Is it Really So Terrible?

By the time I looked in the mirror on Dec. 30, 2010, I knew for sure what I was going to do about it.

"It" is my hair color.  I'm finished with coloring over my gray hair.  For the last several salon visits, I've been less than happy with the various shades of highlights and lowlights to give me a more  natural look of what I wish my hair would be - brown tinged with red as it was when I was a teenager and then in my early 20's.

I've been coloring my hair for years.  In my 30's and 40's I could go about 6 weeks between colorings.  In my 50's, about 5 weeks, now it's 4 weeks, and I've had enough.  It's not only the cost of the procedures, although each highlight or lowlight adds on to the original "color" then there is the trim, style, you get the picture.  Somewhere between $50 and $75 every 4 weeks, no thank you.

The other big reason is that when I look at my post half-century worn face, the lustrous coloring doesn't really help  the double chin, the crow's feet at the eyes, the lip fade,  the eyebrow fallout and the droopy eyelids.   Oh dear.

I remember when I finally came home from work for the last time, and went through my closet to gather up all my business suits and dresses to take to Goodwill.  These were the ones (circa 1980-90) with those thick shoulder pads that gave us "definition."  I had definition all right.  But it was a huge relief to have those awful things out of my closet for good.  No more. Free at last.  It was wonderful.

Deciding on going natural with my hair color is a similar feeling.  I just want to have my real hair again.