Friday 6 September 2013

The (dreaded?) greys

by Bex

I've been meaning to write about this for weeks, even before I saw a similar post on Anna's blog.  The last time I went to the hairdresser was the 13th April.  I would always try to plan my appointments close to an event and this one was just before going down for Nik's Dad's retirement party in Durham.  I would always get a trim and colour to hide my roots as they were becoming more and more grey.  I've coloured my hair for a long time, initially because I wanted it to be a more red colour and then when I went back to dark brown, it became more obvious when my greys were growing in and I would get it refreshed more often to hide them.


I've had grey hairs for years, even when I was 19 I remember finding one or two.  Since wedding planning and now the stress of our fertility problems, it has definitely become worse.  Obviously it could just be as I am getting older but I really think the stress has increased the greys exponentially.


Lately I've not been quite as bothered about hiding them.  I decided I would quite like to see how it would look if it was all grown out.  I think it just looks really bad at the moment as my parting looks like a stripe of grey.  In photos, depending how I have styled it, it looks like a grey streak almost like Rogue in X-men!


If I scrape my hair back (my go to lazy style) it's not as obvious but if I do my usual side parting when I straighten it, it's very obvious and I often tie up the top while it's growing out.  It also seems to be less noticeable if I wear it curly which you may have noticed I've been doing a lot more lately.


I may well end up giving up and colouring it again or may grow it all out only to find I look 10 years older and decided to go back to hiding it again but I want to see it.  I want to know what I will look like naturally.  I think I'm generally pretty relaxed about growing older.  I have quite a few wrinkles around my eyes and have no interest whatsoever in anti-wrinkle treatments so why was I so bothered about hiding my greys?

It was costing £55 each time for a cut and colour at the hairdresser and although I find getting my hair done quite relaxing, it also takes about 2 hours.  (My old hairdresser was cheaper (£38) and quicker and gave just the same results but I always had to plan so far in advance to get an appointment and travel into town whereas my new one is not far away at all, I can park right outside and have been able to get appointments with just 2 days notice.)  The other thing is, if I don't grow it out now and they all go grey, it will be even more obvious if I decide to go natural in the future and I might be stuck having to dye my hair forever.

I will go for a trim soon to tidy it up a bit, but I've decided to grow it out a bit anyway and since I rarely wear it down at the moment, it isn't a priority.  The thing is, I doubt any of you have noticed so far, the only people who have mentioned noticing how many greys I have are colleagues at work.  I was searching for Anna's post to link above and found this article about other women deciding to stop colouring their hair and they talk about it being liberating yet terrifying.  I don't have any strong feelings about it, I'm more curious to see how it looks.  The thing is, they are 48 and 64.  I am only 31.  Should I be concerned about apparently aging so early in my life?  It has certainly made me wonder about my fertility issues as I have an unusually low AMH which equates to that of a 45 year old woman.  I suspect my hair could also be that of a 45 year old woman.  Am I heading for an early menopause too?  Will I look 50 when I'm only 40?  I think it's best just to not think about it.

It will become more obvious as it grows through the lengths but who knows, I might like it, maybe I'll look wise and distinguished ;)

Does anyone else have a lot of greys before they expected to?  Do you hide them or proudly show them off?  Have any of you noticed my greys peeking through?

And just in case you're wondering, my dress is from Malaysia, part of a shopping trip with Mum to a few stalls near our hotel in Borneo.  We're both loving tie-dye at the moment!  The necklace is from an American website - Linsey ordered it for me so I can't remember the name, sorry!  Ring - Spitalfields market, belt - Dorothy Perkins, bracelet - John Lewis.


3 comments:

Not So Granny said...

My first greys came through in my early twenties all along the part line like you. I am now 37 and they haven't really increased too much in number. I dye my hair (myself at home) because I like playing with colour and have no interest in looking older than I need.

Amanda M said...

I actually love the streak when it's tied up. But no, I hadn't noticed before now.

I suspect I have a few but I have my hair coloured every 7 weeks so have never had to confront this! It's ruinously expensive though

Unknown said...

Your grey streak is super cool! I am okay with my greys - I cannot be bothered to dye them as I spend SO MUCH money on my hair already without adding that to it. So I am going to just see how they develop.

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