I subscribe to a personal growth newsletter written by Lynn Colwell, personal coach. You can see her website Bloom'n'Grow by clicking the title.
Today's story by Lynn is about how and why she finally decided to stop dyeing her hair a few years ago, and let her hair go its (now) natural gray color.
She talks about how she dyed her hair for other people, and now she lets it stay gray for HERSELF.
You can view Lynn's article here: http://home.ezezine.com/43_3/43_3-2006.02.02.07.00.archive.html
Lynn made her decision based on being authentic and accepting herself as she is. Plus the time and expense, of course. All very good reasons, and I applaud Lynn's decision.
I would have said the very same thing two years ago.
Here's the e-mail I sent Lynn just now:
Dear Lynn,
I've been subscribing to your newsletter for awhile now and enjoy it very much!
Re: your recent musings about dyeing your hair. I have a completely opposite experience!
I NEVER dyed my hair until about a year or so ago.
No one else in my family dyes their hair, either, or not that I know of. None of my sisters, not my mother, and my grandmothers never did.
Oh, I think my mother used to have hers frosted for awhile, but she quit when she was about my age. When she frosted it, everyone asked, "Are you letting your hair go gray?" And when she quit, they said, "What a beautiful frost job!"
I always associated hair dye with fakeness, destroyed hair, time and expense.
Meanwhile, my teen daughter changes her hair color every week or so. Red, black, purple, streaks. She looks different every week! She does it for fun and enjoys it very much.
I was doing a big craft show and wanted to look more interesting. I'm an artist, after all!
So on a whim I colored my hair a vibrant deep red. I deliberately chose a color that does NOT look natural.
The first time, I was terrified. What if it looked awful?? I finally realized it's just hair, and it's MY hair, and I can do whatever I want with it.
I LOVED IT!!
I can now where brighter clothes without looking washed out, my eyebrows show up better, I love the look. And people are always commenting on my hair & how great it looks.
I do it myself, it takes about an hour from start to finish (and I take my shower at the same time), and it costs less than $10 once a month.
At some point, I'll probably go back to gray.
On the other hand, maybe I'll go for purple!
My point is, I don't think being gray or not being gray is important in and of itself. As you said, it's the story we tell ourselves about why we can or can't do that.
And then deciding FOR OURSELVES what WE want.
