Dicho español · Spanish proverb
«Viejo es el que tiene canas, no el que las tiñe.»
Word for word
Old is the one who has gray hairs, not the one who dyes them.
What it really means
The closest English equivalent: Old is the one with gray hair, not the one who dyes it.
Used humorously to say that true age is about attitude and experience, not appearance; common among older adults.
Hear it in a sentence
Yo me siento joven; viejo es el que tiene canas, no el que las tiñe.
I feel young; old is the one with gray hair, not the one who dyes it.
Why learn dichos?
Proverbs like this one are everywhere in spoken Spanish — dropped mid-conversation, usually just the first half, with the rest left for you to complete. Recognizing them is one of the fastest ways to sound less like a textbook and follow real speech. Every Lingocito edition signs off with the dicho del día, so you meet one a day next to news written at your exact level.