For the most part, I prefer natural gray when it happens, and, as you said, shaved heads for men who are balding. If the guy is a smoker and has a yucky yellow tint to his hair, he may be better off dying it.

If more women were into "silver foxes," maybe men wouldn't be so insecure about their graying hair.

If I may be permitted to generalize based upon observation--and I may well not be permitted, but will do so anyway--the average aging man who has decided to conceal this from the world will not pay sufficient attention to detail to pull the ruse off. As the hair loses pigment, so does the skin, so simply applying a box of grocery store dye that appears to resemble one's former hair color does not result in visually turning back time. The color will look unnatural and the contrast will be harsh. It looks odd and jarring and it totally gives the game away. This is true for both genders, but it looks worse on a man. My guess is that since we women don't generally hide our terror of looking old, a bad dye job doesn't quite seem so bad. Choosing a less intense color that is like a gently faded version of one's old color is the trick. Will a dude sit down and analyze hair color in minute detail? Nyet, I say.

Other vital details from 10+ years of covering gray that I don't believe most men will be interested in seeing to: eyebrows should match. This is actually kind of hard to achieve at home. Not to mention the carpet down there will NOT match, and you can't expect no one to notice this. Also, for the love of all that is holy, ROOTS. I do mine every two weeks, which is barely adequate. It takes two hours and is tedious as hell, but not doing it looks indescribably awful--much worse than silver hair.

I've decided to become a gray-haired lady in 8 years, when I'm 50. I do look forward to it, though I know that in so doing I'll have put on a permanent Invisibility Suit. Surely at some point one is allowed to withdraw from the beauty pageant.

heh, L, I work with a very lovely silver haired lady, who based on skin seems around 40... she is one hot tamale, and if she wasn't married...

Since her hair is such an unusual color, and she is in good shapoe and such, I think it enhances.

Guys on the other hand? Dude, you've lived, and now you are going to pay for that. The gray is just like the lines, or even if you have no hair, it's the price. You own that life now, why d'ya want to deny it?

Women, may not be interested because you are older? So? You can't change that by trickery, they WILL notice. Present yourself as the genuine article, and find someone who likes that...

Long ago, I saw an image on a movie screen 10 feet tall, and told my frineds that this was a man who had paid the price of his life, and probably thought it well worth it. [even though he was prolly bald at the time]

some guy named Sean

What do you think about guys who don't dye their hair, per se, but use one of those home treatments to get the gray out?

As for men dying their hair, if women don't like it, I have one word: suffer.

Men have endured women's dye jobs for generations. The good ones, the bad ones and the neglected ones where the natural color is showing at least half an inch above the scalp. The ones where the woman just can't stand the fact that she wasn't born with red or light blonde hair, regardless of how unnatural it looks on her. You want men to sport the natural color? You first, ladies. You first.

I've had mine dyed... but with stripes.

There's "dyeing it because you want to look younger" and "dyeing it because you think it'd be awesome in some other color"...

What do I think about guys using some semipermanent treatment to get the gray "out"? It looks much better than an all-over permanent color job that may not be a good color, but to me, it's still quite obvious. That's because I have covered gray for so long and I notice details. What it says to me is that the dyer, whether man or woman, has recognized that with gray hair he/she doesn't appear sexually viable, and is concerned about that. I'll be the first to admit that the encroaching loss of (in my case female) virility takes some getting used to, and I'm not entirely ready to go gently into that gray night. Yet. To see that another is afraid is strangely touching; we're all in the same boat.

And Patrick, there is no way I am deliberately making myself look like hell with bad haircolor, and I don't know why anyone would.

I don't care if someone dyes their hair or not, but they should get professional advice and make sure it looks real. Unless its green or some other color that isn't supposed to look real. If it's green and you're 20, cool. If you're 40... um... well whatever floats your boat.

They found my first gray at 17, about 35% by 27-28, 75% by 35, and changed my DL at 40.

I don't care. The upside -- both sides die with a full head of hair at a ripe old age. ;-)

I can't believe I have a comment on this, but...

Last year I started seeing a an old girlfriend, and we saw each other about twice a month (live 120 miles apart). She's an IT professional, but prior to college and that she was an Aveda stylist, colorist, etc. She had always kept her license, more importantly her skills, and kept asking me to let her do my hair (I'm 46, graying from the original auburn locks). I finally made her an offer that if she'd blow me while the coloring set, she could have her way. So for about 6 months, my hair was youthful and colorful. She did my brows too, so it wasn't unnatural looking. She matched the color to 'the carpet' (which for some reason has not received the orders to turn gray).
My friends are brutally honest, and not one of them had bad things to say about it. Most, especially my gal friends thought it looked great.
And the price, a blow job? can't beat that with a stick.
However, we stopped seeing each other late last fall, and I am back to normal color- auburn and gray. I'm good with that, and thought guys that dyed their hair were vain. And I have no intention of going to a salon.
That's my story and two cents...

two words, sterling?

Lucky.
Bastard.

Uhhh.... we are in the middle of a recession that has disproportionately affected male workers.

Age is a factor in getting hired - and maturity is no longer respected as much as a fresh face.

I would not color my hair if I were mostly grey.
But my gray is still just streaks in my beard, and the stray hair in my head.

Yes, I've dyed it when looking for work.
When covering small amounts of gray it is not at all difficult to get a natural-looking effect.

Go to a salon the first time.
Pay attention to the color they pick - it's duller and paler than your regular hair.

You may be surprised at just how dull and pale the shade is - but it blends the colored hair in. It also accounts for the general fading of skin and hair with age.

Then look for that shade in a drugstore product.

I have dark brown hair and used a "light ash brown" color that knocked the white back to the light brown highlights of my beard. I used a semi-permanent product that gradually faded, so I had no harsh color lines despite beard growth.

I redid the color on weekends to avoid any sharp changes - but that wasn't really necessary once I got into a regular schedule.

Again: I wouldn't have gone this route if I had gray eyebrows or was already mostly gray.

Nobody stared, and I saw no reactions indicating an unnatural result.

Yes, I got hired. By a hotshot 10 years younger than me (which is a different story...)

And half a year later it was very easy to just let the color fade to white over time.

Ive had grey streaking my facial hair scince the day it started comming in

My favorite product is the hair dye for men that only dyes your hair a little bit, leaving just enough gray to get across the idea that you're "experienced" but not that you're old.

We are so doomed.