I was sitting at my makeup mirror recently, the scene of all of my greatest torments, and I was just finishing up my hair, which is a very involved process. Right after I had blow-dried, straightened and then curled it into submission, I noticed some gray hair. I had to move my stylist appointment because of my kids' Spring Break this week and now, what do you know? Gray hair.
Do old habits die hard? I reached up my hand and was about to pull one that was making my eyes cross it was so long and scraggly and coming straight at me in the magnifying portion of the mirror, when I looked a little closer. I noticed that about 40% of my roots are gray. I recoiled like I had just missed getting hit by a train. I let my hand flutter back down to my side.
What was I thinking? Was I going to pull every single one of those gray hairs out of my head? Was I going to pluck myself bald?
For goodness sakes, these are not the good old days of finding one gray hair, pulling it out and then, five years later, finding another. That was fun. I know that, at my age, not to look like Albert Einstein with a crazy, electrified shock of white hair means I'm doing pretty well, but that doesn't mean I get to go on a rampage and pull them all out. Right?
I'm already in deep trouble with my hair stylist because right after I had my last cut I was unhappy with one little area on my head and decided to cut it myself. So I hacked a big piece off and left myself with a mullet on top. There's no way she's not going to notice this since it's uneven and about eight inches shorter than the rest of my hair. So I'm already in enough trouble with her without yanking grays and ending up with tiny, scraggly gray hairs popping out of my scalp just in time for my next appointment - the second the kids get back to school.
So, I ignore it. I take a deep breath. I ignore the silvery flash in a line straight down the center of my head, like a skunk. And I walk away from the mirror.
Ever tempted to yank out all your gray hairs? Do you pull them or dye them? Or are you going gray naturally? Ever spontaneously cut your hair - badly? If you have a hair stylist do you get along or are you constantly switching stylists?
I have not colored my hair since June of 2008. My natural color is almost black - very, very dark brown though it was not always that way. And there is gray throughout.
ReplyDeleteI love my stylist. We have been together for 14 years and she has seen me through EVERYTHING! Just last fall she was diagnosed with breast cancer. I had to switch for a couple of appointments, because of her treatment. I have never felt so lonely, sitting in a chair.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago, I found out that she was back to work. I just had my appointment with her this week. It was just like old times. And I love that she knows exactly what to do, and there is no worry of what I will look like when I get out of that chair.
Aside from having to get a new hair dresser for a few months, I cheated on her once, at a cheap salon. The minute I sat in her chair, she knew. Such shame!
As for the gray, I too, am graying...It used to really bother me, but I think that until I am completely white, I will continue to color.
I color. I am a red-head and red does not go gray well. I envy women who have beautiful, natural white or gray hair that flatters their skin. Ah to be free of the bottle. My mother is so funny - when my gray starts to show, she always points it out. Gotta love that.
ReplyDeleteI have a great gal who does my hair in her basement and is soooo inexpensive. And 5 minutes from my house.
Too funny!
ReplyDeleteIf shoe polish fails, there's the trusty hair stylist, yes. I figure as long as the brows are still very dark brown, the rest needs to shut up and fall in line - even if courtesy of a bit of creative painting. And I'm a fan of the creative arts.
A very trusted stylist of many years, for the couleur which is truly tricky. (But I cut my own hair to save the bucks.)
My hair is fine. My eyebrows are giving me grief. I am finding white eyebrow hairs mixed in with my dark ones. The problem is plucking the miserable beast. I always end up getting at least three or four good brow hairs before I get the faulty white one. And then I have a little bald patch in the middle of my eyebrow. Egads. So far, I haven't found grays in my real hair. It's just a matter of time...
ReplyDeleteI'm embarrassed to admit that I haven't gotten a haircut in a year, since right before Tiny Baby was born. My hair, some of which fell out after I delivered - did this happen to anyone else - is now quite long, but not lovely at all.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to make an appointment. Stat.
I don't have gray yet, but with my kids it is only a matter of time. I think I will color until it is mostly gray and then let it come in. Then again, I am terrible at making stylist appointments, so I'll probably just let it go.
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain! After I had chemo and all my hair fell out it slowllllyyyyy started growing in again..and for a nanao-second I thought hmm is this the time to just let it grow in all grey..I mean my body went through so much do I want to put a chemical on it?? Um yes...Heck yes...so after it grew out about an inch I was coloring it again and have not stopped....It is the best antiaging cosmetic there is. Unless you are one of those women with that great skin coloring that can pull off greying hair..and I am not one of those!!
ReplyDeleteI started getting greys around 30 years old.
ReplyDeleteI think this had more to do with my stress level than anything...at first I thought it was kind of cool...um yeah.
NOw I dye my hair and I don't want to know how much is grey. lol.
It will be a secret I take with me to my grave.
I started going gray during my college years in the early 70s. For a few decades,maybe, until my mid-forties, I qualified as prematurely gray. Then I became completely gray and there was no longer a "premature" qualifier. When I saw my younger sister last weekend for the first time in nearly a year, her comment was, "Your hair's gone white!" I can live with white, it's preferable to bald any day.
ReplyDeleteNicki, Whenever my gray starts coming in I get kind of enthralled with it, wondering what it would look like all in. Then I get to hear from the kid chorus and get the alarmed look from my husband - this is without even the six sisters chiming in - and I guess I'm not gutsy enough. I'll probably having dark brown hair till I die. Chicken, I know!
ReplyDeleteMaria, hairstylists always know when we "cheat" on them! Something's different, I guess. The cut, the color. Mine will know for sure. At least she won't think a professional did it because of the messiness!
ReplyDeleteWaisting Time - I'm always amazed at how well hairstylists match red shades when people start dyeing. I get the same brown every time but I'm not sure it's the one I was born with. It's nicer!
ReplyDeleteBLW, Shoe polish - yes! I used to color myself but I ended up with quite a mess (and with the interesting Jewish bush of a head of hair, it was not a good look). I've never thought about cutting my own, though I've hacked at it. But your comment made me think about it. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I read your comment, then went immediately to my makeup mirror, saw a white eyebrow hair, pulled out my tweezer and immediately took two good hairs along with it! Ack! You'd think my super, duper high powered magnifying mirror would stop that from happening, but I guess not! I used a makeup pencil to fill in my bald spot, just fyi!
ReplyDeleteKristen, I thought only babies hair falls out after delivery? :) My second pregnancy did ruin my hair for all time, creating the huge, frizzy Jewfro about which I've spoken before. My daughter finds this pretty amusing. Me? Not so much.
ReplyDeleteCharlotte, I'd like to not be 80 and still dyeing my hair like a nut. At some point it has to be okay to be gray, right?
ReplyDeletedll, I remember your inch-high hair and you dyeing it! You're right - we're just not au naturel kind of women! I do love seeing my chocolate brown hair. I would find it pretty disconcerting to see anything lighter, even blonde, much less gray!
ReplyDeleteChris, 30 is young for grays but, hey, you already had a kid driving you crazy - oh, I mean, filling your life with uplifting joy... :)
ReplyDeleteHi David, thanks for visiting the blog! First, yes - hair, no matter the color, is better than no hair! Second, it's funny how at one point we're "prematurely gray" and then suddenly, as we age, no one says that anymore!
ReplyDeleteI know I have it easier because I'm a guy... and what's left of my hair I keep short with a pair of clippers, I can remember the days of having a dedicated person who I was accountable to if I cheated by seeing another hair stylist. I started with him when I was too broke for haircuts and would show up on "model night" at the ritzy salon to be a guinea pig in exchange for free haircuts. I was adopted by one up-and-comer who was really cheap at first until he had his own salon and things got rather pricey (and I got tired of the being offered croissants, etc. when I just wanted a haircut). The only thing that got me out of the whole thing was the loss of my hair—a silver lining for what is fast growing rather grey where it still grows.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to break up with my hairdresser for over two years, She's cheap, convenient and flexible, but oh so slow, not very bright and she never shuts up, but at least she's the only one out there that knows I'm over 50% gray!
ReplyDeletePrivilege - sounds like my husband! The model thing for people getting their stylist license or, great idea, free haircut night at the ritzy salon. I used to go to a nice place but got sick of all the pretensions and how "cool" everyone had to be, especially me, and I'm not! Now my salon must double as a tattoo parlor, I swear.
ReplyDeleteLisa, so funny, trying to break up with our hairdressers! And the never shutting up thing! I've been watching mine go in and out of a relationship with the same guy for the whole 5 years I've been with her. I'm her amateur psychologist, I think. (Boring Married Client). Does she love me for that or for my excellent tips and Christmas present?
ReplyDeleteGack! I have gray hair everywhere! I even found one in my eyebrow! Especially disturbing are the gray sideburns I'm sporting now--in desperate need of some hair dye! I look like Tom Brokaw!
ReplyDeleteI have found a grey eyebrow hair. It is unruly and seems to appear out of no where, long and crazy. I remember my high school German teacher has these crazy white brows and I cant help but comparing my unruly hair to his. I pluck it, but for now that is working. I think I will definitly dye my hair. I did enough already, with streaks of blonde, even purple and pink. I think I will just go with my mood, whatever that is at the time.
ReplyDeleteTKW - The eyebrow ones are disconcerting because they're never in a place you want to tweeze, they're always in the middle of the brow. Get rid of ugly white hair or keep and look even older? Hmm. And you don't look distinguished with your graying sideburns? Me neither.
ReplyDeleteJoely, now that you mention it, I remember also having teachers with crazy white brows, and, of course, they didn't become that way overnight! It happened one sneaky gray at a time!
ReplyDeleteHow funny, the clerk at my mac counter was about 60 and does aerobics...She also had a belt of brushes and knew what she waas about...the last time I hit up the lancome counter the lady wanted to make me look 'exotic'.
ReplyDeleteMust be the different locations..lol.