I just did a google search to see how much I’ve blogged about my gray hair in the past. Turns out, I’ve done it quite a bit! (One post reminded me that once, while I was growing out my gray, a coworker said when I asked what she thought about it, “Oh, I thought you were just being lazy. You’re not kidding? You’re doing that on purpose?“)
People. We have to talk.
Right now there is no gray except the inch of white I’m rocking out of laziness, because even though I grew out my gray five years ago, I only kept it up for about a year. Some days I felt amazing! A young person, flying her white! Some days I felt awful. I looked older. I felt older.
I broke one day and dyed the underneath bits red, and I loved that phase. That was fun.
(This is how much white I am — all the color you see is from a bottle, the white is real. I’ve been gray since I was about thirty.)
But the upkeep was hard, dyeing the underneath but keeping the white out of the dye and the white strip got smaller and smaller as I screwed it up. And one day I broke again because the white made my hair look SO thin. You could see my scalp, and it freaked me out. I dyed it all over and since then, I’ve been a bottle gal.
I’m tired of it. I’m seeing my hair stylist tomorrow and I think I’ll get a new cut and go lilac and let it grow out naturally and see what happens.
But I’m worried because of this: my hair has thinned SO MUCH MORE since surgical menopause at 39 (I’m life-threateningly allergic to synthetic and plant-based estrogens, so no HRT for me). Four years ago, when that photo was taken at 39, I had thin hair. Now it’s even thinner. I’m worried it will look terrible. I’m worried I’m making the wrong choice.
So why not just keep dyeing my hair? I do it at home, it costs $6/month, and it takes half an hour, total. What’s the big deal?
I don’t know, really.
It feels like it’s about authenticity, although I judge no one for dyeing their hair, not even myself.
I just want to look like me. Like myself. Honestly.
I don’t want to look older, but I am older. I’m 43 now, and guess what? Every day I stay on this side of the grass, I’m getting older. So are you. Snaps for that! Good on you, you getting-older-you!
Why on earth am I still trying to fit in with American beauty ideals? Why on earth do I still want (on a lizard-brain level) to compete with twenty-one year old starlets in bikinis? Let me be clear: I don’t want to compete with them for attention. I do not, actually, give one little tiny rat’s ass. In the front of my mind, I would be THRILLED to wear a shapeless caftan and Birkenstocks and let my hair grow wild and white for the rest of myself (but I keep my lipstick because mama needs red). Caftans rock for real.
But in the back of my brain, when I see fit women–younger women with no belly, older women with thin necks, women my age with natural(looking) chestnut hair–I despair in my lizard-brain that no caveman will pick me to protect when the apocalypse comes.
It’s so dumb. And it’s made worse in the time of Photoshop and Instagram fake-perfection. I’m guilty of it. I post pictures in which my best side is caught, in which my belly is in-sucked and my neck out-turtled.
I love myself. Honestly, I do. I feel sexy and smart and fun most of the time, which is awesome. But I want to love my body for real, too, and I want the mirror to be my actual friend, not some Judgy McJudgerson of Judging Pants.
I don’t want to wince when I see crow’s feet. They’re marks that signal my face made it here and laughed a lot along the way. I don’t want to wish I were thinner. This body of mine is stunningly strong and ridiculously stubborn. I don’t want to hate my thin, gray hair. It proves that just as I’m early to gray, I’m early to the wisdom conferred by it.
Here. Me this very second.
My wonky lazy eye is listing inward, and I have no makeup on except tired lipstick from this morning, and I’m shiny and I could go on.
But I won’t. I’m gonna love THAT lady. That one. The one resting her laptop on top of her strong, not-thin thighs. Just as she is.
It’s a work in progress. I’m reading Going Gray: What I Learned about Beauty, Sex, Work, Motherhood, Authenticity, and Everything Else That Really Matters, by Anne Kreamer (and I’m loving it, btw — she evens split-tests her attractiveness with her real gray hair and photoshopped-brown hair on Match.com, to her husband’s immense amusement. And interestingly, she got twice as many winks nationally with gray hair than she did with brown. She was so startled by this she repeated the test in other parts of the country, and found the same result.)
Kreamer says, “Letting my hair become its natural color would be an unmuddling of the age issue, a definitive announcement to the world that I’m no longer young.”
That’s it. Having white hair will say to anyone who cares: Rachael is not young. The truth is: No one cares about that except me.
Yeah. I’m not young. But I’m pretty fabulous.
I’ll keep you posted on the experiment.
If you’re moved to it, tell me how you feel about your body as it ages?
Grey is in! I’m letting mine go because I like it. I’m not all the way there but I think I’ll like it better when there isn’t the 2tone going on. Who knows. That’s not to say that I don’t have moments of serious hair doubt. I’ll be 43 at the end of the year. Most of the time I’m good with all the changes. I embrace all the weird bits…. and then I have moments of serious doubt and google botox injections. I’m too frugal to spend money on that but in those moments of doubt, I need that solution to be at my fingertips. Thankfully they’re fleeting.
All that to say that I relate.
Rock on beautiful!
1. You are amazing and beautiful. 2. Following your heart is always the right move. 3. I love white/gray hair on all ages and find dyed hair seems to age people sometimes. I’ve also read it is freeing and makes people happier.
I support your decision no matter what it is! After all, it’s just hair. 🙂
Struggling here too. Not with hair, I practically buzz cut mine, but definitely the 46 yo body. It won’t do what I want and I have horribly sore feet all the time because of plantar fasciitis – the absolute bane of my existence and a constant reminder that there will likely be no more marathons or even running steps. Walking which used to be my mental health time (I would walk for hours!) is not enjoyable. The pain just screams old old old! As they say – youth is wasted on the young!
I think you look adorable lazy eye and everything. 🙂
You may be able to beat the PF! Don’t give up! I’ve had it in both feet, and it reared it’s ugly head again in my left foot after I had to be off of it for several weeks due to a bone break.
It seems everyone has to find what works for them to keep it from recurring. I’ve had two friends with it, too, and for all three of us physical therapy was critical it turning things around. After PT, though, it was up to me to find the types of shoes and activities that kept my feet strong and healthy. One of my friends seems to need a lot of arch support now and swears by her custom orthotics and Dansko clogs to keep it at bay. Those approaches didn’t work for me, though, and I have pretty high, healthy arches. For me the orthotics and clogs were too hard, and softer, cushier soles are important; a little arch support is fine for me. Find what works for you and don’t be discouraged. 🙂
Hi Mary,
I just saw your message about your painful feet. That was me on and off for 10 years. If you are still in pain, contact me as I have learned the tips of how to manage painful arches and chronic PF. Take care. Maryellen
mebharry2001@hotmail.com
How timely my friend … I am struggling with this right now as well … and my plan of sorts also has involved using purple dye and a shorter cut to help with the transition. I can keep dying my hair darkest brown – and I have the box already so I’m probably going to go for it again this month – butI have this conversation with myself each month right before I break out the gloves and the dye. For some reason having a toddler makes me feel like I should keep dying for a bit longer so I don’t get mistaken for his grandmother but I know deep down that I’m totally gray and the dying is a pain. So I remain conflicted and would probably be happier getting off the proverbial fence and testing the gray waters…
For some reason I was thinking about you and your hair the other day. I wondered why you did dye it because that didn’t seem to match your sense of world outlook on beauty blah blah blah. Then I told myself dyeing hair is fun and it doesn’t matter.
And maybe you’ll change your mind and dye it again. I love that you take us through your process. I have similar conversations with myself about my body/hair/what I present online. xo
My silver locks project (I blogged all the gorey details) changed how I feel about my aging body. I had started to feel really bad about myself, but now, most days, I feel like I’ve never been more beautiful orconfident. I love rocking my long (for me) silver and somehow feel way more me than I did near the end of coloring. Sure I could linger on the wrinkles & sags, but I try to think of them as well-earned badges and be glad my mind is still young & curious!!
I’m almost 20 years ahead of you, love, down this road. I, too, struggle to accept myself as I am. I move and feel like a much younger person so it’s to the point where an unexpected glimpse in a window, etc. is mostly a shock. To be honest, I’m not enjoying the age spots, the thinning skin, the wrinkly hands, and the bingo wings. And then, some days none of it matters and I feel externally how I feel inside, attractive and intelligent and basically hell on wheels in a good way.
so go figure. The one huge surprise is that I am getting ever more grateful for something I’ve had the luxury to never think about, health. so yeah, time to love this fierce, fun, healthy bod just as I am, as the old Baptist hymn said.
so, you go, and I’ll be keen to see how it is for you. I’m a Miami girl, however, so I will go to my grave a blonde. It’s my equivalent of red lipstick! Which I also love madly. Love YOU, sweets! Personally, I think you effing rock the white/silver/gray.
Go you! My mother has pretty thin hair, and let me tell you, it looks so much fuller and healthier now that she’s let it go gray. It’s luminious! I’m totally inspired. I seem to have gotten my paternal grandmother’s greying-later gene, but I’m hoping to have the courage to rock the silver locks when it’s time.
I’m sure you’re be beautiful no matter which route you choose for your hair. 🙂
Can’t wait to see the grown out color. I finally embraced the fact that no matter what my hair is fine and long doesn’t work. I didn’t want to end up looking like my mom with a short cut but one hot spring day last year I gave in and got a longish pixie cut and LOVE it. Do you and rock it as best you can.
I never dyed my hair. I’d like to think it was an ethical stance (and I do wonder about pouring chemicals on your head, so close to your brain, repeatedly), but really, I just couldn’t be bothered. I admit that I was disturbed by the number of people who corrected me, when my daughter was a toddler, insisting I must be her grandmother, not her mother. Did they really think I didn’t know? Thinking of a blue streak in the fall, though.
I agree with all the above comments. I will add my own experience. First – I’m 71, so far far down the road from you. Due to crazy-pants medical adventures, surgeries, et.al., my very gray hair also became very fine & thinned out. Find someone who can do really really good haircuts. This is so important. Try a shorter “bob” style that allows it to look “fuller”. If you want to dye it and feel better with color on it – just go for it. You only need to please yourself!!!!! Try a Lucy Neatby look. Her hair stylin’ is just the most fun ever. Do what you need to do for yourself for JOY. Forget the rest.
Love your books – have them all! Knit On . . .
I gave up the dye bottle in 2006, when I was fired from my job at a major Canadian bank. (My boos was a bitch, or course!) I think I looked like a molting mouse for awhile, but it gets grayer EVERY year, and I really do love it. I decided to grow it longer last year. A photo of me and my siblings looked like we were a box of Q-tips. I’m the youngest of 6 and the 2nd gray-est,but we all had short haircuts and it looked odd. Now when my hair blows into my eyes, it startles me. What is that stuff? A big cobweb? But in general, I love being gray. It’s a statement, and shows that we are confident and self assured, right? GO for it! I’ll back you up! (But yes, ignorant people will assume you are old. Agressive drivers cut you off more often.)
When I think of you, I think of a great, ageless spirit, open to everyone, young and old, and even to me, old and gray as I am. I have no idea what color hair you have.
Have had some gray for 15 years or so but just recently at 56 let it go all the way gray, and I really like it. I think I look strong and casual and real and that works for me.
You are amazing Rachael no matter what color your hair is!!! I can remember when I was 40 something….lmao! Geez I too grayed early I think four teenagers helped that along and the first time I had my hair professionally colored was quite the experience!! I loved how it made me feel! Newly divorced after a 21 yr marriage I know it boosted my self esteem and gave me more confidence being on my own again! I think now when I need to have it done and I put if off mostly out of laziness, it starts accentuating the aches and pains of a 66 yr old body and I start feeling the urge to send out invitations to a pity party!!! Lol. That’s when I get up and get it done and maybe I think in my own mind if I look better then I feel better! All in my own little mind I’m sure!!
How could authenticity ever be wrong?
FTW, I have given up on shampoo for the last eight months or so and my hair has never been happier. I’ve switched to a 50/50 blend of Dr. Bronner’s soap (your choice) with coconut milk and I only was it every 2-3 days. I’ve also added gelatin to my diet at a friend’s suggestion…my skin looks pretty good, too.
That sounds like it would make an amazing body wash, too. Must try!
I always said I would let my hair go gray naturally, that I wouldn’t dye it. Then it started happening in my late 30s and it freaked. me. out. I’ve been dying it ever since, and sometimes I think I should let it go gray, but I haven’t worked up the guts. I guess I’m feeling old in so many ways these days. Keeping the gray out of my hair feels like some small victory over the clock. Or something. Anyway, thank you for writing this, for your courage and honesty and vulnerability. You’re gorgeous.
Your silvery hair looks great. Some grey hair is brassy-ish, but yours looks like it will rock it. Maybe you could begin by leaving wider and wider streaks while you adapt. My hair went grey early and now, at 69, my body has perfected the look. I’ve never had to ask for the senior discounts. Think of the savings. The thinning isn’t as easy to accept. I just remind myself that there are bald women, due to chemotherapy, that would love to have as much hair as I have.
As you say, you’re the one it matters to the most. Everyone else is thinking about their own problems and insecurities. I say fuckem and do what you feel like. You can always change your mind. It’s hair.
I’m not grey, I’m white. Mostly sparkly, slightly lilac (from coloured shampoo not dye) shiny white. But I’m 62. However I’ve been seeing white hairs since I was 18 and was totally colourless, for that’s what ‘grey’ is, since is was 34. As each individual dark brown hair lost its colour I progressed from a gradual sprinkling of snow in my 20s to rapidly white between 28&34 during which time my four children were born. In my 40s I gradually wend dirty blonde, I was not totally in love with it, sometimes it had a greenish tone and I did not like the lack of different tones you have with natural hair. I know the latter can be mitigated by high and low lights but it’s soooo time consuming. So there came a day in my 50s when I got sick, shingles and the rash was in my hair. So not wanting to make the infernal itching and pain worse by adding a chemical dye poultice to my head once every three weeks I got my hairdresser to cut it as short as short and six weeks later when I emerged from my sick bed and returned to work I was white. I love it, perhaps it helps that so many of my family have white hair, including to more or less degree my children, now nearly all in their 30s. I am also lucky that my hair is very thick, often too abundant, thank goodness for hair serum. So go white I say, but don’t shy away from the odd coloured streak, white hair takes red blue or green perfectly
When I let my hair go grey another woman (who has dyed hair into her 70s) commented that she would never be old enough to have grey hair and would always dye hers.
For me it’s not an age thing but is to do with personal integrity and the ‘real me’.
When my hair was dyed I always felt I had to tell people it was dyed and exhibit my white roots!
You need to do what feels right for you!
Great article. I decided to ditch the dye a couple of years ago and took ages to get all the colour cut out of my hair. I now have pewter/grey hair. Not an amazing shade but all mine. Some days I love it, some days I feel like a little od lady (I am 60). What I love most is not seeing the badger strip in my dyed hair and not having to splash dye all over the place every few weeks! Grey will stay for me. I don’t believe older ladies look younger with dyed hair they just look like older ladies with dyed hair. However some days I am tempted to reach for the squeeze bottle again, I cannot lie!
Each time I go to London I see more and more ladies of my age looking great with grey hair!
I’ve pretty much stopped wearing make-up entirely, mostly due to laziness and not wanting to take the time in the morning. I’d rather sleep 5 minutes later.
I work in a large and diverse office and at age 59, I am among the oldest women in my office. We have an interesting mix of people, and there are lot of sweet young thangs, young ladies in their 20s and early 30s. There is a large group of them who will not bother to even return my “good morning” because I am a middle-aged woman and therefore invisible and not worth knowing.
There is a small group of 20-something women who are my friends. I mentor one of them. She comes to me for advice and she works with me, learning my job. She paid me the nicest compliment the other day, saying “if you decide to retire, please tell me first, so I can look for another job.” There are a few others in my office who recognize that a middle-aged woman actually has some value and ask my advice and treat me as a friend.
But I do find it sad that the majority of young people where I work ignore the older people here as much as they can. At some point they will figure out that youth does not make them better and that we older people actually do have some worth.
You might try biotin for the thinning hair. 5000 mcg daily or twice daily. It’s also good for skin and nails.
Yeah for you! I’m much older (61 and aging) and finally got tired of the whole beauty routine thing. Last year I gave up the color & the blow dryer. My hair is way thinner than yours – thanks to my maternal genes – and I have learned to accept it. I know that people look at my “wide part” and wacky grey curls. As long as I have my lips on, I let them stare. The only way to be who your really are is to accept who you really are and let you shine.
Oh Rachael! Let that freak flash of white fly!!! You know me….been dying for years, but at 64 I’ve finally let it go, along with my hatred for my sags and bags and bulges. As you said, nobody cares about them but me. Now I’m looking at a possible foot amputation, which horrifies me… but my loves say “so what! At least you can still walk! And besides, you will finally wear shoes that match again!” they all care much more about the way I feel about it than how they feel about it.So once again, I have to change the station from KFUCK radio to something more positive, like KAAAH and move on, as you do, every day! Heck, I just took on another part time job, teaching adult ed art! you let go of the job and I take on more, despite the fact that I may be doing it in a wheelchair. Aging??? Ha! we’ve got it beat
I’ll be 49 next month and this has been a hard year, but I still feel like my body is doing pretty well. Yeah, I’d like to drop the 10 lbs I’ve gained in the past five months (plus another 10 that has slowly added up in the past 5 years), but I’ll get there eventually. I had an ovarian cancer scare last December, but everything worked out. My right eye is wonky now and I may keep losing vision in it, but I’ll deal with it. I’m going to have another surgery this year to fix something else in my innards that is causing me pain and grief, but all will be well. I’ve recovered from sprains, broken bones, and soft tissue issues like plantar fasciitis. But every morning I get up and I’m thankful that I’m still here. Still breathing. Still trying.
I understand that itchiness about being “conventionally attractive,” though. It’s hard to ignore. Love your grey because it is part of you. We’re blessed you are able to share yourself with us through your writing.
I’m 34. I have been growing out my gray for a year and a half. I used to henna my hair (8 hours with a mud pie literally saran wrapped to my head), so I have to wait it out – I can’t strip it or dye over it. I have STRUGGLED with this decision. Part is because I hate the stripe between gray and red, part is that I don’t FEEL like I’m ready for the gray. I feel like I have more youth and energy than they gray implies. Which is stupid, because my silver fox friends don’t look or feel old to me at ALL. It’s purely the presence of media marketing in my brain. And those friends are so supportive of my shift towards natural hair. But it’s basically been in a ponytail for a hear and a half because it’s hard to look at. I nearly shaved it off at one point, but I really hate short hair. So I’m waiting, and watching, and hoping that when it’s all done, I’ll be pleased with the result and will be able to accept that my hair doesn’t have the power to age me – only I can do that.
Power to the prematurely grey! (Fist upraised in solidarity) Coming from a family of prematurely grey folk, I decided early on to embrace the grey as part of my heritage. Mind you, I did just succumb and cut my hair shorter: I found that, for me, the longer, crazier hair was making me look older than I am.
I’ve never dyed my hair, either, mainly because I’ve spent my lifetime quota of extra salon time back in the day of PERMS. Oh, and I take that back… I did a “temporary rinse” once because MOTHER, and also expended a fair amount of salon time quota having highlights done.
You’re you and you rock whether your hair is brown, red, blue, lavender… and I think you’re going to own gray, and love it! I wonder if a new temporary ‘do might help with transition. xoxoxo
I love you. And I’m going to read this book while I, too, continue to grow out my increasingly-not-very-premature grey.
Darling. Have you not caught wind of the very real “Hot Older Woman” trend?
At the post office the other day, I was complimented on my “plush booty” followed by a lascivious waggle of the eyebrows from a cute 20-something.
While my younger self might have been offended, this mid-fifties gal was tickled!
Rock the jewel tones, keep the red pout paint and use a little mousse to fluff the thin locks. You’re gorgeous!
You look fantastic as always. Inner beauty and outer beauty. I am temporarily playing around with copper and I love the colour. I will go back to the normal!!! when it is time to renew Passports, etc. Rock on. How is Lala and the four-leggeds? Any trips this year? None for me 🙁 Oh well. Take care.
I can only say that grey hair has never stopped me laughing, being filled with joy at the sight of a sunrise or sun set, feeling the love when two pooches lean in gently when a painful body takes my breath away, hasn’t stopped me from liking my belly and enjoying how another may too, never impeded my thoughts or creativity, hasn’t lost me work and if it has it wouldn’t have been a job I would have wanted. When I look in the mirror I see the woman I recognize who usually elicits a smile be that wry or otherwise. Having grey hair does not make me a grey person it just contributes to a whole, me. My hair is short, clipped, save for the rather fine quiff which I love both because it makes me smile but that it is really white. For me grey has never felt aging it is just part of the whole that is me who is broad of beam, magnificent of chest, chaotic with swaying limping gait but most of all strong of heart. I really am older and find it hilarious that I am in my 61st year goodness knows how I got here:0) I love your present day photo my dear, tis of a woman at peace with herself even as she’ll angst about stuff too. For me grey hair is not about choice it has always been about being me ever since the first large streak appeared when I was just 16 and was definitely evident across the whole of my head by my mid 20’s. The choice I did make was to shave my hair and cultivate my quiff. Funnily enough my fine hair grew thick or at least though it’s still fine there seems to more. A friend who also like you had a surgically induced very early menopause found way to dye her scalp and keep her grey now short hair grey it always looked fabulous. So do what feels good for you people will smile because it’s your smile and laughter they notice first no matter what colour your hair is.
At the ripe old age of 56, I have bits of grey which don’t really bother me. What’s bothering me is the fact that my mother’s hands have morphed onto mine. What are these age spot things? Why is my skin crinkly?
And don’t get me started on these jowls. I look like a shar pei.
Hi Rachael, grey or reddish, you will always be marvellously kind, caring, funny and a huge inspiration to other women. Do what makes you happy, it can be changed, it grows in/ out/ longer etc. It can be changed back again. A friend of mine was using a thickening hair product for men, Rogaine maybe. Worked well for her. Just discovered the Firefighters of Darling Bay that you wrote, they make me laugh out loud, which is so positive to me. And I did the same thing with the Cypress Hollow yarns, too. Write on, my inspiration, your sense of fun is truly such a tonic to me. BTW, my hair is short and spikey grey, no product, just hair, bushy, which at age 68 I still find makes me feel slightly sassy.
Diana Holmes Hansen in Nanaimo, B.C., Canada
Fab post, thanks for sharing your angst!
I struggle with gray and aging too, I just turned 40. It’s hard, you really really want to LOVE and accept yourself, and then you’re just not as young as you used to be – WTF, right? Who decided to age my body without my permission?
It’s interesting how different people will react to the aging process… and within that will react differently even to the different parts of it. And I too have my likes and dislikes…
I love my wrinkles. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a loot of them, but laugh lines are the best!
Conversely I hate my jowls. I’ve always had a soft under-chin, but gravity has not been my friend there.
I love my grey hair. It’s turning in a good way pattern and color-wise. Although… I DO want to dye my hair, but just for fun. I want some purple in it! ( Of course I’m lucky… I have great hair all around… makes a difference.)
I hate the way my legs and ankles feel, more than how they look. The abuse of the years of dancing, waitressing, and generally standing around is showing in pain. I miss my young knees. I miss dancing.
I’ve never liked being as heavy as I am (and I am at my heaviest now, but the worst of it is the effect of age on that weight… I have some sags that are just not nice (like a belly bag). And how did my bosom get way down there!?
Okay… I need one more positive to balance the list. I like me better now than I did 30 years ago. I was timid, worried about other’s perceptions, too eager to please, and sometimes outright dumb. I’m stronger and surer about my preferences now, who I am and what I need, and not afraid to speak my mind. I’ve fixed all but the sometimes dumb part! And that will never be completely fixed or I wouldn’t be me!
What’s not to love?
54, always been fat,always had thin hair, beginning to feel the effects of age and weight, and mostly at the “I do not give a flying fuck” stage with the rest of the world.
Less timid about speaking my mind ~ considering the implications of that, since people who knew me when I was in grade school tell me that they always admired how outgoing I was…
Still menstruating, every now and then.
And adding blue and purple streaks to the brown and the silver glitter for the last 3-4 years. Because I like it and because…it challenges expectations and opens people up. The grey is mostly coming in as a streak at my hairline, which is cool.
And I am now comfortable with red lipstick – orange red, burgundy red, hot red, deep maroon – vivid, intense colours that I was uncertain of a year or two ago ~ I like on myself.
After more than fifteen years of coloring my hair, I noticed that the hair around my face was turning out lighter than the rest of my head. I had a “you’re not fooling anyone, you know” moment — I probably WAS fooling lots of people, but not myself! — and decided to stop coloring. I got a short and sassy haircut to expedite the growing-out phase; during those months, the combination of deep dark mahogany brown ™ and my gray was actually pretty cool. Three or four haircuts later, all that was left was gray; my hair is white around my face and dark gray in the back, so it’s pretty striking, if I do say so myself! I’ve been surprised by the number of compliments I’ve received; one young man even made a special trip over to me at the grocery store to tell me how much he liked my hair!
Some days I look at myself and feel my age (54). But I think that’s less about my gray hair than it is about my lack of fitness, which really bothers me. (I am casting about for a way to add regular exercise; I would love to get back into yoga, but my schedule needs an overhaul for that to happen.)
One thing I will tell you: when my hair color changed, so did some of the colors I could wear well; I donated all the cream and beige items in my wardrobe, for example. On the bright side, things in the aqua/jade/turquoise/teal family look stupendous now, as do berry/fuchsia/purple. So have fun playing with clothes and makeup!
P.S. For about a year, I had wildly colored highlights; every time I’d get my hair cut, I’d change the color of the highlights. I have an occasional fantasy about adding magenta highlights back in; it would be easier, now that I won’t have to worry about coloring around them. So that’s an idea you could try, too!
Fab post! Personally, you can have my gray hair when you can pry it from my cold and dead fingers. My thought is that I earned every one of those gray beauties by birthing and helping to raise three very independent girls who are now productive members of society. As far as the rest of this 56 year old body goes, I may be living in the Frozen Northeast Ohio but the rest of me seems to be moving south, if you know what I mean. I am what I am and I am learning, daily, to just love what the good Lord has given me. And, OK, I am basically a lazy person who has just too many other things she wants to do and spend time coloring my hair and tightening other portions of my anatomy just isn’t in the time or money budget.
I am more than 2 years dye-free but was having a “moment” when I REALLY wanted to be YOUNG again and dye it. UNTIL my 18 year old daughter said “Momma, DON’T dye it! I like your hair!” and I was reminded of one reason for doing it in the the first place – to teach my daughters that they are beautiful EXACTLY the way they are! Authenticity! Rock the SILVERS!