When to give up the bottle and go grey

The truth is since I've been living from The Glampette the past few months it's made some things easier and some things more challenging. Being able to reach everything in my "home" while sitting in the center of it is a benefit if you don't like having to walk from room to room in a traditional home. Coloring my hair with a home kit would be one of the challenging things.

Here's the thing, when I do go grey I have no intention of cutting my hair short. But, I wondered what does long silver-grey hair that is bright sparkling white (like my mom's) look like? I don't see a lot of examples of it in my day to day life. My mom has the kind of beautiful white hair that strangers stop and compliment her they thing her hair is so pretty. So, I went on Pinterest and these are some of the pictures I found and pinned to a new board I titled "Natural Beauty."

WOW! When I saw these women two things crossed my mind:

1. I wish all of my hair would go white/silver overnight. Where my hair has gone grey it is the same bright white as my mom's and Yasmini Rossi's in the Pinterest photos above.

2. I wish I'd never started coloring my hair.

I've always told myself when white roots frame my face that's when I'll stop coloring my hair and go natural.

Well, just a month ago I noticed that it had happened. The greys had made it to the front line. There they were, three silvery white hairs along my left temple. There were a couple more just behind them but they'd been fairly unnoticeable until the frontrunners showed up. What to do? Keep the word I made to myself and stop coloring? Or continue coloring a while longer? My living situation has definitely motivated me to just stop coloring for now and see what happens.

At the very worst I might not like it and can go back to coloring. If I do like it I think it'll be one more liberating step to be more authentically me and be more comfortable in my own skin, like the way I felt when I gave up the lipstick last year.

After seeing a lot of photos online that show what it looks like to grow out dyed hair I realized this would be a good time, for me, to give up the bottle. My greys are sparse enough to not create the dreaded "skunk stripe" as the whites grow in and contrast with my dyed color. I'm not even sure of exactly how much grey hair I have.

I noticed my first grey hairs around the time I was 34 years old. At first I ignored them. When they became more noticeable I shifted my part-line from the right side of my head to the left to hide the conspicuous cluster that seemed to have sprung up overnight and out of nowhere. This solution worked for several years until they began creeping to the left side of the top of my head. The horror!

At that time I decided to start coloring my hair. At first I went to a salon, but soon I decided to simply color at home since I didn't want highlights or anything fancy. For years I spent $8 a month on a box of color ($6 when they were on sale) and happily spent 20 minutes a month dying my white roots to black. When they became more plentiful I switched to a dark brown to lessen the demarcation line as the greys grew out.

When I first told my stylist my decision he didn't sound as excited as I felt about it. . . Until he saw my Pinterest board. Then not only was he on board, he sounded even more excited than I was about wishing my hair could go all white as soon as possible.

I know most women dread getting and looking older but to be honest I feel like I've earned every grey hair and wrinkle that's come my way. I don't look at them as signs of aging but rather a testament to making it this far in life. And that is, in my opinion, something to celebrate as we all age.

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ETA: 7 things mom didn't tell us about going gray