Fast forward 20 years.
Now, living in a city where everything takes too much time and money, dying my hair every four weeks is tedious and expensive. I was going to a terrific salon to ease my transition into grey. The last eight months left me with gorgeous chestnut hair and clever lowlights and hightlights, but the treatments were $200 a pop every four weeks. The resulting growth being a noticeable cool salt'n'pepper contrasting starkly with all the warm tones going on the rest of the way. I knew this couldn't go on.
Back in 2006:
We had just moved back from Victoria and I was in the process of growing out my hair for the wedding. I was dying it regularly every four weeks as the new growth was no longer just a 'strand or two'.
2009 - still dying it regularly and unable to give up the longer cut.
Here in Ottawa I began a journey of lightening and highlights in an attempt to let the grey grow in. Unfortunately, the resulting effect - however lovely - never allowed the new growth to seamlessly integrate with the old. $800 later, I decided to go on a dye diet. No more! I am too chicken to cut it so short that all the dyed hair would be gone, but I came pretty close. I figure in October, I can have the rest of the dyed hair cut away and start allowing the 'real' hair to emerge.
a close-up of my roots!
I thought letting go of that image of myself as raven-haired would be easy to let go of after seeing pictures of so many fantastic women who have let their grey grow in. An example here: I think this is Eileen Fisher, but I may be wrong. The interwebs are unreliable sometimes.
but man, I am so afraid of seeming 'old'. And let's face it - at 20 years younger - as cool as this woman seems, am I ready to look her age????? The picture of myself with Chase in 2009 is still how I see myself. If I get offered a seniors discount in the next year, that's it. The hair salon is where I'll gladly drop my $200.
