To Dye or Not to Dye

To dye, or not to dye, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer through the graying process with hairs that stick out of place, or to take drastic measures to arm myself with a box of Loreal against a sea of gray hairs, and by opposing, end them.

In case you haven't figured it out yet by my quote, I'm finding gray hairs. Lots of them. I have shoulder length, medium brown hair, and some of the gray hairs I'm finding are the full length of my hair, which means one of two things: Either I don't pay too much attention to my roots, or these grays grow at twice the rate of the brown hairs.

I'm thinking they are like mutant hairs that appear overnight.

For the most part the grays are focusing their attack on the front and top part of my hair around my part, and then tend to grow long. At least they are growing evenly on both sides of my part, because with my OCD issues about symmetry I couldn't handle lopsided graying.

At this time I don't think they have appeared on the back on my head, but I haven't really been able to check closely. Perhaps someone should come inspect the back of my head for me.

I knew this day was coming. It's been approaching for awhile, because hello, have you seen my parents? My Mom and Dad have had salt and pepper hair for as long as I can remember (except in photos), and so I didn't have much choice in the genetic roll of the dice than to eventually end up with a head full of salt and pepper hair.

Ahem. For the record, their hair is now more salt than pepper. Love you Mom!

And my Mom totally rocks her hair. Women compliment her all the time on her hair, and she has total strangers ask her how she gets her coloring to look so good.

I know people my age (mid to late 20's) that have chosen the route of not dying their hair and they look great, but I'm not sure I'm ready to start give in to graying before I turn 30. I'm going to go ahead and confess that in this phase of my life I have taken to just pulling out the offending hairs as I spot them, but at the rate I'm going, I'm afraid I'm going to snatch myself bald headed before I see my 30th birthday.

I dyed my hair once in college. Red. And I can promise you that I would never go that route again. I had to dye my hair back brown when I was over my stupidity to get my roots to look normal again.

So here's my question: Do I just begin accepting the gray hairs as a necessary and normal part of getting older, or do I start to dye my hair knowing that it can be an expensive and time consuming process? If anything I'm thinking of just maintaining the brown to cover up the gray.

I'm totally open to opinions and advice on either side of the fence because y'all, I'm not so sure I can fully handle either option, and I definitely don't want to be bald before 30!