I am so glad that this discussion came up--it has been a bone of contention for me for a long time. Basically, all of the women in my family who are older than me had to deal with prematurely graying hair that was pure white by their mid 40s. Because the styles were different when they were young and early middle agers, all of them have or had what I would call "Granny style" hair. As I look back at old photos, my great-grandmothers and grandmothers all had old-lady hair beginning in their early to mid 40s! My mother followed their pattern--she has ALWAYS had very short, very old lady styled hair, and she was salt and pepper in her late 20s, gray in her 30s, and white haired in her 40s and beyond. OK--all of this history to explain why I am completely rebelling from the "hair history" of my family! I began noticing a few grays here and there in my 20s, but they were subtle so I either ignored them or pulled them out(my hair is dark brown, so they can really stand out). In my 30s, it got worse and worse, so I began coloring my gray, but never really got very adventurous with color(chose medium to dark brown). All this time I kept my hair fairly long with some layers around my face. Now, in my 40s, I am seeing more and more gray, and I have to color my roots more and more often. I still like to keep my hair fairly long and layered--to me it looks so much more youthful when longer. As my natural hair color becomes more and more white, I will probably color it lighter and lighter until I end up being a blonde. I was blonde as a child, it darkened in my teens, and I was a brunette adult until it began to gray. I can see that one day it will no longer be brown naturally, but white. BUT, instead of going white, I guess I will go blonde. I am now at the age when my mother, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers had gray or pure white hair and kept their hair very short, permed, and old lady style. I feel that I look SO much younger than they did at this age, simply because of hair styles and hair color. My mother still follows the old lady hair creed--goes and gets her white hair "done" at a salon every week or so, and does not EVER wash and style it herself, and avoids many things in life because she doesn't want to get her hair wet and mess it up--she gets it cut short and gets perms just like her mother and grandmothers did. SO, when we discuss this issue, we are not even in the same book, much less the same page. I just do not get her generation and the generations before her, and she does not get mine. According to my mother, white hair makes you wise and looking and acting elderly is something to be desired--the wisdom of age, I suppose--she says that she wears her white hair proudly(and has done so since her late 30s/early 40s). I, on the other hand, am fighting the aging process full force, at least as far as my hair is concerned. I would absolutely HATE to have my hair white and in a short granny style!! I can't imagine going to get my hair whitened, cut short, permed, etc. I can't imagine living in fear of getting my hair wet and not being able to get it fixed until next week. I am SO glad our generation does not do this!! I just don't understand the concepts of "the old lady hair creed". Here's to young-looking hair!!!