I first confessed to an envy of silver hair in The Gifts of Age, back in the spring of 2009.
Since that time you could say I've embraced my "inner gray," the confidence to be myself, to be my age. Now if I could just embrace my outer gray.
My goal is to sport a head of au natural hair by the time I turn 60 in August of 2011. However I had no idea it would be such a pain to grow out my permanent hair color. My hairdresser and I began our color strategy March 1st. At that time she used semi-permanent hair color to touch up my gray roots, instead of permanent hair color. She said the semi-permanent dye would fade in 4-6 weeks.
My healthy hair has a mind of it's own, apparently. The semi-permanent hair color hasn't faded one bit and remains stubbornly perky and colorful. Plan B began two months later, when my hairdresser switched brands of semi-permanent color. Darn! It still hasn't faded.
Earlier this month we went to plan C. She is using a very light semi-permanent color to blend in with the gray roots. It's called "low-lighting." Only problem I can see with this strategy is the demarcation that becomes more noticeable as my hair grows out.
A couple of days ago I googled this topic and found innumerable articles on growing out the gray. It sounds like we are on the right track. But with my chin-length hair, this will take a long time.
Yesterday I took a measuring tape to my hair. Measuring from the bottom, I have 5 inches of permanent hair color. Moving up, there are 3 inches of semi-permanent color, and then the new low-lighting which accounts for about an inch or so.
Unfortunately I have learned from my hairdresser that we can't just dye the 5 inches of permanent color gray while we wait for the roots to grow out, since the part of my hair is already colored. So it will take until early next year, I estimate, to be done with the last vestiges of the permanent color. This should prove interesting.
Of course I could speed up this process by cutting my hair very short. NOT! Maybe wear it an inch shorter, but that's it. I guess I'll just have to tough it out.
If you are still reading this post, more power to you. In the perpetually young culture we live in, I find myself in a tiny minority of women who want to go gray. I can afford the money for hair color. I can make the time for it. Just don't want to anymore. There's something freeing about not having to pretend to be five or ten years younger. Freeing in the sense that I don't have to use my energy to think about it anymore. That's a big deal for me.
Wish I had the ability to see into the future - to see what my gray locks will look like. Will I need to use a temporary rinse when my daughters get married in the future? Or not? Only time will tell. You can bet there will be a future post on life in the "gray" lane when I get to that point!
Any gray-haired readers in the blogosphere who'd like to share their perspective? Or wannabees?
[Photo Credit: Getty images, shown on www.momlogic.com]
About last November, I started completely coloring my gray because I got tired of looking older than my age. I loved it when my hair started going really gray about 10 years ago. Strangers would walk up to me and ask who did my highlighted hair and I would laugh and tell them God did it. The white gray with my medium dark hair looked like I was adding highlights. It was really pretty.
About 2 years ago, I started getting a very drab look to my hair that was taking all of the color out of my face. Then people started acting like I was quite a lot older than I am. So we started doing what my hair dresser called reverse highlighting where we put some of the dark color back into my hair and still left some of it gray.
In November of 2009, I wanted something new and decided to become a redhead. I have always had the complexion of a redhead so I decided to go reddish brown. I love it and so does everyone else. I look and feel good about myself. I love the vibrancy of the color. It is nice that people think I look 10 years younger. I will be 59 on my birthday in December. I don't necessarily care about looking a lot younger. I just wanted to feel more alive than the drab gray was making me feel.
Posted by: Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker | August 30, 2010 at 02:39 AM
Patricia - I love hearing about your journey with hair color. You captured the essence of all of this - "feeling more alive." I know that when all my gray grows out and I don't like it, I can color it once again.
Posted by: Deb Call | August 30, 2010 at 07:49 AM