I was about to color my gray hair yesterday, when I spotted this thread. (Since I was going a little ahead of schedule, I put it off a day.) I've been toying with the idea of growing the gray out due to current trends, but I'm now of an age where I can't pull off the young face, gray hair look. It's going to age me a lot, and I need to get back into the workforce, so it's not going to happen now. I'd love to try the purple wash, but have been warned that the gray doesn't really take it. Nice to read that it is working for some here. Again, I can't do the purple thing now, as I really, really need to get my career going again. It's already hard enough trying to get back in in my 40's, without anything else possibly working against me.
I do love the look on one of the bloggers shared here, though. It is also comforting to learn of all the others that have gone gray as early as I have. It's been frustrating to me to be young, but have really old looking hair. It's a bit less frustrating now that my age has caught up to my hair somewhat. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm 60% gray at the crown and sides, very little gray lower down on my head.
So for now, I'm continuing the box hair color that I love (Swartzkoff Keritin in delicate praline, which is close to my pre-gray color). It does give my fine hair better texture, so there's a silver lining I guess. I only dye the regrowth per my hairdresser's suggestion, so that really helps with drying effects. My colored gray pops out a bit as sparkly highlights as it fades a bit. My hairdresser does highlights on my hair a few times a year, too. I pay half or less than many of you for this, however. (LCOLA & personal acquaintance) I imagine that when I go to au naturale sometime in the future, I'll opt for the sporadic highlights/lowlights route.