Salt and Pepper

I have always wanted salt and pepper hair.

Wait, allow me to rephrase that…..when my hair began to go gray I wished I could wear salt and pepper well.

I see woman of all ages with this beautiful gray hair.
Short and spiky, long or classic bob, they all look great..
I would love that lower maintenance hair color.

Look at Emmy Lou Harris. Her hair is a beautiful color of white.

And Jamie Lee Curtis.  She looks great with gray hair I think.

I began to gray early. I had gray hairs in my mid 30’s.

I began to color my hair as soon as it was the majority of color that framed my face.

I used to say, When I’m 50 I’ll just let it be gray.

For some reason 50 seemed so damn old at age 34 and so far away. HAH!

But then in my late 40’s I had surgery and I couldn’t color my hair for awhile.

The gray no longer just framed my face. All of my roots were gray.

I must admit I was shocked.  Joke was on me.

I had 2 inches of hair growth that was this horrible yellow gray color and I was mortified.

As soon as I was able I got myself to the hairdresser for brunette hair STAT.

I used to tell Tracy, my stylist, that when I turn 50 how about we just let the color go and just go natural. She would always say no. I  would laugh and say, “well it’s my hair”
She would laugh as well and say, “No we won’t be doing that.”
She said this with such conviction it would make me laugh.

Then I hit 50. I tried, oh how I tried. The problem is they can’t dye it gray.
So you have to grow it out and that is a very nasty look.
I gave up fairly quickly. I realized I may never be able to do this.
Unless I want to wear a hat forever for or at the least a year which I do not.

Now I say when I’m 60 I’ll go for it. But who am I kidding I bet I won’t.
I told my new hairdresser of my ambition she turned up her nose.
Recently while getting my hair colored I was moaning about the high maintenance of all this coloring. She asked if she could be honest with me.
Sure, I told her I won’t be offended; just tell me what you think.
She said, “Your hair color isn’t a pretty white it has a yellow tint.
I do not think this would look good with your complexion.
I am not telling you this so you keep coming to be colored honestly; I just think you’ll be very unhappy if you do this.”

Great so now my own hair color will look terrible on me.
Why don't men have these issues?
I know she’s right but my goodness I want to be rid of this feeling of being tied to hair color.
I have tried the do it yourself at home but it can tend to look flat.
It looks so much better when professionally colored.

A friend of mine has always colored her long hair or I should say bleached her hair.
As she got older I found her hair got blonder.
Then she got breast cancer and her long blonde hair went quickly after chemo started.
As it began to grow again her hair grew in the most beautiful salt and pepper color.
When she got enough hair to get a style she got a real cute short messy a bit spiky haircut.
A hair cut she never would have been brave enough to try otherwise.
She looks better than ever. (and best of all healthy now!)
Personally I find her new hair matches her personality far better and while she has the salt and pepper instead of the blonde I think she looks much younger with it like this.
She agrees and would never go back to coloring her hair or growing it long again.
She says she feels free.  Oh my goodness I want that ....without the chemo part.

I’m beginning to think I may be the only old person in a wooden box with a beautiful head of brunette hair with low lights and highlights.

What age will I finally just figure the hell with it?

Why isn't there a way to grow this out to see for myself?

And can't they put a rinse over the yellowish tint to make it white?

Or is that just more maintenance?

Will you let your hair just be gray?

Are you waiting for a certain age when you think you’ll just go gray?

Or will you be holding on to your orginial hair color until the end?