Monday morning and time for my blog and ‘thought for the week’. Bear with me. I’ve come back from my early morning walk, having stumbled along it looking like the Michelon Man in my puffer jacket and scarf – I was the ONLY one on the trail. It was a beautiful crisp morning too, but verra cold, ken?
I had my coffee at my local cafe and read the paper and am now home considering all the things I need to do in the next two days before going in to work on Wednesday.
In the meantime, I want to talk about a matter close to my heart – or should I say, head – right now.
I’ve been a blonde most of my life, except for a brief spurt of red hair in my late thirties. Lately, in order to maintain those flowing golden locks, I’ve kept up a steady practice of applying various shades of blonde to the roots. And okay, it looked fine and for a few years now I’ve loved the iconic plait and colour and thought I’d just keep doing it ad infinitum. But more recently I’ve found my feelings change about all that. They went something like this: I wonder what I really look like under all this bleached goldenness? Is it doing my scalp any good? My skin and face are showing the signs of my long experience on this earth – something I don’t mind too much, because much of that is laughter lines – but my hair does not. In fact, they are matching less and less. Am I happy with that? I felt more and more trapped in routine of maintaining a ‘look’ rather than going with my growing sense of breaking free and being me. The rest of me is excited about the future and the places I want to travel, and not being so concerned with what others think I should do or be, and feeling like grabbing life by the coattails and leaping off into the unknown. It’s a great place to be! I have no children and am not tied down to house or hubby, and have some good close friends and family. . .
So, the getting the hair back to its natural state is part and parcel of that modus operandi. I want to spend my time doing the things that matter to me, and I begrudge every moment I am wasting doing things like putting on hair dye and waiting! I’m still not completely comfortable with the ‘look’ just yet. I believe that stripping the hair of colour and adding the tones that are making it grey right now, has probably damaged it and until it grows out into it’s own shade of greyishness, it’ll need plenty of conditioning. (I’ve just read up about it). And sometimes I feel like Medusa with stringy grey rats tails instead of those long golden locks I had. But I’ll live.
And yes, in the big scheme of things, the colour of my hair is a very small thing compared to the real issues going on in this world right now. But my wee blog is a place I share my emotional journey, as well as the bigger picture, and this is the part of the road I’m on.
It’s been a week of horrendous change OUT THERE – earthquakes and landslides of political upheaval. BREXIT and the present protests, the ongoing refugee crisis, endless ISIS horror, the shaky state of Australia’s leadership . . . homelessness in Auckland. By no means can I address any of these issues with any real grasp of the answer or depth of understanding of the causes. And in fact, for most of that I can do absolutely nothing but look on in dismay. (Fortunately, this is the real grey area, and something we all come to terms with individually, responding as our personalities and consciences dictate.) In the face of all that, for me, there IS a small comfort in dealing with my own personal challenges, and feeling empowered in doing so, that gives me courage to move on and tackle things of greater importance. I hope that these small personal rambles strike a chord with one or two others.
HAVE A GOOD WEEK ALL!
Hen & Ink 
Actually it is refreshing to veer away from the grave issues in our world, for a moment, while matching your hair to your other changes. It seems like an embracing of what is, and the joy to go with it.
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Aye thanks Jean.
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Hi Jenny – I relate to your `Her Hair’ story – I do have this amazingly creative hairdresser, but I think `we’ went a bit too far this time as I currently have BLUE streaks! Although not `Nanna Blue’ I still find it a bit disturbing! Time for a coffee and `Hair Share’ soon ??
Barbara
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Love to! Tomorrow?
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Thanks Jenny. It did (strike a chord) especially the last paragraph. All the best with the journey to real grey. I’ve worn it with pride for years. It helps that the hairdressers all swoon over my natural grey colour!
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Yes! Yours is lovely
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More people are embracing their grey. My friend Sheryl is starting that journey herself as is another friend at work. I’m not quite ready to do it… yet! I applaud you for doing it! My mom had beautiful snow white hair. Mine is nondescript grey. Maybe someday!xx
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It’s quite the journey! I had no idea. I thought I’d just go get it coloured and voila – there it was. But no, it’s a fight to maintain condition, whilst stripping hair back to colourless state, and then mimicking the colour-free natural state. You have to get really unnatural to go natural.
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In Europe I have seen many women embrace their natural hair and I love it that they do.
From the pics your hair looks beautiful Jenny. I know what you mean about pressure from outside, the
need to look younger etc but I think the beauty of strength is far more important and you always seem to have
so much of that. xxx
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I feel, underneath it all, I’m a European woman at heart! Thanks for your lovely comment.
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Very well said Jenny and l like your new look with your hair loke you l’m not married not do l have any children l’m at that stage now thanks to MPC its given me the confidence to do things l would never dream of lwould dearlt love to also travel and do thinks
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Good to know a little more about you too, Vicki 😘
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Ah you hit the nail right on it’s bonce my girl. I am a natural mousey blondy blech colour — ( I think LOL) since I was 15 I have been just about every colour that comes in a box from black to white and yes most shades of red, about a year ago at 65 I decided enough already so let the grey flourish and I must say it is a lovely shade of silver with almost black underneath — very fetching. It was easy for me I had my head shaved to raise money for cancer back then so the new stuff just grew it’s natural colour — now last week I did a dumb thing, as I hated what the hairdresser had done and could’nt be bothered or afford to go back I shaved my head again — I quite like it really short — well maybe not this short but you know quite short, like you I had long hair for a long time. Now I must put a dark blonde or light brown in it as the top is so light you can see my scalp and I look baldy LOL so the circle is complete and I am back to the bottle LOLOLOL. Hope you have a marvelous week I love hearing about your life, it is a lot like mine 🙂 I just wish I had learn’t to stop and smell the roses a long time ago life would have been simpler — but not as much fun 😉
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It sounds as if my own experiences echo yours quite closely, for sure. I know all about natural mousey blondy. I would NEVER, I repeat, NEVER, shave my hair all off though. Not even for a good cause, ha ha. I certainly would not look good with ultra short hair. Okay, stop NOW and smell the roses.
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