Graying Eyebrows - For my Silver Sisters

I have wisdom highlights. I have no intention of dying my hair, but once it turns white, I want to get purple highlights - not too dark, just subtle. At the rate I'm going, I think I probably have another 20 years to go!

Anyways... so, obviously, all hairs are turning white. To include my eyebrows. I pluck the white hairs that are showing up in my eyebrows because they really look awful... It's not like my eyebrows are gray... I get a random white hair here and there.

Should I dye my eyebrows until they turn white? What can I do? Do I have do it professionally or are there products I could buy and do it myself without looking terrible?

What are your suggestions?

You can dye your eyebrows, but be careful to not get the stuff in your eyes. They sell touch up kits so you can use just the tiny bit you need for eyebrows, even kits for men would be fine to use if the color is right.

I use a gel brow pencil that covers mine pretty well.

I find that an eyebrow pencil blends in my grays pretty well. My natural eyebrow color is light brown though - might not work for darker colors.


What I'm dreading is my eyelashes turning white. I know you can dye them but that white can be hard to cover.

I am your sister now, Blueowl. My first grey hair in one of the brows has appeared (I am 52, soon to be 53). And it is shorter than my regular black hairs, stiffer, coarser and sticks out whereas the black hairs are flat agains the surface of the face. I tried covering it with the brow mascara but that did not quite do the job. I do not know what to do about it and what would happen if I get a lot of them. I did not expect this problem but it has been handed to me so to speak. I am afraid I would need to learn to pluck. I have never used tweezers. I do not even own a pair.

Mid-forties here and it happened to me this year. They look rather strange because now they're starting to come out, but if more came in, they would blend in. It's like when the gray starts coming in, the pattern is not flattering but as soon as there is plenty of it, as it whitens, it's not as noticeable.

I'm accepting this... I did not buy any products. I didn't really find what I was looking for and then gave up.

Am just trying to keep them up by having a decent shape.

Also, am too lazy to put on makeup. But I do wear sunscreen, put on some vitamin c in the mornings, and retinol at night. Moisturizers are vaseline, nivea, and Trader Joe's balm.

Yeah, I have the odd white hair coming into my eyebrows. So far I've just been plucking them. But I've thought if more start coming in white I might try dying them.

I use Retin-A on most nights as it is much more effective than retinol. If you have health insurance, you can switch to Retin-A. You do not need a dermatologist even: a primary care physician can prescribe it. Although... my prescription initially dates back to when I had acne as a side effect of Lithium and needed Retin- A to manage it. I do not know whether one can obtain a prescription solely for counteractibg sun damage, but I definitely think it is worth trying.

So my brow threader tells me that if I pluck, this gray hair would grow hoarser and thicker. So I do not pluck. I did brow lamination without tint and the grey hair is now barely visible because it does not stick out. I might try tinting, too, which has been recommended by the makeup artist I have consulted with.

Hope you don't mind a question. What is brow lamination? I've never heard the term before.
Thanks.

It is a process done once a quarter that makes brow hairs lay very nicely and "obediently" on the surface of the skin, and that also nourishes brow hairs. I will attach a before and after picture next time I do that.

I am intrigued about this brow lamination.

On a side note... my silver sisters at work (the ones who are about 20 or so years older than me... getting ready to retire) are using color butter to add a little spice to their hair. Think unicorn hair... Truth is that some look really good - others a bit costume-ish.

One of the ladies at work gave me some colors to try.

The issue I have is that I cannot find online what color butter looks like before and after in salt and pepper hair. I am a bit apprehensive because I work in a rather traditional environment... but these older ladies are almost getting ready to retire so they are not worried about what others think. I just don't want to make a mistake or regret it.

Does anyone know of a website where salt and pepper gals post before and after pictures with color butter?

Nope, I do not!

I have read more on tint versus henna. Apparently henna gives brows colors for longer than tint. Something to consider.

I will get henna on Nov 30. Will post before and after pics.

@Blueowl, henna has completely solved his problem. It has been over three weeks now and that one grey hair is invisible. I am attaching a picture. These are just my brows, without brow mascara. With brow mascara, it is even better.

I cannot seem to find the before picture, to show you how that one grey hair stuck out. I will keep looking.

But overall, I am very happy. Of course, it adds cost to the monthly maintenance, but I hated that grey hair sticking out and brow mascara could not tame it or cover it with pigment.

My threader gives me free threading for doing henna. So she does threading and henna in one go, with the threading being free. So that helps somewhat with the cost.

Note that at first it looks very intense and then you take a shower in 24 hours and everything becomes fine. So you cannot do henna immediately before an important event.

This is how it looked immediately after henna was applied. You cannot go anywhere like this. So I plan to do it after work, wfh and not show my face on zoom next morning, then take a shower and resume normal life.

No, I did not take a good picture of the grey hair. Oh well.

Thanks for sharing! I can see why you'd want to wait to engage in human interactions LOL

The stuff we do to keep ourselves presentable