I love this article

Right now there are a lot more important things going on in the world than this.  Heck, there are more important things going on in OUR world than this.  But with our impending wedding there is a LOT of pressure placed on me to look perfect.  One of the things that has been coming up a lot lately is what I’m going to do about my hair.

You see, I love my hair.  I didn’t when I was a kid, but I do now.  It is dark, shiny, and beautiful.  One of the reasons that it is so naturally pretty is that I have never, ever dyed it.  Not once.  That wasn’t originally an intentional thing, but when I began to see what hair dye did to the manes of my friends, it pretty much became an intentional thing.

The women in my family go gray early.  I won’t tell you how early my mom started going gray, but suffice to say she’s been dying her hair for the entirety of my life.  I do not ever remember a time when she wasn’t in the bathroom every so often dying her hair.  I thought that it was just something you did when you got older.

I found my first gray hair when I was 28.  I plucked it and didn’t think much of it.  The hairs came and went until earlier this year when it became obvious that I was going to have to either put up or shut up.  There were enough grays that I was either going to have to stop plucking and dye them or I was going to have to just let them be.

I gradually came to the decision that I was just going to let them be.  Partly this was due to the fact that I just couldn’t stomach the idea of dealing with going through the dyeing process every X weeks for the rest of my life.  Partly it was laziness and the fact that I was unemployed and the dyeing process was cost prohibitive.  And partly it was because there was a part of me that thought it was kind of cool that I had this dark mahogany hair that was shot through with straight silver strands.

So I read this article on Boston.com a few minutes ago and it made me smile.  The author came to the realization MUCH later in life than I did.  Also, I have the coloring for gray/white hair.  My Cadaver Glow/Fish Belly White complexion goes well with silver hair.  (It makes it hard to find foundation, but I’m OK with that…)

I, too, have had the same reaction from hair stylists as the author of the linked article.  “Gray is BAD, you must dye!”  Etc, etc.  I hope that some of this is that they need the money that comes with dye jobs and so they’re encouraging their customers to spend more but I’m also pretty sure that a lot of this comes from being beaten over the head by a culture that tells us that going gray, especially if you’re female, means that you’re old, worn out, useless, sexless, etc.  We only have to take a look at Helen Mirren to know that isn’t true.

Anyway, enjoy the article.  I’m going to see my stylist in September for a badly needed haircut and I’m going to tell him that I’m no longer considering dying my hair, at all.  He’s a nice laid back guy and he’ll be fine with it.  And I’m now looking forward to seeing how the silver strands in my hair match the silver stitching on my wedding gown.

~Kelly