Silver threads amongst the gold

I noticed with a shock yesterday that my hair is going from ginger to white, bypassing grey completely. I'm comforting myself with the thought that plenty of people half my age have gone grey (and even white) so my natural colour has had a jolly good innings and my outlay on hairdressers has been minimal. In fact, I spend several decades just going once a year to have the split ends trimmed off.

Now, though, my tresses are going to need regular maintenance. I would love to go back to the glorious copper shade my hair used to be - I still have a lock of my hair that was cut off when I was 17 and it's almost conker-coloured - but the dye manufacturers don't seem to have achieved the correct shade and whenever I have had it coloured, it ends up autumn leaf auburn (too dark for my freckly skin tone), or not red enough.

Last time I had it done, I went through the whole process, had the final rinse and when the stylist produced the mirror, it didn't look any different. "I thought it was going to look redder," I moaned. "Okay, I'll do it again," she said. This time, it did look a little more vibrant. Three weeks on and it had all washed out. Apparently, red is the least stable hair colour and washes out far quicker than other shades.

Time to become a blonde? Or shall I just buy a wig?