Do I Like My Grey Hair?

A wonderful lady that I’ve met here on WP has discussed on her blog her journey of letting her hair go grey. Rather than take up a lot of space in a comment, I figured I’d do a post on my thoughts on having grey hair.

I guess I could call it a saga. The journey of my hair and I. Just like everyone else, I’ve had it since I was born. Well, mostly. But we’ll touch on that later.

I guess you could say I’ve been involved with hair a little bit more than a lot of people. In my late 20’s I went to cosmetology school. It wasn’t easy. I had to get a loan at the bank for $3,000 which is what the tuition cost at that time. It was a lot of money for me. School was from 8 to 5, five days a week, with Sunday & Monday off, for 5 or 6 months. I had an evening job at a convenience store that I had to get to by 5:30. I worked till 11pm or 12 am, depending on the day. Trying to study after work was a challenge.

Anyway, being a cosmetologist (hairstylist) meant that we tried all sorts of things with each other’s hair. I was never afraid to change the color of my hair. I had pink streaks in my blonde hair 35 years ago. I had dark purple hair too. I’ve also colored a swatch underneath in several rainbow colors. So I think it’s pretty cool how the girls are wearing so many different colors in their hair these days.

My dark purple was similar to this.

My hair has been blonde, brown, purple, red and several shades in between. I colored it because it was fun. It was exciting to try different colors. It’s been long, short, permed and straight. It’s also been absent. Well, there were those die-hard (hahaha!) strands that stuck around, but they were few & far between. Literally.  (Think Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”.)

My hair was gradually turning grey before the chemo, and I kept coloring it. I loved the color. It was also slightly wavy since that grey hair is so wiry.

This is what it looked like a few years before chemo. I don’t do selfies, but I wanted to have this for future reference because I liked the color.

Anyway, losing my hair was devastating for me. Talk about being stripped of any identity, that is it. At the time, it was to the bottom of my back. When I found out about the cancer, I had it cut as short as possible and donated it to Children With Hair Loss. I wasn’t gonna let the cancer get it all.

When the chemo was over and my hair started to come back, it was super curly. Which was a definite surprise to me. It had been straight all of my life, except for the slight wave as it greyed. These were tight, strong little curls that would wrap around my finger like a coil.

I had thought about it and decided to just stay grey. I didn’t want to get back into the coloring routine. It was hard to keep the grey roots from showing before and I didn’t want to deal with that again. I worried that maybe it would make me look even older, and maybe it does. I’m sure it does actually. If I’m being honest, it makes me feel older. But really, that’s ok. I AM older, and with some luck, I’ll keep getting older. I’m not ready for the alternative.

I haven’t had it cut since it grew back. I’ve thought about it, I’ve wanted to and I’ve planned on it. But it just hasn’t happened, and now the virus thing has put the kibosh on going to a salon. It’s been a little over 4 years now. My hair is at the middle of my back. The ends are still super curly. BTW, they call those “chemo curls”. The rest of my hair is still somewhat curly. The weight of the length may be pulling some of the curl out. I won’t know if that’s the case until I get it cut into layers. What’s really strange is there are two spots that have completely bone straight hair. I have no idea why. There’s no curl whatsoever in those swatches and they’re in different places on my head. Weird, huh?

But anyway, this stuff is like a bramble thicket now. I don’t do much with it. I keep it up most of the time because it attacks my face continuously. Eating is a real challenge. It’s impossible to see, if there’s any kind of wind. It’s a mix of different shades of grey and there are some places where there is even some brown, so the color isn’t anything special. It’s more coarse and wiry and I’ve broken two large-tooth combs on it. Do I like my grey hair? Honestly, it’s ok. It can be pretty if I work on it. I do recommend the purple shampoo to brighten grey hair up. It takes the dullness out and gives it a little sort of silvery sparkle. Do I wish I still had my long beautiful red hair? It was easier to deal with being straight. The color was pretty. Keeping it colored was a chore though. At least with the grey I’m not forced to go to the salon every 6 weeks. I think after going through all that cancer and chemo stuff, I’m not the same person. So I think no, I don’t wish I still had the previous hair.

I think I will like my hair better once I get it cut and into some sort of style/shape. Right now I could’ve dressed up as a witch at Halloween and scared the heck out of some kids.

I totally understand why women continue to color their hair until the end of their days. Do what feels right, what makes you feel good. Get some highlights or lowlights. Change the color, even if just somewhat. If you want to stop coloring and go grey, then go for it! Talk to your hairstylist and work out a plan to do just that! Enjoy your hair and enjoy your life! Don’t worry about what other people think about grey hair. You’re the one that lives with it, not them.