Gray hair?

I've colored my hair since I was 13 years old. It was a big honkin' deal back then for a young teen to color their hair and I thought my daddy would have a fit. The fact that my mama bought and helped me color it was just one reason she was and will always be my heroine.

I've only had my true color once in the past 40 yrs and that was because of a horrendous perm (my last) that caused my hair to be completely translucent and slimy. I had to get my hair cut to about 1/2" in length all over my head. Adam was a baby at the time so it wasn't too traumatic...for him, at least.

I've a love/hate relationship with hair color as I suppose all women do. It takes time and can be a bit precarious as to the results, but for the most part is worth it. As I was doing my hair just now I added hair color to my shopping list because it's time; the roots are showing. But, wait... what's this? It's not just the sparsely spaced gray hairs here and there...it's LOTS of it. Somehow within the last 6 weeks I've gotten much more gray.

I told David that it might be time to just let go and go naturally gray. He stopped and looked at me like the proverbially deer in the headlights. I said, "Listen, you are and have been gray for quite some time now! Is this a 'paint on the barn' thing?" "Or maybe it's a 'lipstick on a pig' thing..." He quickly backed up and made sure I realized he wasn't saying the latter. I said, "So, it's the paint on the barn thing." David said, "Yeah...I'm going with that one...definitely."

Double standard here? Probably so. I've only met a couple of women who went gray early that could carry it off and they look fabulous. I'm thinking I'm not one of those if only because I'd hate the growing out process. That, plus I'm afraid I'd look too much like this. My disclaimer to the photo is that I'd never smoke a pipe. It'd be a stogie for sure.