Woman who went grey at 16 encourages other 'silver sisters' to embrace their natural colour

A woman, who started going grey aged just 16, has decided to embrace her natural silver hair after years of dyeing it.

Lauryn Caldwell, 22, from Glasgow, first started noticing grey hairs appearing in her brunette locks when she was a teenager.

After spending hours plucking them out, Caldwell was allowed to dye her hair at 18, but having grown tired of repeating the process every three weeks to maintain the colour, at 20, she made the decision to ditch the dye and let her natural colour come through.

"I noticed [the greys hairs] when I was 16 in high school," she explains. "I felt uncomfortable a lot of the time as people would point them out.

"A girl who sat behind me used to ask me why I have grey hair and told me I was too young to be grey. I guess it's because you don’t see a lot of young people with grey hair and I was the only one who had it."

Caldwell says neither of her parents went grey at an early age, although her dad's mum did go grey young, so she suspects it may have been inherited from her.

"I used to spend ages in front of the mirror pulling out the greys as my parents wouldn't let me dye it," Caldwell explains. "They would tell me to to just go with it and it was nothing to be embarrassed about.

"But at 18 I dyed it black. My hair is naturally dark anyway, so when the grey started coming through it really contrasted with the dark."

As she was so determined not to go grey, it meant Caldwall had to stick to a strict regime of dyeing her hair every three weeks, always ensuring it was really dark and saturated in the black dye.

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But it took a toll on the condition of her hair and her finances. "[My hair] become really damaged as I was dyeing my whole head not just my roots," she explains. "I was also spending £9 on a box each time."

The turning point came aged 20, when Caldwell decided to stop dyeing her greys, opting to embrace it instead.

"I stopped dying my hair in April 2021, as I was so fed up dyeing it constantly and it was becoming too hard to keep up with," she explains.

Watch: Two-fifths of men with grey hair are self-conscious about it

Sharing pictures of her grey locks online, Caldwell uncovered a whole community of women, known as the "silver sisters", who encouraged her to try to love her natural colouring.

"I decided to have a look at other women who have grey hair and I couldn't believe how many young people are the same as me," she explains.

"I found a whole community of women who support each other called the silver sisters."

Read more: Stress really does turn your hair grey

Caldwell says her friends and family were totally supportive of her decision to let her grey hair shine through, particularly her parents who had always encouraged her to embrace it.

And while she does get some stares and comments about having grey hair at such a young age, she says the majority are now positive.

"At the beginning I didn’t get comments just people would look at my hair," she explains. "Especially working in retail people would stare at the top of my head."

"However recently I have had a lot of positive comments. I think it's because it’s a lot more grown out now so you can see the whole colour and people will tell me how nice it looks.

"There are still days where I look at it and I don’t like it, but I had that same feeling sometimes when I dyed it, and I feel better for embracing it."

Read more: How to go grey gracefully: The women embracing their naturally silver locks

By sharing her story Caldwell hopes to encourage other young women to learn to love their natural grey hair.

"I get messages from people older and younger who tell me I have inspired them or tell me that they like my hair and want theirs to look like mine," she says.

"There isn't enough representation of being young and grey in society and I want to help break the stigma surrounding it.

"I believe that us 'Silver Sisters' can do that," she adds. "We're smashing society's views on grey hair one strand at a time."

Additional reporting Caters.