I sat here agonising this morning. I looked in the mirror and was greeted with the ‘Roots From Hell‘!!!!
Ok, ok, they aren’t really that bad, in fact for anyone else, unless you came up close and inspected, you wouldn’t even notice!
But for me, I can see them, they are practically waving at me saying “Hi! remember us! We are your original hair colour!!! And we have the all new white in here too!!!”
As an Indian, my hair is naturally very dark, and though I never wanted to go the polar opposite, I’ve experimented with all manner of styles, from high lights to low lights, various shades of browns, coppers, all sorts, in the name of fashion, and ‘looking good’. I remember once asking for some chunky high lights, you know. flashes of colour as your hair moves. Well, I came home to a 1 year old Little Man who sat and stared at me in wonder for ages. Why was he looking at me like that? Well, when I checked in the mirror, what hadn’t been glaringly obvious in the salon or coming home as it was a late evening, and dark, was that the lovely hairdresser had given me fine, not chunky, blonde highlights all over, and I actually did look ‘blonde’! No wonder he was looking at me strangely! I hated it, and went back the next day to get it all toned down!
Then necessity set in. Years of experimenting, and then I noticed the white strands peeking out from my mop. Only the odd one, and with my curls, quite hard to see. But that was the problem. I had seen! OMG!!! I was getting white hair! Oh woe is me!!!! Where did they come from??? I got all the oldies in the family saying it was my fault. I shouldn’t have messed with my perfectly lovely (but boring) natural hair. Was it? Should I have not touched my hair? Oh well, no point in lamenting now. It’s not like I can go back in time!
So now, it is a case of I have to, rather than I want to. I am the expert in home colour (why spend upwards of £60 for a block colour, when you can do it yourself for a tenner?!). But it does creep up on me, everytime! For a few weeks things look great, then I start to see this band of very dark hair at my forehead, peppered with white (yes there is more now!) and I need to get the colour out and go back to my lovely chocolate brown instead!
My mum used to dye regularly to disguise the white, and then The Change set in and her every changing crazy hormones decided that they no longer liked dye. Instead she would wake up to black or brown stained pillow cases every morning, as the sweats kicked in and after replacing a huge amount of bed linen, she gave up. My Pops was happy, he wasn’t one for cosmetic beauty, he likes the natural look, and they are both growing older gracefully, with their salt and pepper locks (and beard in my Pop’s case!) and it suits them both too.
My MIL went white overnight in her 30’s due to some family stress, I am told. She wasn’t allowed to stay her natural lighter colour, it would make her look too old, so she has been dying and re-rooting every week for nearly 30 years. When I got married it was a very stark jet black she was using, so I did the daughter thing and helped her find a kinder shade, I mean if she was gonna have to do this, at least find something flattering. She’s an attractive lady, and the black was quite scary, if I’m honest! So for her, still a necessity but she looks lovely. I do ask when she will stop, I mean FIL is a steel grey now, they could do the graceful thing too, but I think that is still a step too much!
Back to me and mine now. My Hubby Dearest is known as the ‘silver Fox’ He looks gorgeous with his specks of white in his beard and hair, but he asks whether he should cover it. I tell him every time that he looks amazing as he is, and no he should stay as he is, so why can’t I take my own advice? Gosh, life would be so much easier if I wasn’t worried about these silly things. Hubby Dearest says the same to me too, when I go to dye, he looks at me and rolls his eyes. but he knows I wont stop just yet.
I mean, a couple of years ago, I found my first white EYEBROW hair! Really??!! No, that’s not good! isn’t that just a step away from old lady whiskers??? Good God… does that mean the dreaded white will also be due to hit ‘down there’??!!!
So, I’ve done my duty tonight, I have revived my hair again, feeling good, and I think I need to stick to growing older dis-gracefully for a while longer!
But I Smile Anyway... 