{"id":37,"date":"2019-05-01T17:49:48","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T17:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/?p=37"},"modified":"2019-05-02T16:11:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T16:11:51","slug":"to-gray-or-not-to-gray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"To Gray or Not to Gray"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know about you, but part of aging for me means questioning \u00a0certain things that I once considered to be just part of being a woman. \u00a0Covering up my gray hair was one of those things. \u00a0I grew up in the 60s and 70s, when the only women I saw with gray hair were either in their golden years (the blue rinse set) or \u00a0\u201chippy types\u201d who embraced all things natural. \u00a0The rest were firmly addicted to the bottle\u2014of hair dye. \u00a0Now, it looks like more and more women are saying \u201cno\u201d to the bottle and choosing to accept\u2014even love\u2014their natural hair colour. \u00a0And by a certain age for many of us, \u201cnatural\u201d means one of the other<\/em> \u201c50 shades of grey.\u201d<\/p>\n

My adventures in hair colouring began following an unfortunate experience with a product called Sun In<\/i> when I was 18. \u00a0 Anyone remember that delightful product?? \u00a0I believe it promised to bring out my natural blond highlights. \u00a0Well, my hair was as close to orange as it\u2019s possible to get when not doing it on purpose. \u00a0I was in a pickle then, because there was no way to undo my new do. \u00a0Thus began my ride on the hair colouring treadmill. \u00a0At first, though, I found it kind of fun. \u00a0Initially, I went blond since I was already part way there. \u00a0Then, after a decade as a blond, I thought, \u201cLet\u2019s try life as a redhead!\u201d \u00a0By my 40s, though, the fun was over. \u00a0I was a slave to dying my hair back to its natural brown colour\u2014which was, by then, clearly a good percentage more gray than brown.<\/p>\n

Within two weeks of my monthly touch-ups, \u00a0I now had the dreaded \u201cskunk stripe\u201d and worried about my roots when it was windy out. \u00a0Eventually, I reluctantly began shelling out $150-$200 a month for a cut and colour with highlights to help make the roots less obvious. \u00a0It was time to go on the \u201cmature hair program\u201d, my stylist said. \u00a0Ouch. That hurt my ego, my scalp AND my frugal nature. \u00a0But mostly, I resented being in a salon for two hours on a beautiful weekend day just to keep my roots at bay. \u00a0 I hated it, but I didn\u2019t see any options.<\/p>\n

Oprah to the rescue! \u00a0A short time later, I was flipping through \u201cO\u201d magazine and came across a 5-page story on women who had never coloured their hair. \u00a0And their hair looked…acceptable! \u00a0That was my conclusion: \u00a0\u201cI \u00a0would be fine with that hair! \u00a0What am I doing fighting this?\u201d \u00a0I showed the magazine article to Wonderful Husband (who was at the time my boyfriend of only several months). \u00a0\u201c I am thinking about going gray.\u201d \u00a0I said. \u00a0 \u201cGo for it!!\u201d \u00a0was his response. \u00a0You can see the online version of the article I read that day here:https:\/\/www.oprah.com\/style\/7-gorgeous-gray-hair-makeovers\/all<\/p>\n

The next day, I googled \u201ctransitioning to natural colour\u201d and eureka! \u00a0This was a thing! \u00a0 Others were doing it and there was even a chat room where I could share my progress and challenges with others. \u00a0Shout out to Diana Jewell, author of the book and creator of the corresponding website \u201cGoing Gray, Looking Great\u201d – I am sure my commitment may have wavered without the support of \u201cthe gray ladies\u2019 , as my teenage son called them.<\/p>\n

As any woman who has undertaken going gray after colouring their hair for a long time will tell you, not only is it not a fast or easy process, it\u2019s also not pretty. \u00a0You have your natural roots, your mid-tones of the recently-coloured hair, and, if you have long hair, as I did, you have your brassy, washed out ends. \u00a0Tri-tone hair\u2014wonderful! \u00a0I was determined to get through it, but others were a bit mortified. \u00a0Well-meaning friends said \u201cAre you sure you want to do this?? It might make you look older.\u201d \u00a0 Others just thought it was too soon. Maybe wait 5 or 10 more years. \u00a0Even strangers \u00a0felt the need to weigh in\u2014About two months into the grow-out journey, I was standing at the checkout at a high-end department store when I saw a woman at the neighbouring hair salon looking over at me. \u00a0Oh boy, here we go. I thought. \u00a0 Sure enough, after watching me for a few moments, she walked over and slipped me a business card. \u00a0\u201cI can help you,\u201d she whispered to me with a smile. \u00a0O.M.G. \u00a0I wanted to start wearing a sign around my neck that read \u201cYes, I know I look a hot mess right now, but I am doing this on purpose!\u201d \u00a0 I just took her card and smiled.<\/p>\n

And, I am happy to report that it was worth all that awkwardness! \u00a0A full year after beginning the journey, I had grown out and cut off all the old hair and, for the first time in over twenty years, I had a head full of natural hair. \u00a0I will never colour it again. \u00a0People say: \u00a0\u201cNever say never\u201d but this is one promise to myself I will keep – I have kicked the bottle and, for me, there is no going back.<\/p>\n

For those that love the process and look of colouring my hair – that\u2019s great\u2014all the power to you! \u00a0But for others who, like me, were doing it because they felt they had no choice, or feared they would look…gasp…older\u2014will you consider the alternative? \u00a0\u00a0Whatever you do, I hope you\u2019re true to YOU!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know about you, but part of aging for me means questioning \u00a0certain things that I once considered to be just part of being a woman. \u00a0Covering up my gray hair was one of those things. \u00a0I grew up in the 60s and 70s, when the only women I saw with gray hair were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itsnewtome.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}