So I’m just getting back into the swing of things after spending several days at Blogalicious (more on that later) where they asked me to give one of the keynote addresses. As you know, one of the big themes of my reinvention is my hair story (you can read more about that here). After the speech, a woman came up to me asked if, along with going naturally curly, would I allow myself to go gray? To be honest, I hadn’t thought about it much, instead spending time on trying to ensure I have a healthy head of hair. But I must confess to thinking about it more and doubly confess to being a little distressed by the fact that they are popping up with more and more frequency, in more and more places (My eyebrows! Get your minds out of the gutter).
Then today, I stumbled across this piece about a woman who’s been beating back gray hair for a quarter of a century to the tune of 100,00 smacker-roos! Wowsa. So I got to thinking about that; is going gray THAT big a deal? And here’s what I came up with. Yes and no.
For men, the gray, more often than not, is not such a big deal as that old double standard kicks in and tells the world gray equals gravitas. You know, they’ve been around the block a time or two and know what they’re doing. For women, too many times it means they’ve been around the block a time or two and it’s time to get someone with fewer miles.
I guess it makes me an enigma then that I am not comfortable going gray (or getting wrinkles for that matter) but feel more comfortable and confident in my own skin. I feel a bit like a traitor, carrying the mantle for mature women coming into their own and secretly (not so much now) fretting about the silver hairs that curl with perfection around the lines on my neck.
I do know this; I won’t spend 100,00- grand to cover it up so I’m going to have to make peace with it one way or the other.
Okay, it’s question time and I want the male GEMs to be heard on this one (we promise not to attack the truthful, if unpopular answer). What’s your honest opinion of a woman going gray? Does it look sexy or old? Do you think there’s a double standard for men and women going gray? Is that fair? Fire away!
