YES… I am going for it. Bring it on gray hair!

Ever since high school I have been dying my hair, not because of grays, but just for fun. I have had my hair every color you can imagine simply because I love the change. My creative side loveslovesloves changing things up. Somewhere in my 20’s however I went back to my “natural color” for a few years to give my hair a break. At age 28 I started going in for low lights again as my natural color is a dark blond with white blond highlights that naturally occur in the summer, especially when I was living in the Florida sun. I always got tired of it being so light, crazy I know, but we never want what we have;)

I walked into the salon with its bright white walls, black spinning uber cushioned chairs at each hair station and good vibes playing over the sound system. The smell of hair color, shampoo and perfume filled the air. It was time to grab a handful of great magazines, get comfy in one of the black chairs and share my life’s ups and downs with my hair dresser. As she began to place my lowlights she said in a very calm non alarming voice, “I see a few gray strands, I will make sure to lowlight them so you will never notice”.  I of corse was alarmed and  began to fire off several questions, “how many are there, can you see them very well, am I to young to have gray hair, how fast will my hair start to turn gray everywhere and is there anything I can do to stop it???!!!“.  She giggled a bit and said, “don’t worry this is normal. Most of my clients start to see their first gray hairs between their late 20’s and early 30’s. And it’s  like 4 strands nothing to worry about.”  This calmed me down and I really did not worry about it much after that point.

As time passed I decided to start dying my hair darker, at about age 32, as I love dark brown hair. At first I had to dye it every two months because my dark blond roots would begin to show. But about age 35 I began to notice that my roots were showing faster and more pronounced. They were looking lighter and lighter. It was happening… the grays were kicking in with vengeance! What to do??!! I did what any woman does, I ran to my mother for advice. Unfortunately, mom too started dying her hair in her early 20’s because she wanted her hair a brighter lighter blond – so she has no idea when she started to go gray. Although, she did tell me that my great great grandmother had the most gorgeous white long hair you could ever imagine. People loved her hair and everyone in our family hoped they too would be blessed with her like hers. but so far only my aunt Jean has had the white hair trait. And maybe I do too!

Its been since August 1st since I last dyed my hair and as you can see I have some pretty silver roots. Both Brandon and my mother say they are white. My mom is super excited as she is hoping I have my great grandmothers white hair. And in a strange way I am super excited too. So your question may be WHY are you going gray? Well I have a few reasons:
*I actually like the look of my roots and I am excited to see what my hair will look like fully grown out.
*I love the idea of never having to dye my hair anymore. Dying my hair for fun was much more entertaining then dying it to “keep up with social norms“.
*I have learned how horrible the chemicals in hair dye are even if it is henna or “natural dye”.
*I adore + admire photos of women with their silver hair who look confident, stylish and full of life.
*I want to embrace the person God has created me to be.
*And last but not least, I am not a “social norm” kinda person. I fancy going against the grain to take the path less traveled.

In lieu of this I have decided to add an installment of Ditching the Dye and Embracing My Silver Strands to the blog. Life gets hard at times and in the grand scheme of things going gray is probably the least of our worries, I get it. But embracing who we are and finding who we are meant to be is a life long challenge we all have. And for ladies, months upon months of bad hair days is daunting and a blow to self-esteem to say the least. I found it is really hard to find other women, at my age 37, who have made the transition from dying their hair to going gray.  So I am sharing my story as it unfolds.

If you have silver strands and would like to transition with me, lets do it! These blog post will be used to share the up’s and down’s of this gray adventure, keep positivity thriving and self-esteem boosted so the temptation to dye does not prevail. On my next installment I will be sharing my going gray plan. With being a professional photographer it is extremely important to me to keep up my style + look professional and polished at each wedding. I have a plan to do this.

Till the next post… embrace you grays and stay gorgeous!

Love,
Michelle