About this time last year, I was in the middle of the "100 Happy Days" Challenge - post a photo of what makes you happy every day for 100 days - and see how much happier you'll be! As fun and challenging as that was, a new year calls for a new challenge.
Sometime in 2014 I started pondering the idea of NOT coloring my hair any more. I started to secretly read up on women who had chosen to go with their "natural" hair color...and how they did it. However I kept touching up my roots every 3 weeks or so at home, and then another two or three weeks later at the salon. An endless cycle that always had me checking the calendar for when my next big event or trip away was - would it fit in with my colouring "schedule" so that those awful roots wouldn't make an unwanted appearance?
I started going grey quite early - I seem to recall high school classmates pulling a grey hair or two from my head in class. In college, one of my roommates had a good high school friend who was a hairdresser. This hairdresser friend suggested that she color my hair for me. I allowed her to, and ended up feeling like my head was covered in black shoe polish. That ended that for quite a few years.
When I look back at photos when our children were young, I see quite a lot of grey hair peeking out in those images. I'm not sure when I finally decided to do something about it, but I do know that I eased my way into the process - adding "low lights" rather than a permanent color all over. The low lights seemed to work - until someone asked me if I was naturally a blond - I'd never been blond in my entire life! Looks like it's time for full-on hair color! That was at least 15 years ago.
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| With Patrick in summer of 1989. |
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| With Steve in the mid-90's |
Fast forward to December 2014. One day I was scrolling through Facebook and noticed a photo of my college roommate with her newly grey hairstyle. Wow...if she could do it, so could I! That was just the push I needed.
Of course, I had to have one final color for the holidays...but that last color was December 22. It's now been nearly ten weeks. I haven't mentioned it to too many people - although I'm sure those that see me around Zurich are likely wondering when on earth is she going to get those roots taken care of!! Since the "skunk stripe" is becoming harder to camouflage...and I'm about to go for my second "cut only" salon appointment...I figured the time to "go public" was now.
So...that's my story. I don't know how it's going to end. I hope I'll end up with a head of beautiful silver hair with an awesome stylish cut that makes me wish I had done it years ago. If I end up looking 85...I can always dye it again. In any event, for the next couple of months my hair may be in that "awkward phase" - but I'm looking forward to the journey! I can always wear my Fasnacht wig if I need to!
(But just remember..."If you can't say anything nice....")
