A Gray Rebellion

For all my friends/family who are hiding their natural gray beauty: This is for you! My natural auburn hair is slowly fading into gray something or other...and I refuse to cover it up. People who knew me as a child knew me as a "redhead", but those who meet me now doubt the veracity of that description. 

Here is the link to the website/blog that got me started on this topic on facebook today.

http://goinggrayblog.com/2013/08/women-going-gray-blog-posts/  Read this before you move on to the rest of this discussion.

One of my "old" friends on facebook remembered me as a carrot top...which is true. I was. Here are a couple of pictures from my childhood. Sadly, too many of my pictures were black and white and did not show the true color of my hair.  This baby picture is pretty accurate:

Yes, that's me around 9 or 10 months old! See? My hair was really red!

Here I am, according to the inscription on the side:
"Me-6th grade, Age-11"

This was one of the few times I had a permanent. I can remember how curly it was. I didn't like it much.

So, back to the subject at hand...why do we cover up the natural aging process of turning gray? Is it because we don't want people to know we are getting older? Is it because we want to stay as young as we can for as long as we are able to fool ourselves or others?  Do we think that if we color our hair to cover up the gray that people won't think we are getting old?  I've got news for you!  Growing older is a natural event...and sooner or later it catches up with us.  We may hide the gray, but then the wrinkles give us away! Or the arthritis, or the age spots, or the forgetfulness. I'd rather have my naturally occurring hair color so people don't wonder why my mind or body is really old while my hair still looks young.  But then again, if I can keep them fooled for a while, I may even convince myself that I'm still young enough to do all the things I want to do before I really get old. (If my body would only let me...)

My maternal grandfather's hair turned white when he was still a very young man, and so did my Aunt Belle's hair (his daughter).  I always thought they had the most beautiful white hair. I never thought of them as being particularly old because of it. They would've looked funny to me with any other color!   My Grandma Mursch had beautiful white hair...I never saw it any other color. I guess it must have been something else when she was younger, but that is the way I will always remember her...and she was lovely. 

My mother tried to keep her graying hair covered with a dark brunette color for a while, but I remember her best with her lovely silvery gray hair. Her eyes still twinkled and her rosy cheeks still enhanced her beautiful smile. 

My Dad had red hair just like me, but his eventually turned a lovely white as well. Although I know he was a redhead and suffered all the usual torments as a redheaded little boy...("I'd rather be dead than red on the head!"  "Billy the redheaded billy goat!")...When I think of him now, I see him with his soft white hair and his big blue eyes.   Here is a picture of my Mom and Dad, the way I remember them now that they are both in heaven:

 

Here they are when they got married...Mom was a beautiful brunette, and Dad was a redhead! 

They say that our hair color helps to define our "character" or "personality".  Because I was a redhead, people expected me to have a fiery temper.  I guess you'd have to ask those who knew me best if that was true.  I never thought of myself that way.  (but I could be wrong...)

But, if hair color does define our temperament or personality, then what does that say about those who have gray hair?  Do we automatically tone down our thought processes when our hair color tones down? What about those who go bald? (naturally, not because of illness) What happens to their personalities? Do they change? Or do they simply learn to accept it and laugh it off?  Baldness is another whole subject, and one which I am not qualified to discuss. (Whew!)  

"The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head."  Proverbs 20:29

I guess that verse could be said of women as well as of men...Our glory has nothing to do with our hair color... Our glory is found in the strength of our character and spirit.  When we are finally gray headed, we may not think of that attainment as our "splendor"...but it should be a sign of wisdom and maturity...grace and charm. The choice is up to us...we can fight it, or we can embrace it and use our new found "splendor" to confound those who may think gray is bad.  I like that idea...gray = splendor! Yes!

What a splendid idea!

To all my artificially colored hair friends:

Start a Gray Rebellion!

Set yourself free!!!

Go find your "splendor" today!!!

(Now please don't throw something at me)