A short article on going gray!

The National Association of Baby Boomer Women has invited me to listen in on a seminar by telephone this afternoon.  The host will be an expert on gray hair, going gray, and dealing with your gray hair.  I had to chuckle to myself.  I could have been the expert on that phone call!

I have been dealing with gray hair since I turned 15.  By the way, that was the same year I met my ex-husband!  I should have taken note!  There is a history of gray hair in my family.  My Grandmother had the most beautiful snow-white hair.  As a teenager I would hate it when she would tint that beautiful head of hair pink, or blue!  It just didn’t look like my Grandma.  She, of course, thought she was very fashionable! 

The occasional gray hair I found while in high school I had no problems with.  I just yanked them out!  They didn’t stick up like a stick, they just bothered me, and after all, I was just too young to be turning gray!  Someone finally told me that for every hair you pulled out, five more gray ones grew in.  I stopped that practice immediately! 

Married at 19, I seemed to get grayer every year after that, refer to the second paragraph where I talked about my ex-husband!  I’ve always had perms in my hair, but when I started coloring my hair after I hit 30 something strange happened.  My perms wouldn’t take anymore!  If I had a perm put in my hair, the color wouldn’t take.  If the color took, the perm went straight.  I was on a merry-go-round.  I finally chose color over perm.

My hair, of course, didn’t turn that lovely snow-white that my Grandma had.  It turned gray; they call it salt and pepper.  When color finally failed to color the entire gray and the roots, I decided finally let it go natural. I was in my 40’s before I decided that it just wasn’t worth the trouble and expense to color my hair.  Besides, my hair just looked like someone had dumped a flour bowl on my head.  Gray at the top till about halfway down then it was dark!  I had to get rid of that!  I didn’t know it would take over a year and a half to finally grow completely out!  One funny story on this graying story is that my Dad and I met when I was around 42.  We visited each other a couple of times, he came here to Illinois and I visited a few times in California.  I didn’t think a thing about it when my new husband said he wanted to take me to California to see my Dad and sister.  I happily agreed and plans were made.

We arrived in California, Dad and Jackie was meeting us at the airport. We couldn’t wait to see them, and they were excited about Steve and I visiting.  I spotted my Dad right away and started toward him.  He kept looking around, he didn’t make eye contact, he looked expectant like he was wondering if I had missed our flight.  You see, he was looking for a woman with brown shoulder length hair and I now had a short haircut and was entirely gray!  We had a big laugh about that!

Now I am the grandmother of 16 grandkids and don’t mind being natural at all.  I still keep it short because I hate to fuss with it, but don’t mind being gray and am not afraid to tell my age.  I love being natural!