Happier Grey Podcast

In this episode I'm chatting to Meg McKeen, who ditched dye at 40. She'd previously been dyeing it jet black, so she had the full skunk stripe during her grow out. Her grey hair transition coincided with a major period of change in her life, with a relationship break-up, her grandmother dying, the early stages her own business, and choosing to sell up and travel full time all happening a...

In this episode I'm chatting to Mia Maugé, who ditched the dye in 2016. She made the decision for a number of reasons, but I love that encouragement from her daughters was one of them. They had friends who were dyeing their hair platinum, and thought their mother would like great with it too. Mia started her Instagram page in 2020, because she was frustrated by the lack of representation of p...

In this episode I'm chatting to Sue Whitaker who originally started dyeing her hair whilst working in a corporate environment, after senior managers suggested she would be taken more seriously if she wore more make-up, switched her trousers for dresses, and had neater hair. Sue grew her colour out in Lockdown, and found them middle stages of her grow out the most challenging. Whilst her famil...

In this episode I'm chatting with Victoria Marie, who ended up going grey by chance in 2001, following a change of circumstance caused by the 9/11 New York attacks. Five years in the making, her film "Gray is the New Blonde" had it's red carpet premier in 2020. Then, just as she was gearing up for a nationwide US theatre tour, the COVID pandemic had other ideas.

In this episode I'm chatting with Minal Patel who is almost 5 months into her grow out. She considered grey blending, but decided it wasn't for her. Instead she's chosen to let her colour grow out naturally. So far, she's much more comfortable with the grow out than she expected to be. It took Minal quite a while to decide to go grey. Initially she had it it pencilled in for wh...

There are lots of different reasons why women choose to embrace their natural silvering hair, but this week's guest Jo Brianti's grow out was triggered by the realisation that she was trying to spin too many plates. When a dramatic incident brought things to a head. Initially, her new salt and pepper shade took some getting used to, and she wasn't sure she liked it. The colour has c...

In this episode I'm chatting with Alexis Eizinas, who used the insights from her career in beauty industry to launch make-up and haircare lines designed for Silver Sisters, under her Silvering brand. Alexis chose to ditch they dye during her pregnancy, and has never been tempted to colour again, because she thinks grey hair is amazing. At the time of recording, Alexis and her co-founder were...

In this episode I'm chatting to Emily Payne, who chose to grey because she thought her dyed brown hair looked a bit meh, and she was wanted a more distinctive and dramatic look. Emily has been a sex worker for over 20 years, so I couldn't resist asking her whether men found her less attractive now that she has grey hair. The answer was a definite no, if anything she's attracting you...

In this episode, I'm chatting to Alex Hughes, who went through her grey hair transition nine years ago. Rather than ditching the dye and going cold turkey, Alex just had her hair dyed in gradually lighter shades over 12 - 15 months. Until she was ready to stop colouring all together. She's finding more and more of her friends are getting curious, and starting to ask how she made the tran...

In this episode, I'm chatting to Catherine Chapman, who chose to go grey after a health scare with her liver. Her research into what caused the problem, suggested that colouring your hair is one of the worst things for your liver, which struggles to detox the hair dye from your body. Catherine was living in New Zealand during her grow out, where there is a much more relaxed approach towards l...

In this episode I'm chatting to Angie Newson, who has almost completed her grey hair grow out. She took a phased approach to ditching the dye, starting with the sides, followed by the back. She initially continued to dye the hair at her crown and along her parting. When she stopped dyeing that, she had her brunette shade lightened a couple of times to make the demarcation line look less obvio...

In this episode I'm chatting to Mel Barfield, who found her first white hair at 20. 21 years later she still only has a sprinkling of them, which she has no intention of covering with dye. While she'd love to say that setting a good example to her daughters, is the reason she chooses not to dye. She is honest with herself, recognising that laziness, and the dread of the ongoing maintenan...

In this episode I'm chatting to Silvina Neder, founder of the Silvina London, a haircare brand she developed following her grey hair transition. Prior to going grey Silvina had been using the Curly Girl Method, and after her transition she wanted to continue using haircare products with no parabens, no sulphates and no silicones. When she couldn't find a grey hair shampoo without them, s...

In this episode I'm chatting with cold water swimming enthusiast and author, Sara Barnes. She loves having her hair loose while she's swimming, photographing it swirling in the water, like mermaid hair. Sara and I have quite stripy hair, with some patches white and others our original dark blonde shade. Despite having less contrast than some, we were both very conscious of, and uncomfort...

In this episode, I'm chatting to Julie Kneafsey, AKA the Fiftyist, about her grey hair journey. And how the transition led to a new career, and a completely different attitude towards ageing. Julie's had breast cancer twice, and when genetic testing showed that it wasn't inherited genes that were responsible, she started to investigate other possible causes. That journey led to a pa...

In this episode I'm chatting to Emma Blaker who chose to go grey in Lockdown, and lightened her hair first to avoid a strong demarcation line during the grow out. Emma works as a mobile barber, and one of the things we chatted about was her male clients' attitudes to going grey. And whether any of them are colouring their hair to disguise their greys.

In this week's podcast I'm chatting to Alison Monteith, who loves creating some drama with her silver hair, which is short at the sides and long on top. When she styles it up, she always get lots of compliments when she's out and about. Alison is passionate about keeping fit and strong. And at 68 is still being set, and achieving, challenging gym goals by her PT. She loves the gym,...

In this episode I'm chatting to Janet Stevens, who chose to ditch the day 8 years ago, when her husband and hairdresser both asked why she was having it highlighted a pale ash blonde, which was very similar to her natural silvering shade. Emma loves her hair in the Summer, when she here skin has a bit of colour. But can feel very washed out in the Winter, which she counteracts with red lipsti...

In this episode I'm chatting to Niki Rubin who is 20 months into her grow out. Like most of us, Niki has had days when she's tempted to start dyeing again, but each time she comes back to the reasons she chose to ditch the dye each time she has a wobble. Niki is a singer, songwriter and actress, who loves playing with the look, and has been enjoying experimenting with braids, and other s...

In this week's episode I'm chatting to Amanda Gillespie, who started to go grey in her 20s, and found that children are the most likely to comment and assume that you must be old if you have grey hair. Amanda's the only guest I've had who was tempted to send photo of her dog rather than herself for the episode graphic. Because she's so proud of him, listen in to find out w...

In this episode, I'm chatting to Susan Ritchie, who went grey during Lockdown, having dyed her hair for donkey's years before hand. Dyeing was such a habit, that growing the colour out wasn't something she'd ever considered.  She'd always had her hair coloured at the hairdressers, and by the time she thought about buying a box dye to colour at home, they had all sold out....

In this episode I'm chatting the Rachel Peru, who ditched the dye at 45, and started a new career as a silver haired, curve model a year later. She's a body confidence activist and host of the Liberte free to be Podcast. We chat about how she keeps her hair in good condition, her love of fashion and bright colours, why her nickname at school was biddy, and more.

In this episode I'm chatting with Jo Renshaw Thomlinson, who is coach, based in Brighton. Jo had a change of career direction when she was 44, moving from being a freelance photographer to starting to build her coaching business. Her decision to ditch the dye was driven by a combination of looking to save money and being short on time and energy. She didn't enjoy the grow out phase, part...

In this episode I'm chatting to Hulya Erbeyli, who is 11 months into her grow out. Like many of us, Hulya spent many years colouring her hair on autopilot, never questioning why she was doing it. But all that changed when she was rushing to dye it one morning, and stopped for a moment to ask who she was dyeing it for.

This week I'm chatting to Sandra Bird, a holistic practitioner from Suffolk, who first embraced her natural greys in her forties. But she found they made her look and feel dull. Over the years, she's flitted between first natural looking dyes, then vivid pinks and purples. Now her hair is white grey again, and she doesn't think she'll be dyeing it.... but never say never!