Back in March I posted some thoughts about the process of letting my hair go gray. It was part of a revised time management initiative for 2020; it got hijacked by the pandemic. My monthly cut & color, along with a nice plan to transition to gray with highlights and other expert techniques: out the window.
Here's where I started.
The pandemic forced a change of thinking, and once I accepted my new hair-normal, it turned out to be a pretty hands-off deal. I decided to wait to get a haircut until it was long enough to cut all the dye off, but not require a clipper cut. It took 8 months. In the meantime, I trimmed my bangs and I had Ron trim the back at the nape when it started bugging me. As it grew, the dyed part got lighter and lighter, so a skunk stripe was not as glaring an issue as it might have been.
Here's an in-between stage.
While I was mostly not watching my hair grow, I decided to change hairdressers. There were a couple of reasons. The young woman who does my pedicures, Kristin, has a one-woman full-service beauty salon in a separate room in her house. She had a very high standard of cleanliness before Covid-19, and ramped it up when she reopened. She called me once during the shutdown to see how I was doing, texted me to let me know she was back open and would be happy to have me come in whenever I was ready, then called again for a chat. That, my friends, is EXCELLENT customer service and EXCELLENT business acumen. Since Kristin books up well in advance, I contacted her two months out for my appointment.
NOVEMBER 2!
The final grombre, an hour before my appointment:
THE RESULT!
Except for a little bit still left on the sides, the brown is part of my natural mix. It's easier to see in person, but there's a lot of gray around the front. I've lived with it now for a couple of weeks, and my initial reaction hasn't changed a bit:
I had my hair colored for 18 years. It started as a lark, a female thing. Once I committed to having it colored, I had a once-a-month schedule because I didn't want the skunk stripe. I also enjoyed the pampering, as well as the company of my hairdresser. I was never too involved in the vanity; it became more the habit, just one of the things I did. Though the decision to stop coloring was primarily one of time-management, I grew more certain it was right as time passed. I've never been very far from myself, but for some reason this sure feels a lot closer.
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you really are."
---Carl Jung
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