Not THAT Fifty Shades of Gray...

No, no, no — I mean my HAIR which is now at least fifty shades of gray. From charcoal to dove to silvery to white, finally — after a rocky period of growing it out — it now looks pretty damn good.

Eighteen months ago I decided I had to stop coloring my hair.  It took time, it was expensive, it was a lot of chemicals seeping into my head through my scalp. I knew what it was doing to my schedule and my bank account — who knew what it was doing to my brain?  It took me about two months to hesitantly bring it up with my hair colorist (a lovely guy named Mark who gave great color).  Gently I told him that I LOVED my color but I just didn't want to spend the money or the time any longer.

He looked in the mirror, stared straight at me and said, "WELL, you know it'll take about a year and we'll have to highlight it while it's growing out, which is more expensive because it's a more time-consuming process, BUT we can do it." 

More time?  More expense?  GEEZ — no thank you. I decided to go cold turkey.  For awhile it looked awful, but I was determined to ride it out.  Then after a few months in the no-color-zone, a crazy coincidence happened.  Through email and then phone, I "met" a woman who lives in California and was connected through my work.  We graduated college the same year, both had boy-girl twins, and hit it off almost immediately.  Susan shared with me her blog and when I started reading it — lo and behold — there was the post Time To Kick the Habit — all about not coloring your hair!  

Even Katie Couric recently did a show just about hair — and talked about how she did "a day in gray" and what that felt like. (You do feel you look "older" because we women have been coloring our hair so long we don't have a true image of what our age really looks like.)


Susan has written far more eloquently about this than I could (read her post!) but I'll quote her here: 

"Society’s views of aging women have not been kind to those of us who yearn to live more authentically."

Well — fifty shades of gray and all — I'm living more authentically and (regardless of what society thinks) — I'm lovin' it!