When my hair first tipped past ‘half and half’ into ‘definitely grey’ Mr D and I both had an emotional moment. Me because I had decided there was no going back. He because he had known me since I was an inexperienced teenager.
I’m not inexperienced now.
I’m silver.
Well in truth, my hair didn’t reach those dramatic, glamorous silver tones I had been hoping for at the start of lockdown one but I definitely look experienced.
You can tell that because people keep asking me questions.
You can go your grey way
In fact the main change I’ve noticed from letting my hair go its natural grey, is that people talk to me far more than they used to. Not the people I know, they talked to me before.
I mean total strangers.
It’s a strange world the female one. One minute you’re getting fed up because chaps are wolf whistling from the scaffolding. The next you’re surprised because they obviously think you need looking after as much as their mother.
Hats are good though.
Hats have always liked me. And I, in return, have always enjoyed them. Never more so than now. Not quite ready to be ‘mother’ all the time, I’ve discovered that a strategically coloured hat can bring back that blast of youth that I sometimes miss.
I don’t always miss it.
There’s a lot to be said for being respected for your age. There’s even more to be said for walking away from at least some of the pressure to be attractive, sexy, womanly, whatever it is that keeps us women applying the make up.
Is the make up the next to go?
I ran out of mascara weeks ago.
That doesn’t mean I’m not going to buy some more. Just that I quite like not having to. Working from home helps but I don’t even miss the make up when I go out.
I’m just enjoying being me.
Which is what we should all be able to do.
Has going grey changed my life?
Well probably not but it has changed my attitude. Age can actually be pretty fantastic. I’ve got experience, I’ve done things, and I have the means now to gain and do more.
Also there’s more respect out there for age than we think.
Either that or it was the dog mess on the pavement that made that chap step off it this morning.