Going Gray - Phase 1

I've told about 20 people now that I intend to grow out my gray hair this year and see how it looks. Almost every single one of them has said something like; "I've never noticed that you have gray hair!". No offense to my polite dear friends and co-workers, but I must say...Um, duh. You don't notice all the gray hair because I have a substance abuse problem with hair dye. I color my hair at LEAST every six weeks, but more like every month if you count root touch ups and the box dyes that my Hair Guy diplomatically pretends not to notice when I go in for my professional treatment.

When I told Edward, my Hair Guy, about my plans to go gray he warmly issued me a statistic that about 95% of his clients who attempt to grow out their gray give up somewhere in the process, or immediately return to coloring after about one week of gray. He added that he personally does not believe that hair dye poses any health risks, and that he has dozens of clients who have colored their hair religiously for years and have not seen any ill effects. I thanked him for his input, and then told him that I'd like to try anyway, and asked him about my options.

There are 3:

1. Cold Turkey - stop coloring my hair immediately and let the gray grow out.
2. Pixie Cut - cut my hair off down to about two inches or so of roots.
3. Use hi and lo-lights as a visual distraction from my growing roots until I am ready to cut off the dyed ends.

I went with option number three.  Here's a grainy camera phone shot of me with the foils:

The idea is to lighten the areas around the gray streaks.

Foiling is less risky, presumably, because the dye isn't really touching your scalp, just your strands. Plus, it can mix up the light color of the gray against my dark hair. Kind of like creating a diversion.

Eventually, I'm going to have to cut off the offending dark ends if I want to avoid a zebra-striped head. Since my bangs seem to be relatively gray-free, Edward and I are thinking something like this:

But since the darling Michelle Williams has the lithe pixie frame and features to pull off that look with gamine ease, I'm going to have to do some work on slimming down so that I don't end up with a cut that is too tiny for my body. That's OK, though, because I'm on my way to a healthy body too.

Right after I figure out what to do with the 4 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies that appeared on my desk this morning.