#Grannyhair – Love it!
For the first time in my life, something that is happening to my body naturally is actually in fashion and it even has a trendy hashtag to go with it – #grannyhair!
I have been fighting going grey for the past 10 years. At first I would frown and pluck the offending, wiry grey’s from my head. Then, it seemed to happen almost overnight, they became too numerous to pluck. I headed to my long time and most trusted hair stylist, Sue, for a consult. “Lets amp up your natural blond highlights with a few of our own making” she advised. “This will help camouflage the creeping grey’s for a little longer” she reassured me.
This strategy worked for a couple of years until one day when I woke up and my head looked like a bad hair day on steroids. “It is time for a two step process for you my dear” Sue warned. She died my roots back to their original chestnut brown color, then proceeded to wrap my head with so many foils that I looked like an alien trying to return to her own tinfoil head planet. A complicated series of highlights and lowlights were delicately woven throughout to produce the “natural”, sun-kissed, shiny tresses of a woman half my age. I looked amazing – or my hair looked amazing, making me feel like I looked amazing – so… I looked amazing!
In a matter of a couple of hours my hair life had changed profoundly. I now paid a small fortune to have my hair kept in a perpetual state of young loveliness, I spent more and more quality time with my, now best friend, Sue and was always informed on the latest celeb news in People Magazine. In short, I became a slave to my “young” hair. As the years passed, the process became more and more frequent – at first I would hit the salon every 6 weeks, then every 5 weeks, then every 4 weeks and after a couple of years, I really needed to have at least my roots touched up every 2-3 weeks if I really wanted to keep up with the “young” hair crowd.
As I understand it, grey hair is hereditary, so I can blame my father for my battle with the silver, kinky grey strands that have so vexed me over the past 10 years. My dad went grey at the ripe old age of 30, and as is true of many men, it only made him look better. My mom is now 77 years old and has never died her hair – she currently has about 5 grey hairs on her entire head! Some people have all the luck.
Gray hair has become a trend. Young women are dying their hair grey with fun lavender highlights or dark and brooding roots. Women who are naturally greying with age are going with the trend and using silver highlights to accent the dark grey or going more platinum with dark grey roots. So many combinations of fun style with variations on grey/white/platinum color. This was exactly the information I needed to break out of the hair rut that I had unwittingly sunk myself into.
I snipped magazine pictures and made a Grey Hair Pinterest Board and started noticing other women around town. I believed I had a plan! I was going to let the roots be dark and change my highlights to white/grey. I headed for the salon armed with my photos and my ideas. Hair salon tip #1: If you are going to make a major change to your hair – call your salon and give them a heads up – you may need a little extra time to discuss and plan with your stylist. Sue was a bit caught off guard but she is a trooper and got on board quickly – mixing colors, stacks of foils, special lamps and other equipment appeared. Three hours later, I was rinsed and blown dry. Hmmmm, my hair was purple – not like Barney or anything but there was a certain Kelly Osborne feeling to my new head of hair. Oops…
I do no panic about my hair. My philosophy on hair is that it can always grow back. So, I calmed Sue, who was more panicked than I, and went home to think about my hair. My daughter’s new boyfriend was arriving for a visit and I figured at the very least he would think I am eccentric and chalk it up to creative artsy mom types. I could live with that. My daughter thought it was great fun and decided it made me much more interesting – so no worries.
The weekend passed and Sue called me on Monday to ask how I was doing and to see when I would like to come back to the salon to deal with my purple hair. Hair salon tip #2: When you drastically change your hair color, it makes your skin color look very different – think about changing up your makeup to work with the new color – this seems obvious but you don’t really think about it until you are looking in the mirror at yourself and wondering why you look soooo different. I headed back to the salon for a quick rinse to get rid of the purple. Sue and I had a heart to heart about the color change and how to achieve what I wanted. I began wearing more black because it looks so great with my new grey and purple hair.
Purple Highlights #grannyhair
Hair salon tip #3: Be clear about your hair expectations. Bring pictures and try to explain in detail what you are looking for when making a big change. Also, as I mentioned before, you need to be flexible, hair grows and it is easy to change and re-think. It may take some time (2-6 visits) to achieve a major color change without damaging your hair. Sue was nervous that I would be unhappy and blame her for my wish to change if it did not look exactly how I envisioned. I explained that I was in this for the long haul. Sue explained that I would need to look at this change as a 6 months transformation. I will be letting my natural color grow out and as we see how that happens, we will plan how to make the old (colored) and the new (the natural) can be blended. Hollywood may be able to change hair color completely in a blink of an eye but I was going to have to be patient. Sue introduced me to Goldwell Hair Products – The Dual Senses for Blondes and Highlights – prevents brassiness and keeps the highlights whiter and helps keep my precessed hair softer.
I want to change the way I think about my hair…permanently. I am happy to touch up what silver highlights if I need to give my hair a lift or even it out with a rinse but I want a more natural look that will grow old with me more naturally. I want to be clear, by naturally, I do not necessarily mean that I am giving up dying my hair at this very moment, I mean that I want to give way to the grey but make it work in a more fashion forward way. So, I am now two months into my transformation and I have had moments of loving my hair and hating my hair – so life is pretty normal. My hair appears to be completely white at the front and around my temples, more silver/grey at the top (around my part area) and much darker in the back. I have stopped doing anything to the roots and Sue is giving me more white highlights to help blend things together. It is a process but I think the end result will be worth the effort. I am having fun with different makeup combinations to complement the hair change and as I mentioned, I look great in black (but really, who doesn’t).
I would love to hear any other “going grey” stories whether from age or trendy choice or both. Any suggestions? Please leave a comment below. I will keep you posted on the progress and maybe there will even be a before and after picture in a few months! Happy Fashion Friday