The Wearin' O' The Grey

I haven't made a blog entry since the Christmas holidays.  Life has been pretty busy - I was ill the 1st two weeks of the new year and my scope of responsibility has increased at work.  Here in NE PA, we've had non-stop snow events; I don't think I've worked a single Monday in my office because of our weekly Sunday-into-Monday snowstorms.

Today's blog entry is inspired partly by a post over at Debbie-Dabble, but more so by what I think was a very rude comment on her post.  You see, Debbie had the temerity to "go gray" and post about it.  One reader couldn't quite wrap her brain cells around this fact and wrote that "you can look ten years younger blonde".

Alrighty then.  We'll skip the part where I throw a 1942 edition of Emily Post's "Etiquette" in the general direction of this "lady", and get to the hair stuff.

My original hair color was an auburn reddish-brown.  

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

In the Florida summers (I grew up in Jacksonville), it would get gold and bronze highlights.

"...beach baby, beach baby here in the sand - from July to the end of September..."

Senior prom - 1979

high school graduation photo - 1979

Around the time I turned 25, I started going gray.  It started with a "Lily Munster" streak on my right temple and I wasn't going to let it get any further.  L'Oreal's "Extra Light Beige Blonde" was my friend for 20 years.

circa 2003

After a traumatic period in my life finally ended in 2008, I wanted to simplify - simplify everything.  When I had to downsize my life, I also had to downsize a lot of other things.  I had a very carefree, financially secure life that suddenly didn't exist any longer.  I had to take stock of the things and decide was was a want and what was a need.

Long tired of the expense and time involved in keeping my hair blonde, I decided that coloring my hair was a want, and would be the first thing I'd simplify.  I stopped coloring it. It took about a year to grow out and I will state right here it was an awful year.  What was once a pale lovely blonde looked brassy and fake against the new hair that was growing in.

Was it worth the wait?  You bet it was.  I drew the lucky card - I have a head full of healthy, beautiful silvery white hair.

(My apologies for the "selfies".  When you live alone...yadda yadda yadda...

men love that librarian look ;)

leopard is my favorite color!

It's hard to take a selfie and remember to smile  :D

with my favorite singer - Nick Lowe

off to see Lyle Lovett last summer

And the kicker is that if it were still blonde, I'd still look like I was 53 (54 in June).  I'd look like a 53 year old woman who colors her hair.  Now, I look like a 53 year old woman who simply doesn't color her hair.

If you color your hair because it makes you feel better - I think that's great, because feeling better is what it's all about.  If you don't color your hair because it makes you feel better, I think that's pretty damned great, too.  I'm not against enhancing our beauty - but that's just it.  Our beauty is our beauty - not yours.  As a women, we should understand and embrace this in our "sisters".

What's not great is women not being supportive of other women.  My mother (and all her gray hair, God bless her) was of an upbringing and generation where if you couldn't say anything nice, you didn't say anything at all.  If a woman chooses to change or stop changing something about her appearance, that's her business.  It seems that women are expected to be beautiful until the grave, yet no matter how they try to achieve their own personal beauty, they're condemned for it, and sadly, by their own sex.  So stop that merde - be supportive or move on.

By the way - here's a photo of one of my biggest fashion idols - the legendary model Carmen Dell'Orifice.  She's 83 and still on the runways.  Has she had work done?  Absolutely - as she says "if your living room ceiling is falling down, wouldn't you fix it?".  It's her hair that is insanely gorgeous and I would love to be around if anyone ever said to her "Hey - Carmen...you could look 10 years younger blonde" ;)

I'm linking up at:

French Country Cottage

Mod Vintage Life

Savvy Southern Style