Another Newbie going grey

I'm slightly younger, but went grey early and you could be describing my hair.  I also thought about adding white streaks, but didn't want to use bleach after reading all the horror stories here.  I used lowlights once to soften the brown/white line.  Then I bit the bullet and just stopped using dye.  Sounds easy, but it took me years to build up the courage to do it. 

Hi Ellen,   my name is Mike and I'll be 50 next year.  Decided about three months ago that I am going to let my hair grow.  I already had about 4 months' growth when I started.  Have hints of silver but most is dark brown/black and sorta coarse.  Have some Native American heritage, so I thought this would be a really neat way of honoring my ancestors by growing my hair out.  Would like to get it shoulder length but it's just beginning to touch my collar.  my folks are prematurely gray but I'm not going to worry about it...just leave it natural.  Don't want to get near a pair of scissors for a looooong time.