For the last 15 years or so I’ve had strands of gray hair appear. I remember at one point that I’d had a co worker actually search my head and pull them out. I was surprised by how many were actually in there.
Just a few years ago, still just random grays, I was obsessed with dying my hair that color. I loved it and finally decided to go for it. Being my hair is borderline black, basically the darkest brown, I knew it may be challenging. Well, during the bleaching process, I’d successfully reached Heat Miser color. Couldn’t take it any lighter than this amber orange blend covering my scalp. They were not about to let me leave looking like that….but they’d mixed a color to try to reach a darker shade of gray as a compromise. My hair was purple.
I wasn’t a stranger to dying my hair, or to funky colors, but that was in my teens and twenties. Luckily for me, my hair is short and within a few weeks, it’d all be cut out and back to base. However, I’d tried it again. Yep. Shocker. Same result.
I’d spoken with another salon owner about reaching my desired gray and she explained how it would be weeks of varying bleached out blonde so they could strip my dark locks of color and then create my desired look. No effn way. With this dark hair and dark eyebrows I couldn’t bleach my hair and walk around like that; the bigger fear was that by the time some of my hair was ready for color, the roots wouldn’t be. Forget it. It’s not meant to be.
Now, slowly I’m reaching my desired shade, as the gray hairs are multiplying rapidly. However, they don’t cooperate. They grow in coarse and unruly, always in opposing directions. They stick out and want to be noticed. There’s no taming them. They just want to celebrate their arrival.
Anti aging face cream, eye cream, face serums…I’ve got them all. I use them. Collegen supplements, I’ve been there. Red light therapy, I love it. I’m not giving in to aging, I’m putting up a fight of sorts. However, I’m aware of these companies targeting women’s insecurities regarding aging and it’s a big business. Every major player has an anti aging line and pays millions in marketing to promote it, the competition is fierce. And we, the consumer, especially women, are all about it.
There will always be someone younger. I’m ok with that. I just want to look my best…and not for your age…for life.
Gym Girl Dana 