Outta Sight...Outta Mind
I'm of an age where having gray hair is a sad fact of life. I can no longer use the excuse that we get prematurely gray in my family. We do. I just can't use it as an excuse any more. My hair started turning dull, lifeless and gray when I was 18. Not fun at all.
So waaaaay back in my early 20s I began the odyssey of coloring the hair on my head my natural hair color. I have no idea what my hair stylist calls it, but I call it Hershey's chocolate. My natural hair color is sort of black, sort of brown with reddish tones in it. My Dad is American Indian and Scottish. Yeah, like something right out of a romance novel ain't it? Dear Mom was 100% Italian. To which I attribute my hair everywhere I DON'T want it to be, but that's a post for another day.
Anyway I started the hair color adventure by coloring my hair myself. As I became more solvent I began to have it done at the beauty shop every 6 weeks. I've now graduated to having it colored every 4 weeks. My hair is almost completely white. And before you suggest I let it go natural just let me say I've also begun the progression of having less and less hair each year. Call me crazy. Go ahead I'll wait... but thin, white, STRAIGHT hair on a pink scalp? Yeah, I don't think so.
After doing the dye job every 4 weeks for a few years now I've long since gotten over even thinking about the process. It's just a part of the ritual I go through to look, as my Mom would say, half way decent. I'm good with it. It's a fact of life.
Then it happened. Last year as I was doing a trim south of the equator when I saw it. The lone weed among the flowers. A white hair. Yes people a WHITE hair. My hand to God I never gave it a thought. But there it was reminding me...time marches on and I'm just one more soldier. I'm going to *gulp* get old, wrinkly and have white hair south of the border. It was tough, much more difficult than the gray on my rooftop, but over the past several months I've come to accept the inevitability. I mean out of sight...out of mind, right? So no problem. Out of sight and I'm good to go.
But now, now I have found white hair in my eyebrows. Do you know what white hair in your eyebrows mean? It means the white just sort of disappears against your skin and you look like you've got something nibbling away at your eyebrows creating BALD spots. What's worse is that the "hole" appears at the fullest part of the brow.
Are there worse things in life? Of course. Like smoky ashy air for one. (You didn't think I was going to miss a chance to wimper some more did you?) But enough is enough with the white hair already.
Can you survive without knowing whether Rosie will overcome brow baldness and fill in? Stay tuned for more of the "HAIR TURNS" or "Where WAS I when all this happened?"
Labels: Getting Older, Life
Posted by Rosie at 12:01 AM
17 Comments:
LOL..As the Hair turns. I so hear ya! We turn prematurely gray in our family too. I was blissfully ignorant of the fact I WAS turning gray until Jericho pointed out, "Mama, you have sparkly hairs!" (bless his little heart).
Initially I fended that off with the assistance of a Jumbo Black permanent marker (courtesy ROADWAY Express, being that we always ended up with a couple floating around the house from Jeff's work on the docks)...but sadly, a single Sharpie just doesn't give me the coverage I need anymore. I decided to go ahead and let nature take it's course.
I'm thinking I might begin 'streaking'. Not, you know, naked streaking, but blond streaks mixed in to sort of camoflauge the grays...
A sharpie might work in the eyebrows, though ;0)!
Becky, a sharpie? Holy moly but I'd be scared I'd mark something else, my face for instance, with it. Brave girl that's what you are.
What a timely post. I've got roots that need to go away. I usually do my own hair, but I'm thinking I might start having it done on a regular basis. You know, now that the cash is rolling in from my 7 hour a week gig at the preschool.
And on the southern regions? LOL!! When I went through chemo I lost the hair on my head, the hair on my face, the hair under my arms and the hair where the sun don't shine. Still, I've found gray just about all those places since it's grown back.
Becky - a Sharpie?? LOL!! That's funny!!
Jen, yeah, Becky's sharpie got me too. Funny wench. If your pocketbook can spare the change I highly recommend having your hair colored at a shop. My hair's dark and I hated having the mess the rinsing always made at home.
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Well, I'm lucky. My family doesn't go gray until late in life (both sides). My grandma was a redhead until her 70's and then slowly faded until it was a grayish-reddish color before she passed away.
On the thinning side, I do think that's happening to me. I can't take a shower without losing hair. I don't notice it any thinner, but it's freaking me out.
PS ~ I hate typos. I must learn to proofread. My brain sometimes works faster than my fingers are willing to go :-)
Dev, my Dad's side is where the premature gray comes from. When my Mom died at 72 she had like 20 gray hair. Unreal. However, the thinning hair I get from her side. Aren't I the lucky one? I have two sisters who got THICK red hair and hardly have any gray at all so maybe somewhere way back in our family trees we are related...especially since you are in Montana and that's where both sides of my parents families are from. :-)
My DH is fighting the premature gray too.Of course he says it didn't start to go gray till the PNut was born but really it runs in his family.
And I hear ya with the hair loss. My hair has been falling out like crazy ever since I gave birth. It scares me so I already started scoping out the wigs.
I've been coloring my hair for years cuz of those pesky grays. I got all the premature grey genes in the family. My redheaded sister has NO gray and she's older than me! No eyebrow troubles yet, but you can certainly have those touched up. What a drag. My highlights got lighter and lighter until I was freakishly blonde. Now I'm sorta back to brown. ish.
Do not use the sharpie. Two words. Eyebrow. Pencil.
When my mom was my age she started getting WHITE hairs (not gray, not silver, but WHITE!). But then, she had three kids, a husband and was working full time. I don't have the kids (or technically the husband) so I'm hoping I can dodge the white hair bullet for a while.
The Boyfriend started sprouting white hair (again, not gray, not silver, but WHITE!) when we was 17. But he's a man, so he just wears his hair really short. That, and he doesn't care. He's the kind of guy who hops out of the shower, throws on pants and T-shirt and is good to go.
Giselle, your DH is on the right track...denial, denial, denial and then blame the kids. =)
lisabea, hi! Welcome to Nobody asked me... Damn those pesky redheads with no gray/white hair. Yeah the sharpie thing was funny. I'm sure Becky didn't REALLY use one...did you Becky? I've got the eyebrow pencil and been using it...have to the dye also colors your skin and it makes you look creepy. The pencil though doesn't always cover the WHITE fish line hair growing in my brow. *sigh* It's just a pain being female sometimes.
Wendy, the BF sounds a lot like GG. He can't be bothered with any fussing AT ALL. He does allow me to get his work clothes dry cleaned and laundered so he looks decent for work. Other than that it's gotta be wash and wear. I only wish I could get away with that.
LOL, I did use the sharpie on my hair, back when I just had like 10 grays, and that was because it seemed silly to pay to dye for just a few hairs, lol.
I never have used it on my face, however. I do have an eyebrow pencil for that. My toddler son, however, has used sharpies on his face. And tummy. And legs. And arms. And I still haven't figured out how he found the ONE sharpie we currently own, while there are gazillions of washable markers with enticing scents that he could have used instead.
I also started going grey at 18, when it was just one or two I would pluck them put and then forget about them. They rapidly began taking over my head and I have been colouring my hair ever since!
It seems to run in my family too. I'm not the only one who started going grey at 18, but the youngest is one of my cousins kids who has found his first grey hair at 14! He was mortified.
*sigh* Le grey. YUK! I can't really color them that frequently because it makes my hair fall out, so I color them for big events and the rest of the time go tricolor. Eventually, I'll have to just go au natural.
the eyebrows haven't gone yet, but uhm, thanks for letting me know they can. YIKES!
Did y'all ever see the Sex and the City episode when Samantha dies her nether regions because she found a grey hair? I about died of laughter.
Bex, I have a tendency to handout nicknames (Beanie, Shmoo etc.) so if you don't like it let me know. Anyway I remember your post about Judah giving himself some awesome permanent marker tats right before a wedding. I know it probably wasn't funny for you, but those pictures were so cute.
I still can't believer you used a sharpie in your hair. That's a lot of work for 10 gray hair. I think I'd have just pulled 'em.
Alcoment, gray at 18 sucks I can't imagine what it would be like at 14. Although going gray is different for guys than chicks don't you think?
Sarah, I know several people used to have problems with hair loss due to hair coloring years ago, but I thought the products had become more organic and user friendly and it didn't happen any more. Man, that's no fun. Although I know a woman with very thick hair that she wears in a long bob about my same age. She has fair skin and crystal blue eyes and has let her hair go naturally white and she looks fantastic. I can only wish.
Damn. Grey hairs below the belt? I could have gone longer without knowing that was possible ;) I hear there is now a dye out there for the nether regions but I can't remember the name.
I would pluck that gray hair out of your eyebrow. I dye my pitch black brows to a lightish blonde when I dye my hair but by the next dye they are pitch black again. Bloody hard to keep under control.
I have a feeling I won't know I'm gray until my whole head is gray because I dye my hair. Why know what's going on under there!? ;)
CindyS
Cindy, I know that my hair is all white because even though I color it every 4 weeks the roots are all white now...which is why I had to up it to 4 weeks because the grow out is more noticeable when your hair is white.
As for south of the border. Yikes, I'd be pretty nervous about dye there. I've tried brow die to have mine match the hair on my head and my skin is dark because of the dark color. I didn't like that so no more dye...pencil baby...pencil.
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