Let’s talk about Steve. Steve is a badass guitar player, frontman of his band, and in his free time he is the ultimate outdoorsman. He’s also 30 with a full head of grey hair.

Steve is a good example the grey hair problem. For whatever reason, be it genetic, stress-related, or otherwise, grey hair can strike anyone at any time. And once your hair goes grey, it’s not going to go back. Not on its own.

The first thing most guys think when they start to notice their overall hair color changing is, “Should I dye it?”

Your hair is a major part of your identity. It’s right there on top of your face, so when your hair changes drastically you might feel like your identity is also changing drastically. Your whole face, what people think of when they picture “you,” looks different under a new head of hair. In this post we'll look at the age old question: "When should me dye there hair?"

To Dye or Not to Dye

It’s a tough question and deserves some thought.

On the one hand, when you dye your hair, you need to be careful. Your goal is to look the same as you’ve always looked. If you dye your hair the wrong color, even one just slightly off, you won’t look the same. You will look different, which is what you were trying to avoid in the first place.

So, you need to match your current hair color. That alone is hard, unless you have experience picking and matching hair colors.

Our advice? Get some advice. Go into a salon where they dye hair regularly and just ask. You’re trying to preserve your look--it’s worth getting input from experts. And if that feels like an affront to your manhood, you have some other things to work out.

The Gradual Transition - When to Dye?

For the most part, hair doesn’t turn a different color overnight. It happens over time. You will have a couple grey hairs today, even more next week, and still more next year.

There’s a new question, then: when do you start dyeing your hair? After the first grey hair? Or once people start to make comments?

These questions are very personal, so you will have to answer them yourself.

But we do have some advice. Many men will leave their straggling greys, as no one really notices. Some will pull them out. That’s fine, but again not really necessary as people don’t look that closely.

What the individual grey hairs are good for is they’re a sign of things to come. You can expect more grey hairs in the future. How far in the future? It depends on your head. But it gives you time to think. You have many months to address the issue of, “When my hair is noticeably grey, will I leave it or dye it?”

So, when you start to notice greys, take it as an opportunity to start answering the personal question of whether or not to dye it.

That way, when it comes time to make a decision, you can dye the hell out of it, or you can pull an Anderson Cooper and rock it. Either way, you’ll be acting on a decision that was a long time in the making, and you’ll be happier for it.

If You’re Already Grey

You may be in the position that you already have a full head of grey hair and want to go back to your old look.

There’s one elephant in the room: other people will notice. If that makes you uncomfortable, it’s going to be an uncomfortable process. There’s no getting around that fact.

Again, it’s a personal decision. It’s like ripping a bandaid--people will notice and make comments for a week or so, then they’ll forget you ever had a head of grey hair. If you can make it through that period, go for it.

And if you decide to dye, people you haven’t seen in a long time will continually notice. That’s something you’ll have to deal with. You can even call yourself out, mention the dyeing, and say, “For me, it works better.” That neutralizes the issue and it’s dead in the water (because, at the end of the day, of course you know they’re paying attention to it. It would be weird if you pretended you didn’t do anything and it changed color by magic.)

So whether you’re grey all over or have one grey hair, dyeing and when to dye are personal questions. As a general rule in life, try not to make decisions based on what other people will think of you. Do you.