopefully, that will never happen either.
But, gray hair does change its quality. It can get courser and curlier, or just wild. I don't have much gray hair, but the few hairs I have in my beard, and one or two in my hair are thicker and wilder. Others whom I know with much more attest the same thing.
Robert
Well, thicker I wouldn't mind because I naturally have fine hair. But, wilder would bother me as there is already a certain degree of that. But, I am still in the awkward stage and have about two inches of layered hair around the sides and back. I plan on having the layers trimmed out a little at a time during the next several months so that my hair will thicken up and have more weight to it in the long run as it gets longer.
Yes, gray hair can have a very different texture than your pigmented hair. Depending on the original texture of your hair, you may find the gray hair to be more dry, or have a "wirey" texture, or have more of a "kink" to it.
As your hair gets even longer, the gray hair will contribute to more tangles because it is generally courser than the rest of your hair. So you will need to consider some kind of detangler (Paul Mitchell's is good) in your regimine. The L'oreal Vive smooth intense is also very good at managing the mixed-mode of salt-n-pepper hair.
Gray hair can yellow in the sun, and can yellow from exposure to certain shampoos (especially dandruff shampoos). If you run into that problem, you will need to add some kind of rinse to your regimine to combat the accidental coloring.
Proud of his silvering locks,
William
I wonder if the change in courseness of grey hair is due to additional keratine taking up the place where the melanine (the pigment) would normally go, thus adding more "structure" to the hair.
At age 36, I got a few stray strands of grey in my hair, but they are pretty hard to notice amongst all the blond hair. I am not worried about it. I'd rather have grey hair instead of no hair, plus I also like that "Gandalf" look as well. Kerstan (I hope that is right spelling) has some very nice looking hair, and is probably what mine will look like as I get older.
BTW, I really like your hair. I think it looks awesome on you.
Glad to hear that. I was afraid I was going blond! :)
As for mine, it differs depending on where it is on my head. Some got wirey, some got really weak and breaks off easily, but most stayed really nice.
It got grey hair and it's very thick and wavy and I love it and you won't see not going near a dye bottle. Let alone all those trim...trim..trim happy people!!!
John.B
When my dad's hair went gray he said he noticed it getting a little bit more coarse, but I see several men here with gray or grayish hair that looks very nice and healthy.
I saw one asian with gray hair and he's only in the early 20's.... I think its genetic.
i've got a few grey hairs. Mine look noticeable thicker compared to my normal hair, and feel really rough no matter how much conditioner is used. i think they're more brittle as well - they never seem to make it past shoulder length, but i'm hoping they'll grow longer when they're all grey
Hmmmmmm, interesting. You meeeeeean that I'm not the only man whose hair's goin' gray & finds that its width is becoming both wireier as well as coarser? Yeah, it's most DEFINITELY wireier & coarser.
However, the hair from MY pate, unlike YOUR observation of YOURS, isn't brittle . . . my BEARD hair that's goin' gray IS! It's as if I don't need to trim my beard hair. It simply breaks at a certain length. O' the steady march of time . . .sigh!
Going grey most definately changes the texture of your hair. That's one reason so many woman color it. The color will fill in and thicken the hair shaft, giving it some body and making it more managable.
Your mileage may vary...
Got lots of gray in mine... in shines, it's thicker and less easy to control, it goes where it wants!!! Guess one day it will all be that way and I'll have some Arlo Guthrie stuff happenin! It'll be cool! Eat a Peach For Peace! RedTail Wolf
