My Mother has been white haired for as long as I can remember. She is a very sensible woman who used to give me advice about buying good shoes, always making sure you wear a well-fitted bra and moisturising your neck. And then she talked about growing old gracefully, all of which I absorbed as a teenager. It was only relatively recently that she said "I wish I'd dyed my hair years ago". Well, I nearly fell off my chair and felt my whole world had been turned upside down! Here was this woman that I had listened to (she might fall off her own chair at that revelation...!) suddenly wishing she'd done things differently. I was all prepared to do the "growing old gracefully" thing when it happened but then I started to wonder if I would have regrets in years to come too? I've only started to get some greys in the last couple of years (I used to pluck them but I think the whole "pluck them and they come back with 10 of their mates" thing might have some truth to it, so I have given up!) and have begun to wonder if I should start down the road of dyeing my hair...
When we first came to Australia I found the magazine I'd spent years looking for. Notebook was a mag for grown ups who like a bit of this and a bit of that, not too many glossy ads, lots of helpful hints and tips. Sadly it is no longer published. But in Feb 2010 there was a great article by Susan Johnson about grey hair and how it affects women. The opening paragraph reads "When day begins to turn to night on our heads, our most common response is to run for cover. Instinctively we recognise the first grey hairs indicate the light within us is slowly fading". I'm not sure I feel that strongly but certainly I am learning to accept that I am no longer 18, or even in my twenties, or thirties for that matter! I'm not sure it really bothers me all that much, in fact I think I might be more bothered about having to fit in regular appointments with a colourist and the amount of money it will cost.
A friend, and local 'journo', wrote
this great article recently and I managed to find it today. I have been very impressed with how she went from almost black to grey, and she looks fantastic. I too have had conversations with the kids about whether or not I should dye my hair and I was very surprised by the responses. It was a unanimous NO. The main reason given being that if I did it would mean that I was too concerned about my appearance... Hmmm. I wasn't entirely sure how to take that one, I'm not a total scarecrow! Apparently it was meant in a nice way and the kids like that (unlike Dad - heehee!) I'm not always preening and fussing in front of the mirror. I asked if they thought it would make me look old, to which they replied "You are." Nice.
I have enquired about doing something when I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago (another emergency appointment after
attempting to cut it myself again, I never learn), the lovely hairdresser had some helpful and reasonably priced suggestions, but I'm still not entirely sure I want to go down that route.
What do you do? Any tips, sage advice, funny stories?
