Peace Out, Hair Dye…I’m Going Gray!

Peace out, box o’dye!

So long, salon coloring!

Adios, root touch up kits!

That’s right…I’m going GRAY…and I’m only 35.

My First Gray Hair

I guess I should start at the beginning. It started almost 11 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child. I was a hormonal mess and found my first gray hair. A #TargetRun was added to my to-do list that week and that puppy got colored over quick as you could say “baby!” From that moment on I was plucking stray grays and dying my hair every few months to keep the grays at bay.

My son has been told repeatedly that he is the cause of my gray hairs (because that is when I started to see them), but if I am being honest, I was lucky to make it that long. My mom started to go gray before she was 20, so I was completely expecting to suffer the same fate (with my fingers crossed that I would be like my dad who was at least 40 before the grays started popping up!). 

A Love-Hate Relationship with Hair Dye 

Hair dye is a funny thing. If you have the funds, it can be a lot of fun to go to the salon and get a totally different look each time, or grow and develop your style in the hands of a trusted stylist. However, this was rarely my situation. I was more of a “what box of dye is on sale at Target?” kind of dyer. 

I frequently grabbed a shade somewhere in the medium chestnut to jet black range occasionally dabbling in burgundy and eggplant undertones for a kick because my hair is naturally a very dark brown (which makes those pesky gray hairs POP!).

This upkeep caused me to stop dying my hair in any way about a year ago.

Waving the White (or Rather Gray) Flag

In the past 6 months or so I have tossed around the idea of getting gray highlights to make my graying look more stylish, but I never pulled the plug because of the expense. Instead, this week I dragged my big butt to my local quick cut salon to get all of the remaining dye cut out of my hair and begin the transition to embracing my natural hair.

The stylist was amazing! She quickly cut almost all of the remaining red off of my hair and gave me a cut chin-length bob. A tiny amount of color still remains because of where my hair line is, but I can barely notice.

Embracing Who I Am

Making the decision to stop dying and let my hair go gray is invigorating. It is breathing new life into my “fashion sense.” And, oddly, is making me finally feel a bit like a grown up. {But, do we ever actually feel like grown ups?}

This has been the most freeing experience.

My hair cut says young while the color is starting to go old…but very trendy. Heck, while I was writing this I popped over to Facebook and found this article from Glamour {but there is a good chance that popped up because Mark Z is spying on me LOL}.