Is grey the new black?

Like many women of my age, my hair is rapidly becoming greyer by the day. I was looking at some old photos recently and noticed that over the past eight years both my husband and I have gone from having brown hair (or black in his case), to having significant amounts of grey.

Unlike most of the women of my age, I have resisted colouring my hair for a few different reasons.

I’m too lazy

Having to ‘touch up my roots’ every few weeks is tedious. Once you go beyond having a little bit of grey at your temples, you really need to keep on top of the grey roots down the entire length of your part. One of my friends calls this ‘controlling the skunk’. Personally, I’ve got better things to do.

It’s the real me

Another reason I haven’t dyed my hair is because I think it encourages other women to embrace who they are and not be afraid of showing their true selves to the world. I don’t think of myself as some kind of feminist role model, but I do often have women say they wish they were brave enough to just be who they are, grey hair and all.

The downside

The unfortunate part of going grey is that the lack of hair colour really drains you and can make you look rather drab.

If you’ve been dying your hair for a long time, it’s quite hard let your it revert to its natural colour, be that brown, grey, or a salt and pepper mixture of the two. It takes at least six months to grow out the colour, during which you can look pretty dreadful.

Reframe your thinking

I am only too well aware that my grey hair makes me look quite a lot older than my colleagues of the same age, but a friend once told me that in Thailand grey hair is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and the more grey you are, the more you are revered. I don’t need to be revered, but it was a pleasant reminder that being older (and maybe wiser) is not necessarily a bad thing.

Put some colour in your life

If you are thinking about letting your hair go grey, it’s worthwhile thinking about other ways you can add colour to your life. A touch of lipstick, a colourful scarf and some bright earrings can add a bit of zing and be very effective.