I'm Gonna Wash That Gray Right Out of my Hair

If you remember that jingle from Miss Clairol, then like me you probably need it too.

I got to thinking about my new gray hairs after finding a gray hair in my eyebrow and other bodily spots this week. I reached for the tweezers for the one on my eyebrow. It is also the main reason my pictures are in black and white rather than color on my blog and my back covers of my books. Is it vanity? Probably.

What does gray hair say about a person? They are old! But yet, I don't feel THAT old even being a grandmother. They are wise because they'd lived long enough to become gray. They are too cheap to buy hair color. A mark of intelligence. (???) But mainly it's a right of passage.

I've always used the defense against coloring my hair...I earned every single one of them. This is only partially true because I first started going gray at eighteen. At eighteen, I hadn't done that much to earn the gray hair so I colored it. I ended up with some pretty damaged hair over the years.

Now, at over half a century old, I'm decidedly salt and pepper. While it may look sexy on the likes of George Clooney, it's kind of drab on my head.

But I earned every single one of my gray hairs mostly during my children's teenage years! Yes, I earned them. I can point to certain hairs to certain events. This comes in handy when they retort, "I couldn't have been that bad!" In response to the mother's curse uttered during their teenage years, "I hope you have ten children just like you!" and of course, they did.

I remember my mother having what she called a wisdom streak in her hair. It ran from her mid forehead and back. A solid streak of gray. Looking in the mirror, I have that same streak.  The only picture besides Barbie was Cruella De Ville and that didn't quite fit me. Calling it a wisdom streak does have it's benefits to the female psyche. I learned and earned it. It's a reward for all those hard years of my earlier life. BUT it's still just gray hair.

Now your local water supply can do some really funky things to gray hair just like blonde hair. Most well water is heavy in iron (which a water softener system removes). Gray hair becomes battleship gray and not very becoming, but I found a product by Matrix called "So Silver." After the first use, I was sold. My dingy gray shone with a halo type quality. Do I have plans of coloring my hair...not likely. My gray hair is my right of passage, my wisdom for all to see, and I did finally earn all of them.

Keep writing and loving the Lord.