Hair: your crowning glory – Part 2

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This post is part of the Gorgeous 50’s series inspired by a book given to me by one of my sisters on my 50th birthday – ‘Grown up and Gorgeous in your 50’s’ by Pamela Robson.  I will be sharing some of Pamela’s words and my own thoughts along the way.  To see all posts published as part of this series, go here.

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Pamela has quite a lot to say about our ‘crowning glory’.  So much so, that I’ve broken up the post on this subject into two parts.  This post is Part 2 and here is where you can read Part 1.

Pamela says:

Hair colour becomes very important in your 50s: you’re probably in ‘limbo’ – neither totally grey nor your original colour. Silvery grey hair can be very beautiful (keep it this way with a colour-correcting ‘violet’ shampoo to neutralise yellowness), but if you’re just not ready for it, there’s an art to colouring your locks. Subtle colour changes can be done at home, but more drastic changes should be left to the professionals. The more grey you have, the trickier it is to camouflage – your hairdresser will need to add lowlights and highlights; an all-over colour will be too harsh and will leave you with very obvious regrowth. Basically, the older you get the lighter you need to go, as there is nothing so aging as severe, dark colour.

The light fantastic

Highlights are simply made for women in their 50s – they’ll lift and brighten your face in a subtle way, and they’re universally flattering. A good hair colourist will strategically place them (and graduate the colour) to look natural – like you’ve been holidaying in the sun – not give you unnaturally uniform vertical stripes.

EXPERT TIP

It’s not only the hair on your head that goes 

grey as you get older; so does your facial hair.

If you’ve made a subtle hair colour change,

simply update your brow pencil or shadow. If

you’ve drastically altered your colour, it’s a good

idea to have your brows dyed to match (your hair

colourist should be able to do this for you).

Eek! Facial hair!

It’s one of those things that happens with menopause: eyebrows and lashes get sparser, while once-smooth areas such as the upper lip and the chin suddenly sprout the furry stuff. It’s hormonal of course, and, as with everything else to do with ageing – completely unfair and indiscriminate. Some people grow an entire moustache and others don’t see a single hair.

What to do?

When it comes to the face, it’s worth spending time and money on professional hair removal. This means waxing at the beauty salon, or laser hair reduction. This zaps the hair at the follicle and permanently disables it. It can only work on the hair that is growing at the time, so you’ll need several treatments. Still, once it’s gone, it’s gone! Both waxing and laser come with risks – they can burn. This means that you need to find a well-trained and experienced practitioner.

My thoughts:

Well here we are talking about hair again and what do you know, I can still find heaps to say on the topic!!

Hair Colour, Highlights, and to embrace the grey or not?

Ahhhh hair colour!  We kinda touched on this, and whether to embrace the grey or not, in Part 1.  Some of you have embraced the grey or are in the process of it and others say “hell no”!  Isn’t it wonderful that we can all do whatever the heck we want to?  I colour my hair.  I don’t do it myself.  I have it done at the hairdressers every 7 weeks.  One appointment I just get my roots done.  Next appointment I get foils as well to add some highlights.  My natural hair colour is still a brownish colour.  I can tell by the regrowth.  I colour darker than I used to but still like to have some blonde highlights.  I go a bit darker in winter and lighten up again for summer.  At the moment it’s relatively easy to disguise my greys.  To be honest I don’t know how much of them there would be but I know they have increased in recent years.  At this stage I’m in no way ready to embrace the grey but I admire those who do and I think it can look so lovely on some ladies!

The Brows

I can confirm that rogue greys have infiltrated my brows at times and have been promptly plucked clear!  Not only do you get some errant greys but you can get some wirey brow hairs that have a mind of their own, and your brows tend to become sparser than they were in your younger years.  I get my brows waxed and tinted now each time I go to the hairdressers (so every 7 weeks).  I’ve become much higher maintenance as I’ve gotten older!!

Facial Hair

…. should not be a thing with females apart from a good set of brows and some luscious long lashes. Isn’t facial hair a male thing?  Um … apparently not as we get older.  I’ve been pretty lucky in this department but I am poised for action should that change at any time!!  I personally would choose laser hair removal over waxing when it comes to the face – hands down!  How ’bout you?  

All Haired Out

And that concludes our discussion on HAIR in our 50’s, though if I really wanted to I could think of a heap of other hair related topics to discuss like hair products, hair accessories, hair styling tools, hairstyles over the decades, hair length, and more.  I think though that we’ve covered the important stuff and besides, after two posts on hair I’m feeling a bit haired out!  Feel free to mention anything hair related that you’d like in the comments though cos I love a good chat!

Ciao for now,