Going grey: A tale of transition
I adore women that rock grey hair. Nothing signposts self-possession quite like a woman who has welcomed nature to her scalp.
Until recently, I’d been battling the tide. Every three weeks, off to buy another Nice ‘n’ Easy Darkest Brown.
I have loved being a brunette. Except that I’m not really a brunette anymore. I’m more of a sassy raccoon.
It’s been a process of acceptance, letting go and many trips to the hairdresser.
I have spent thousands of dollars in foils, cuts, fancy coloured shampoos and mousses only to wind up looking like a mangy tub of Neapolitan ice cream.
It’s been a difficult follicular epoch. Post-partum fluff, brassy blonde foils and damaged bleached ends have all combined to make me look like a baddie in a Harry Potter movie.
And so I have chopped it all off – almost back to the grey line.
This has not been straight forward either. I went to Just Cuts on a whim, hated what happened, decided to cut my own fringe, hated that too, and then finally went to a stylist so she could sort it out.
You know when a hairdresser rests their kindly eyes upon you, purses their lips and picks up your ends like they have been dipped in hot diarrhoea? Yep, that.
So here I sit. Freshly snipped. Slightly bleached. Grey roots transitioning into my sweet short ‘do.
And I am still a little bit worried about what people will think. Do I look heaps older? Am I now a short-haired older lady?
Because all of this hair stuff is really about getting old – and being seen to be getting old. This is not a popular thing in Western culture.
And while there’s a lot more diversity of representation in media, going grey still feels a little bit radical to me.
I realise that will sound ridiculous to people who are way more evolved than me but I have struggled with this for a lot of reasons – mostly that my husband won’t find me attractive and my kids will be embarrassed of me when they are older. Ouch.
But the thing that clinched it for me is this: one of my grey-haired, sexy friends said that when you stop dying your hair, ‘You will be free’.
Freedom! Who doesn’t want that?!
What do you think about going grey? Are you in favour or against? I would love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve seen many women around me who show their stress in life through their hair choices. Whether it’s cutting their hair short or letting it go gray, they often claim they want a natural look. However, after a few years of shaving their heads or embracing gray hair, I’ve noticed that many of them struggle with self-love and are just letting go of themselves.
As a woman with probably half a head of gray hair, I think if you feel good about it, you won’t care what others think. But if you’re doing it because you’re giving up on yourself, then no—I will color my hair until the day I die, lol.