Me, 2011. Coloring my hair, plucking my grays. and avoiding ponytails at all costs.
Me, 2020. Dye-free for 6 years, and going short. Feeling sassy!
My Silver Story
I spent the few hours before my 40th Birthday/Karaoke party, frantically running around my tiny bathroom attempting to color my hair with organic henna. I had to add the mud-like paste to my hair, let it sit for hours, try not to stain my bathroom tiles, and then carefully wash that mess out of my hair. All that time and energy to look mediocre.
After washing the henna out of my hair, I looked in the mirror, and I cried. My scalp was orange, and so was my hair. At that point, I had been dying my hair for about 5 years. I am an organic kind of gal, so I was using henna about every 3 weeks. The whole process took me hours, and I was so sick of it. Wasting hours in the bathroom giving myself a horrible dye job.
That night was particularly painful because it was my 40th birthday party. I was 40, but not old. No, I was definitely NOT old, and I was definitely NOT GRAY.
That night, I looked in the mirror, and I didn't recognize that woman staring back at me. "Who are you?" I asked myself. My orange hair did not match my skin tone, and I wondered, "What color is my real hair anyway?
I spent so much time fighting my gray. I wondered what would happen if I just allowed the gray to come in?
I'd save time. I'd have more hair (less plucking). I might even be able to embrace the real me.
So, it was that night, the night of my 40th birthday party, that I colored my hair for the last time. That night I decided to embrace myself, and I have absolutely NO regrets.
In fact, allowing myself to go gray has opened me up to a community of other women who have also decided to welcome their natural gray color, my silver sisters.
So that leads me to my interview with my friend and professional hairstylist, Libby Wamser. We were about 8 weeks into lockdown here in Connecticut. I had been meeting with Libby and a few others every morning for a morning meditation group. One morning we were discussing the growing trend of going gray. With all of the hair salons being closed, more and more couldn't color their hair, and some of those people decided to stop coloring altogether, even Libby.
It was then that I decided that I wanted to interview Libby about the Gray Movement and how she navigated the topic, especially as a hairstylist.
In the interview, we discuss the challenges & benefits of "going natural", society's pressure on women to color, and various ways to transition to silver.
The conversation is timely and lively, and I hope you enjoy it.
If you like it, please let us know and leave a comment or question below.
