I’m a swimmer, so I swim. Pretty much every day. And I used to color my hair. It started with highlights and turned into highlights and lowlights and then morphed into pretty much coloring with several different hues. But alas, it turns out chlorine wreaks havoc on chemically treated hair. Who knew? And that’s how I got to finding gray in my hair when I wasn’t really even thinking about it.
So Here I Am, Finding Gray
The cool thing about finding gray in my hair is that it made me stop and think about it. I was ready to be natural. But what would it look like? So I let my hair grow out and, it turned out, I wasn’t as gray as I thought I’d be. Sometimes my hair looks brown, but sometimes, it’s very shiny! The degree of grayness depends on the light and on the degree of frizz. Also, as I let the layers from the disappointing chopped haircuts grow out, my hair definitely seemed more gray. But now, as the length is more consistent and the style is smoother (I dry it most days), my hair just seems lighter overall.
But still, finding gray in my hair wasn’t such a big deal. Or at least it did not seem like a thing to me.
Adding a Friend to the Finding Gray Equation
Until this weekend. A friend’s birthday celebration. Another guest tells me that (running her hand over her hair) she likes what I’ve done. And I (naturally) assume she means how smooth and soft my hair is. (Trust me, when you swim every day, this is a constant battle.)
But actually she meant that she was impressed (?) that I let my gray hair shine boldly. Now that I’m watching Game of Thrones, I feel like I’ve connected with the “truthful” statement that is also the “kiss of death” so…in relation to this topic, I do not know how to react. Finding gray in my hair when I wasn’t really paying attention, much less expecting it, has caused me to reflect on this topic — and where I go from here.
That’s an easy one. Gray is staying for now. It’s true that I love being who I actually am and not spending time and money hiding it. I also have to say that I fully support everyone and anyone doing exactly what makes them feel good, too. We all get to decide for ourselves. What a concept. And that, my friends, is what really matters. Doing what makes you happy. Always.
So there it is. The gray is me. The gray stays.
PS that image is NOT me. It’s a stock photo.
Wendy Scherer has been blogging since 2005 when she still had to explain to people what blogging was. She has a crazy, longtime love of being online. Back in the day, she hung out on usenet and had a 240o baud modem and played interactive games on GEnie, so if you were there, too, you’re likely kindred spirits.
Professionally, Wendy is a strategist and researcher specializing in complex social media monitoring and analysis; industry, issue, and trend identification; and netnography. Her intense, decade-long career with advertising agencies, culminating with her becoming a partner with Bozell Worldwide in strategic planning and advertising, led her to found her first market research company, Sherer Cybrerian, in 1995. In 2009, she started a separate company to focus solely on social media and the valuable insights brands could glean from social. She saw a need to integrate marketing solutions with data-driven knowledge that was available as a result of social channels, and this set her on a path to work with brands who want to harness creative problem solving to gather meaningful and actionable insights that go beyond the typical who, what and where. If you want to know more about what Wendy does and what she might do for you and your company, check her out at Social Studies Group. You can find Wendy on Twitter @wendyscherer Instagram @wendyscherer and on LinkedIn at Wendy Scherer.
The original version of this article was first published on Wendy’s blog, Finding Blanche.
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Professionally, she is a strategist and researcher specializing in complex social media monitoring and analysis; industry, issue, and trend identification; and netnography. Her intense, decade-long career with advertising agencies, culminating with her becoming a partner with Bozell Worldwide in strategic planning and advertising, led her to found her first market research company. She saw a need to integrate marketing solutions with data-driven knowledge, and set her on a path to harness creative problem solving to gather meaningful and actionable insights that go beyond the typical who, what and where.
- Finding Gray in My Hair — Thoughts Where I Go From Here - July 2, 2018
