My 25-year 戦う／戦い with grey hair

LIZ JONES is so obsessed by her silver roots she's spent £60,000 dyeing them ? and even had them done on her honeymoon. Now she's taking ever more 激烈な 活動／戦闘...

By LIZ JONES FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Updated: 11:38 BST, 24 October 2011

On a 有望な, sun-filled day in Paris a couple of weeks ago, I had a 発覚. Standing outside the Grand Palais, I w atched the world’s most groomed, cutting-辛勝する／優位, 特権d women in the world arrive for a fashion show.

These women have worked in the 産業 for years and are at the 最高の，を越す of their game: editors, 買い手s, critics, stylists.

All of them should have been feeling good as they stepped from リムジンs with their immaculately shod feet, unscuffed 捕らえる、獲得するs and 力／強力にする oozing from every tiny pore. Except, almost every woman seemed to be worried about the 厳しい light.

New-look Liz: The 最高潮の場面s means regrowth will look natural

Like me, they had spent the previous three weeks 急ぐing from fashion show to fashion show. And, like me, their silver roots were glistening, betraying their vintage when nothing else was. I （機の）カム across a friend from a 競争相手 newspaper

‘I went to a salon on Rue St 栄誉（を受ける） at 8am to try to get them 直す／買収する，八百長をするd, but they said I had to have a patch 実験（する） and come 支援する a day later!’ she said. ‘I begged, I broke 負かす／撃墜する, but they wouldn’t budge! I was in 涙／ほころびs!’

More than difficult shoes, eyelash 拡張s or losing 負わせる, the tyranny of grey hair is the worst, most oppressive grooming diktat of all.

The extent of the re-growt h of my silver roots casts a 影をつくる／尾行する on my day. It dictates my movements and mood. I 診察する the ever-広げるing （土地などの）細長い一片 of grey in a mirror each morning, 裁判官ing how far I can 投機・賭ける from the 影をつくる／尾行するs. Any more than three millimetres of silver growth sends me into a downward spiral.

Liz's hair had been dyed so many times using 厳しい 黒人／ボイコット home colour that it 反映するd no light どれでも

I crave my next salon 任命 like an （麻薬）常用者 craves ヘロイン. Of course, silver roots are more noticeable if, like me, you have dark hair.

I didn’t 故意に acquire 黒人／ボイコット hair: it crept upon me like a どろぼう. I was born a dull, mousy brown. I first had my hair coloured in the late Seventies, when as a student I visited Molton Brown, then a メッカ for ‘natural’ hair care.

‘How about a vegetable rinse?’ asked Ingrid, a breathtakingly beautiful young woman with? the inky, glossy locks of? the Chinese.

Wanting to be just like her, I succumbed ― and after that 強襲，強姦 on my virgin hair there has been no going 支援する. There has not been a fortnight when I have not gone under the little 黒人／ボイコット applicator 小衝突 with its vicious, pungent-smelling dye. I am one of the millions of middle 老年の (and younger) women who have the wiry, アイロンをかける grey （土地などの）細長い一片 that blights their 長，率いるs for all but a few days a month.

It’s a 悪口を言う／悪態, the last タブー, a 支配する even Sex And The City didn’t dare 取り組む (Carrie Bradshaw was 許すd to buy sex toys, but never hair dye at the pharmacy). I only know one woman who has never succumbed to this tyranny: my friend Rasi, who is Indian, in her late 30s and has threads of long silver in の中で the 黒人／ボイコット, which looks incredible, like Christmas fairy lights.

Seven days after my ‘直す／買収する，八百長をする’, I can see a silver halo and tramline 負かす／撃墜する my parting. I won’t go out anywhere special in week two and 縮む ― vampire-like ― from mirrors and daylight.

I am now 53 and it’s not an exaggeration to say this 恐れる of grey roots has blighted my life for almost 25 years and, I have calculated, has cost me £60,000 in colouring 治療s.

Lighten up: A colour remover was used to take away Liz's 黒人／ボイコット hair and then 最高潮の場面s were 追加するd

I left the mountain-最高の，を越す 退却／保養地 where I was honeymooning halfway through our stay to 運動 all day to Seville (the nearest town) for an 緊急 roots retouch.

If my husband had been the jealous type, he’d have 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd I was having an 事件／事情／状勢, which, in a way, I was. I was more 関心d covering my roots than creating happy honeymoon memories.

All of this 苦悩 is not only bad f or our psyche: hair dye has been long 嫌疑者，容疑者／疑うd of 存在 a carcinogen and no one yet knows the 影響 of 30 or 40 years of dye might have on both our hair and scalps.

But this 中毒 to dyeing is 広大な／多数の／重要な for the big cosmetics houses: Mintel 予報するs the home hair dye market will be 価値（がある） £283 million by 2012.

にもかかわらず the 最近の 人気 of grey-haired catwalk models such as Kristen McMenamy, it’s a habit few want to break.

Why do we care so much about going grey?

As I started to go silver in my late 20s, I 簡単に felt it was too 早期に. To me, grey hair was something to be ashamed of.

And, of course, once you start dyeing your hair, you cannot easily stop. I used to visit my colourist every two weeks, but finding the time became problematic and living in the country got in the way, so I 訴える手段／行楽地d to colouring at home. This meant my self-適用するd dark dye was daubed inexpertly on 最高の，を越す of colour.

徐々に, my hair became darker and denser and stopped 反映するing the light.

I’d 現れる from an activity every woman wants to keep under 包むs with stains around my forehead and beneath my fingertips. I started to hide my box of green Boots ‘bitter chocolate’ in the cupboard under the 沈む, thinking my boyfriend would never find it.

Happy 顧客: Liz's hair was 最高潮の場面d in ivory at the 寺 to look more natural while the はしけ shade complements her 肌 トン better

But, of course, he did, only to laugh and point, 完全に unashamed or unaware that his stubble has flecks of white in it.

But now, in my 50s, having stood の中で all those other ridiculous fashion mavens on the Paris pavement, I feel the jet 黒人／ボイコット look is becoming more and more unnatural.

Some women can keep their youthful hair colour ― think how wonderful U.S. Vogue’s Grace Coddington’s 炎上 curls look ― but, on the whole, it doesn’t really work as you age.

Although in my 30s I felt my hair was a bit Liz Taylor, the reality was, as the years went by, I was beginning to 似ている the late Michael Jackson.

So yes, my hair bothered me. And it seemingly bothered others. Many people ― friends and strangers ― would tell me they thought my hair was too dark. Stylist Jo Hansford even got in touch to say she’d seen me on Sky News and thought ‘oh dear’. It was definitely time for a change

And so, in despair, and wearing a hat, I go to colour specialist Louise Galvin, who numbers the Samantha Cameron の中で her （弁護士の）依頼人s, in the Marylebone salon of her father, Daniel.

最初, I had 手配中の，お尋ね者 a 劇の white ‘badger’ （土地などの）細長い一片 at the 前線, like Daphne Guinness or Anne Bancroft (in The 卒業生（する）, she was given her white （土地などの）細長い一片 簡単に because, at 36, she was only six years older than her co-星／主役にする Dustin Hoffman, and they needed to age her 急速な／放蕩な), but Louise advises against it. < /font>

‘You have to be very soign?e to pull this look off: red lips, an updo and sophisticated 着せる／賦与するs,’ she says. ‘For most women on the school run, this doesn’t work.’?

Louise 特記する／引用するs Vogue’s Anna Wintour, who has gone はしけ over the years, as a good example of how to descend into your 60s with dignity 損なわれていない. She likes, too, Helen Mirren’s hair colour: in の中で the silver are lots of beige, white and honey トンs that never betray a tide 示す.

Going はしけ, though, is not 平易な. In the past, the only 頼みの綱 for dark hair was bleach, which would most likely make my hair 落ちる out because it’s been so over-過程d over the years.