How can I tame these wild white hairs that are appearing in my long blonde hair?

Embrace the white.

I am. I just look like Alfalfa.

I don’t think there is a way to tame them. They really seem to be a breed apart. But I’ll follow this with interest, in case!

Will the hairs always be brittle and short? I’m ready to rock the Jane Goodall look. The Einstein look, not so much.

Mine are wiry and curly – which none of my others are. They grow to the same length as the rest, though. Much to look forward to!

Are they grey hairs? Grey hairs do have a different composition than other hairs. They’re courser. Do you use a conditioner? I found this Oprah page

Juan Carlos’ solution: “Yamuna’s hair has a coarse texture, so she needs to use a daily leave-in conditioner and then apply a serum or spray that controls frizz and adds shine. She should use a deep conditioning treatment once a week, leaving it on for as long as possible, or even overnight.”

Conditioners can be horrendously expensive so perhaps a good plan would be to find some natural products that will condition your hair and help you tame it more. Why aren’t they very long? Do you have short or long hair generally?

@Earthbound_Misfit Conditioners are basically an acidic solution – these can even be homemade, often with vinegar (easily Googled). I would caution against spending a fortune trying to tame the wild ones. Also – there is always going to be a texture difference between the white hairs and the normal ones.

I’ve never actually found a “grey hair” on my head. I think the reason we think of it as grey hair is that the overall effect of adding white to the usual hair colour is to make one’s head look grey.

This says it’s for curly hair, but I bet it would work to tame rogue grey hairs too. Aloe Vera. You can grow that in your garden.

_Frizz Control for Curly Hair
Ingredients
1 small Aloe Vera Leaf

Directions
Snip off end of leaf and apply a dollop of aloe vera gel to palm. Work through hair to ends._

@dappled_leaves, when you type grey, quite a few pages focus on getting rid of grey hair rather than living with it and making it beautiful. I am starting to see greys now, but I have my hair highlighted so they blend in with the rest of my hair. They do have a different structure to the rest of my hair.

@jonsblond, perhaps you can ask a follow-up question about natural conditioners people have tried and tested. You don’t want to weigh your hair down. Just to make sure your hair is softer and more manageable. I’ll have another look and see what else I can find.

This page has lots of natural hair conditioning ideas. Using bananas, avocado, olive oil and the like. Olive oil is a fabulous moisturiser all round. A friend of mine puts a spoonful in her bath and her skin is amazing. Might be worth trying and seeing how your hair reacts. You’ve probably already got it in your pantry.

Do you dry your hair with a dryer? Or, let it dry naturally? Using a dryer might help along with some hair mousse. If the hairs are dried in a specific position they might stay more tamed. A heavier conditioner should help also. Pantene is great for people with thicker, wilder, hair who want it to appear smoother. I can’t use it. My hair is too thin.

I use Paul Mitchell Super Skinny Serum to make my hair look less fly away and shinier. While my hair is still damp I put a golf ball size amount if mousse in my hand and a mini mini baby pea size amount of the skinny and mix them together and then put it all in my hair. The skinny isn’t cheap, but I’ve had one bottle 5 years and I probably will have it a few years more.

I don’t have this issue coz I shave my head, but the day I see a grey pube darting outta my bush, well…them fuckers are coming right off too.

Eventually they’ll grow longer, but they will still have a mind of their own.

I colored my hair since turning 30 with a “semi-premanent” color formula that fades over a month or so. I did that because of how drab and ashy my once golden-blonde hair had become. I wasn’t trying to cover the ‘salt’ – it was the ‘pepper’ I didn’t care for. Now as 50 looms on the horizon and I’m about 40% ‘salt’, I’ve stopped coloring, and I do notice that the grey hairs are more unruly than when I was coloring. So even though the coloring formula didn’t really dye the grey, it did somehow improve the texture. They make colorless glossing formulas, but I personally wouldn’t be too keen on using all those chemicals just to smooth a few stray greys.

I don’t use a hairdryer, but I do shampoo and condition every day (or the roots will get greasy), and work a leave-in smoother in the ends (which tend to be dry); if I want my hair to be a little more tamed, I will use a mousse along the front hairline and the part. There are a lot of natural products out there for smoothing and taming coarse hair – which is what makes the greys stand out. You don’t have to spend a fortune, because if you only use a small amount in the visible areas as I do, it lasts a long time.

@Earthbound_Misfit The hairs look more white than grey. I believe they are shorter from breaking after blow drying or from pulling my hair back into a ponytail often. I’ve been using Aussie shampoo and conditioner for two decades, but I do alternate shampoos once in a while and use a different brand. Thank you for the info!

@JLeslie I let it dry naturally whenever I can, but that’s harder to do during the winter months. This is when I have to use a dryer, but I’d prefer not to. I’ll have to give your suggestion a try. Thank you!

@hearkat I also have to wash daily or my roots will get greasy. I feel gross if I don’t shower daily.

Thanks everyone!

You don’t need to dry your whole head, you can just do where it most bothers you.

My hair is naturally wavy. I need to use a brush to straighten it when I use the blower. If I don’t use a brush my hair ends up very unruly. My hair stays wavy and in place if I don’t use a blower, except for those pesky short white hairs.

I used to wash my hair daily, but I forced myself to leave it for an extra day and now I can go a couple of days when it’s cooler. Do you use covered hair bands? Not elastic bands? That might help to prevent breaks too and make sure you comb your hair when it’s wet with a wide-toothed comb. These things can help prevent breaks. I do think the stronger you can make your hair, the better it will be.

Perhaps you can just dry your hair off a bit or even use a straightener? Rather than blow drying your hair. That might put less stress on your hair.

I think ‘grey’ is an all-encompassing term for those hairs that grow and are not our youthful colour. You’re blonde so like me, you’ve probably survived for quite a while without seeing (or noticing) them. Good luck with it anyway.

My hair is naturally wavy too. I embrace that! I just scrub mousse into my hair and go! If you do that, it will be harder to see the short white hairs.