A mum who ditched hair dye and shaved her head after a break-up has grown out her natural silver locks - claiming she now looks younger. Amy Jowett was a young teen when she first started dying her hair and noticed the odd grey strand appearing from around the age of 22.
The 39-year-old admits she had been using her tattoos and dying her hair wacky colours as a 'coping mechanism' to 'hide behind' following her divorce back in 2010. But it was after a break-up in October 2020 that the mum-of-two opted to get her hair cut to cheer herself up - only for it to go disastrously wrong.
Instead of dwelling on the break-up and hair fail, Amy seized upon the opportunity to shave her head to allow her grey hair to come through. The singleton described the therapeutic act of ditching her old locks as a 'weight being lifted off her shoulders', as for much of her life she'd used it to define her identity.
Two-and-a-half years later, Amy says the results have been 'life-changing' as her hair's now in the best condition it's ever been. She says her confidence has skyrocketed and she's saving hundreds every year from ditching hair dye.
Now Amy is urging other women thinking about embracing their grey hair to take the plunge and reclaim their natural look. Amy, of Langport, Somerset, said: "Growing my hair out grey was about embracing my natural look. This is the most confident that I've ever felt in my life, it's been life-changing.
"For so long I tried to hide behind my tattoos, hair colour and styles, and make-up. I'd just got to the point where I just wanted to be 'me' and natural. My first concern was 'is it going to make me look older?' and I don't think it does. If anything, having the lighter bits and the grey around my face actually brightens my face up.
"I would say that it's made me look younger because if I look at photos of myself in my 20s where I've actually got really dark hair, I look awful. I feel more confident, brave for doing it and just generally happy and I don't care what anyone thinks of it either.
"It might not be for some people who might think 'oh, she looks awful, why has she let herself go grey?' But I really don't care. My attitude is very much - you do what you want with your hair, everyone's beautiful in their own way."
Amy was 14 when she first dyed her mousey brown hair and she'd colour it every six to eight weeks. Sometimes she'd use a home dye but would also nip to the hairdressers, which set her back around £100 a pop, so she was spending on average up to £300 a year.
Amy said: "I started going grey very early, and had the odd strand here and there, probably when I was as young as 22.
Like many women, for years I coloured my hair to cover the grey.
"But also I was very experimental as I used to like it being lots of different colours like pink, purple, blonde, dark brown or light brown.
My husband and I split up in 2010 and I was quite depressed after the divorce. I put weight on, I was a single mum-of-two, and used my hair and my tattoos as a way to hide behind it all.
"People would see me and they'd see the tattoos or the pink hair. So I used it as a distraction to how I was actually feeling about my body and my look."
In October 2020 Amy broke up with a partner and went to the hairdressers to cheer herself up, but ended up disliking the result.
She'd always wanted to shave her head, so felt this was the ideal opportunity.
Amy said: "I thought 'right, it's now or never. I don't want to spend more money trying to fix this, I'm going to shave it off and let my natural grey hair grow through and it grow long'.
"I absolutely loved my shaved hair. When I shaved it off, it was almost like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders because I'd used it for so long to define me and what people thought of me. I'd used my hair almost as a coping mechanism with my depression that I had when I got divorced and I thought 'I can't hide behind my hair anymore, I've just got to be me and be natural'.
"It was therapeutic. I'd just broken up with a guy I was dating, I guess I'd describe it as wanting a fresh start.
After going through this for two years and literally shaving my hair off, I will never colour my hair again. If anything, I'll buy a wig.
"I absolutely love the natural grey. I get so many compliments, my hair is in the best shape it's ever been, I look at other women with grey hair and think that they all look stunning."
Amy said she's been loving the results and is also showered with compliments about her natural look wherever she goes. Amy said: "In the year we're in, 2023, the feminine movement and all this [is happening], you've got women stopping shaving their underarms and things like that - we're taking back our own looks and not conforming to society.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
"We're just making ourselves feel good, embracing the natural and growing old gracefully. There's a lot of American actresses that are letting their grey come through and not having surgery.
"I think it's a good movement and I hope it has a positive effect on the younger generation as well. My daughter said to me the other day that I've had a 'glow up' as I've got older and that was a really nice comment.
"It's literally a natural highlight. Don't waste hundreds of pounds, especially in this climate with the cost-of-living crisis, having highlights when you've got the natural highlights there.I would tell anyone who's thinking about it to do it, you won't regret it. It was the best decision I've ever made."
