I'm not particularly freaked out about getting older. Call me morbid, but when you lose two friends before the age of twenty-five, the idea of growing older and living a full life is less freak-out inducing. I've got a few fine lines on my face now and two deeper grooves (one between my eyebrows--I need sunglasses) and one beside my mouth (I need to sleep sitting up?), but they really don't bug me that much. The zits that I keep assuming will disappear as I get older and then they don't, the little bastards, keep me feeling young in that respect.
However, in the last few months, grey hairs have begun popping up on my temples. I actually grinned at the first one: "Aw, look, my first wisdom badge." Snort. The second one was a bit less grin-inducing, but it still was barely a blip on my radar. I've got about ten now. And my radar's blipping.
I considered plucking them out, but honestly, my hair has never been that thick and the idea of losing a bunch of it (particularly hairs with body, as my greys seem to be) is not appealing. I considered just letting them be. They aren't bothering anybody. They won't cause me to get sick. They don't whisper to me while I'm dozing off about terroristic plots.
But.
They are sorta bothering me. I think it's part of my whole, "Oh. Huh. I've been sitting around focusing on my kids and house for the last few years and I sort of let myself go. Let's fix that." thing. Like, I try to shave every other day now. Or actually wash my face at night. Or not eat an entire bag of candy in two days. I wear makeup at least four days a week now. It's all very exciting. So maybe I should go ahead and color those suckers so they can keep up with the rest of the makeover.
The thing is, I'm not really into, you know, hair maintenance. Truth be told, if I thought Will wouldn't fall over dead at the sight of it, I would cut off all my hair right this minute and revel in the ease of a pixie cut. But I like my husband, and so instead, I wear my hair in a ponytail all the dang time. It's fine, but it's hardly stylish. And that's OKAY with me. I'm hardly stylish, myself.
I dyed my hair exactly once in the past, when I got a little crazy with the Sun-In bottle. I was about as blond as a person could get AND I was brown as a berry and my hair was in this crazy asymmetrical thing with a rat tail. I...I don't like to talk about it. I call it "The Summer of My Hair Insanity." Shudder.
After that, I swore off hair dyeing. Because it made me crazy. I have always looked with wonder at those of my friends who get their hair colored. These ladies, whom I love, are always getting highlighted and lowlighted and streaked and while their hair (generally) looks Teh Awesome, it's exhausting for me to consider. Nevermind the wallop it would put on my budget.
That's the other thing holding me back: coloring your hair is fricking expensive, yo. For the price of a color and cut, I could buy a bajillion papers for card design. Or a set of reflectors. Or a few mini-defusers. (These are all photography things. Check out my term-dropping.) Or, you know, a lot of bread and milk. For a budget-conscious, eco-friendly, cultural-norm-eschewing gal, coloring my hair seems to be a glamorous deviation from Heatherness.
Like, on the days when I don't go to the hospital, I'm going to look really faaantastic with my colored hair as I weed the turnip rows. People in Kroger will be all, "Who is that ravishing thing in the holey sweatpants cheering over a sixty-cent coupon for dishwashing soap?" How are the pictures I'm editing going to fully appreciate my lustrous mane?
I don't know. It just seems sort of silly to me to spend a lot of time on my hair. Crazy. Wasteful. Un-fricking-natural.
And yet, those grey hairs.
Those ten grey hairs don't seem really natural to me either right now, particularly as I finally feel that I'm settling into the person I was meant to be professionally. Is that person grey-headed? She feels...not grey-headed.
I don't know...what do y'all think? Should I color or not? Do YOU color? If so, why? Do you use a salon or a bottle at home. (I'm hopeless at this kind of girly mess. Heeellllp me.)
19 comments:
I colour and what's more I get someone to do it for me. It is my one girly concession in a not girly life.
The thing is, a good cut is a kind of self-investment. I don't wear makeup or do clothes, but I like my hair and a cut that lets me do exactly nothing to it and still makes me look human is a good thing.
Home colouring ... ummm. Been there, done that. Waiting for the black that turned me dark green to grow out was bad.
i color. Oh how I color. I've been blonde, brown, red, black, blue, purple (that was really pretty) and green (I don't recommend it). I started turning grey when I was 11, so yeah, I color.
i color. Oh how I color. I've been blonde, brown, red, black, blue, purple (that was really pretty) and green (I don't recommend it). I started turning grey when I was 11, so yeah, I color.
Heather, my beautiful baby daughter, color your hair for pity sake! Your mama colored for around 40 years before I tired of it. I was a blond. Remember? I loved being a blond even when I got a little too blond! I don't regret any of it. If I had been turning gray at your age, I wouldn't have known it since I was already coloring my hair. And yes, I colored it throughout all four of my pregnancies and you guys all turned out fine with no extra ears or noses or anything like that.
Color your hair. It's okay to want to feel better about yourself, to feel pretty. Hey, if I could afford it, my chicken neck would be gone, and my chin waddle (sp?) wouldn't exist.
When I got older, the blond didn't look so good anymore with my changing skin tone, so I decided to grow it out. I didn't care if it was gray or not. Thanks to inheriting the genes of my Grandma Colligan, I was blessed with just very dark hair. I'm noticing more gray, however. I'm thinking a nice chestnut rinse would be good...in a year or so.
Color your hair and revel in the gloriousness of it!
I colour and I do it myself at home. It's pretty easy and some colours come in a foam form which is even less messy. If you are brunette then a semi-permanent will cover the grey but will fade out gradually. One tip - pick a colour that is a bit lighter than you think you actually are. I once did my hair with a permanent "dark brown" that turned out black and resulted in an expensive trip to the salon to correct! Other than that I'm very low maintenance hair-wise - I still end up tying it back most of the time!
I have to go with mama on this one :) You are WAY overthinking this! I highlight and lowlight at the same time and I get someone to do it for me. There is nothing wrong with taking a little time (and money) for yourself. If you dont feel gray, then dont be! I tell Brian all the time that I'm happy if he likes my hair but it's mine! And trust me, if a colored pixie cut makes you feel better (aka: hot and sexy) he WILL like it :D
I color my hair. Naturaly it is a mouse brown. I go redish. I love it. I also go to a salon to get it done. I think it is a good investment to get pay for it.
i color at home and have been doing so (on and off) since i was about 13. its really easy as long as you start out gradually changing your color (dont try to go from black to white blonde, it wont work).
i think everyone should do at least one slightly pricey thing so they can feel good about their physical selves. i like fancier makeup so i try to go cheap on the other beauty stuff so that i can fit the Bare Escentuals makeup into my budget. i know in the grand scheme of things the makeup you wear is no big whoop, but its a little thing that makes me feel good on a daily basis.
so yeah, find your 'thing' and if its coloring your grey, than rock on.
Here's the deal for me. I have cut down on how OFTEN I color. I live with some of it growing out. BUt I have a kind of color that fades unevenly. For me, obviously at my age my hair would be gray. I'm nearly sixty. But I go to the place I've gone for fifteen years now. No. twenty... the previous owner used to come to our place for Christmas eves. She was a friend through going to her.
I love to take that hour and a half and have someone wash my hair, feel the massage, the warm water. The stress releases. We laugh. We tease one another. My cell phone is OFF. I have this EXPERIENCE perhaps four times a year. I forego movies and most luxuries at this point. And I go twelve weeks, not eight, so when I DO go the difference is stunning.
It is a waste of time and money for many people, and that's fine. But that is something only you can decide for yourself. When you get to twenty gray hairs, you may simply go, NOPE. NOT YET. And you may simply find you go and get a trim and a wash and a color and feel you've just had a bit of pampering and a midday mini-vacation.
So I probably will never be gray just because I love the process.
Ah, yes. My ten little grey hairs are all coming in near my bangs. I'm hoping for a cartoon villain white streak.
And in the long term, my grandmother had beautiful grey hair--all different shades of silver. For now, I'm not going to dye mine on the off-chance I get that lovely grey too.
Plus, my husband is covering his greys, and yeah. I'm too lazy to do that regularly. I'll dye my hair pink, but not my natural colour.
Haha I have been waiting for my zits to go away for over 30 years too.
I have more or less dyed my hair since I was 18. I became really ill over a couple of years ago however and can no longer go to a hair salon. Long story, but it's neurological.
Anyway, so I tried growing the hair out to see if my mousy dull hair had changed. Nope. Well, it did sort of - it's turning gray. However, I did not want to bleach my hair all the way at home, so went red. That did not work.
So, I reached for the home bleach kit and now only do streaks in the front and sides. Why? cause illness has made me look older (and, well, sick) so I have to do something.
Oh, your question: You are already married and do not need to attract a guy, so ... I don't really see the need to color it, unless you really want to. I applaud those who can embrace their natural state.
I highlight my hair too. But as it is so expensive I do it about twice a year, it's called balayage. Foiling makes for a lot of maintenance. Never, ever underestimate the power of good hair. Find a pic of someone's hair you like that has similar hair texture/face shape and bring it in. Hair academies, like Aveda are a good way to go to lower the cost too. :)
Ahhh ahaa haa! I feel EXACTLY like you do. I'm 41, and just can't see fitting coloring my hair into my schedule with two little kids. I have tried it in the past, and I think if you were going to do it I'd recommend just highlighting and lowlighting... it doesn't grow out with the strip down the middle... it's more subtle. Which also means you're not really covering the grey, you're camouflaging it.
I have some greys too... right on top. For now I'm leaving them... they make my hair look sparkly in the sun... rather than the blonde/brown that it usually is. I'm leaving open the possibility that I'll change my mind someday...
i think we're fairly similar, with the whole non-girly thing. and i'm not a hair person at all (totally cut mine all off last year. i mean all of it). but i think if you aren't down with the gray just yet, go for the color. i was highlighting for awhile and i really liked it. and then i stopped. but maybe i'll do it again when my hair is longer? point is, if you start, doesn't mean you have to do it forever. i vote go for it.
I gave up coloring my hair when my hair dresser, Sasquatch, said, "don't think of them as gray, think of them as natural highlights." She is of the awesome, she is.
My hair started turning gray when I was 16 and I played with color off and on over the years. Sometimes I'll do it because my hair feels so awesome for a few days afterward, but then it goes back to normal and I'm all, "meh, too much bother."
Going to the salon is fun, and I do enjoy the pampering, so instead of an expensive coloring, I'll have a nice deep conditioning done. I've made peace with the silver and gray, but I don't turn my nose up at those who go forth and color. :) Whatever you do, groove on it, girl!
I think Revlon has do it yourself color for less than $4 a box. That is what I do. Can't afford to pamper myself with someone doing it for me. So go to store, buy box, color when I can't stand it anymore, so I can go a few months without coloring. But I have a few more than 10 grays, okay, way more than 10 now, but since I do color, I really don't know how much gray would show up once I stop. Have fun with it. :)
No. a) Those chemicals are so evil, I can't believe you're contemplating it. Unless you're talking henna, maybe. b) I'm tired of this notion that women have to hide any evidence of aging. c) My confession? I always assume women who color their hair are ashamed of themselves, or hiding something. Screw shame! Especially over a few gray hairs.
Emily (37, 1/4 gray, and not going near the bottle, thankyouverymuch)
I colored my hair back to its natural shade starting in my early 20s. Not only had a earned a flock of "wisdom badges," but against dark brown hair, they show up quite brilliantly.
Then, about 10 months ago, I stopped. I cut my hair short, and kept the short cut for a few months to let the color grow out without having a giant gray spot in the middle of my hair, and now that the color is gone, I'm growing it out again.
I just got tired of maintaining it, tired of the expense, and tired of rinsing most of it down the drain and into the environment. So now I'm salt-and-pepper, and that's fine, too. :)
I'm sorry. I think I was too harsh. Hair color is kind of a hot-button issue for me. I apologize for not stating my feelings a bit more judiciously.
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