Hair Coloring: Men Join The Ranks

I know I’m supposed to be writing about fashion for women over 50, but today I’m thinking about the men—husband, partner, friends—in our lives. Has your man been hemming and hawing about hair color—for them? My man has. He doesn’t like the gray in his sideburns. He's been thinking about trying a bottle of at-home hair color for men. So I clipped a recent New York Times article, Graying Men Choosing the Touch-up, for him.

Basically, the article says men are thinking more and more about coloring their hair. I learned that the number of men, aged 50 to 64, coloring their hair increased from 3 to 10% in the past decade. During 2010, domestic revenues for “Touch of Gray,” hair coloring product for men, grew 15.5%.

Consumer Reports asked 11 graying male staff members to try a bottle of “Touch of Gray” ($8) at home. The majority of the men thought the results were “quite natural” and would buy it, according to Consumer Reports. The same CR article also gave high ratings to "Clairol Natural Instincts for Men" ($8).

There are more expensive options for coloring gray in a man’s hair, which the NYT article describes. But an over-the-counter product seems like a great way to "test the water" without spending big bucks. It reminds me of a million years ago, when I colored my hair for the first time with an at-home product.