Tuesday, October 27, 2009

If you can't beat them...

My hair has been turning gray at my temples for a few years now.   It hasn't really bothered me.  But now I notice there are more gray hairs sprouting all over my head not just the temples.  Which isn't really a bad thing overall, the silvery gray is a nice contrast to my normally brunette hair.

What does bother me is the sticky-uppie-ness of the new gray hairs.  They stand straight up at attention even if they are 2 inches long.  Ok, ok, maybe 2 inches is an exaggeration, but it seems like they are really long.   

I can't make them lay down and I certainly don't want to pull them out.  All that does it make the problem fade for a few weeks - it'll be back for sure.  

My mom used to ask me and my sister to pluck hers out.  And we did.  She'd wash her hair and then we'd put them up in curlers for her and grab any old gray hair that was sticking up and pluck it out.  I cannot imagine asking my children to do that.  Makes me laugh.

Then she would put on some kind of curler cover, a cap that sometimes had fluttery butterflies or flowers made out of a sheer polyester material.  I need to find a picture of these oh-so-fashionable caps.

A special note: My MIL never washed her own hair.  That is weird to me.  She had her hairdresser wash her hair, but she never did her own.  When she was having difficulty getting in and out of the shower the last few years I told her we could install a handheld shower so she could wash her hair and she looked at me in horror.  Told me she didn't know how to wash her hair because she'd never done it.  Can you imagine?

I have always had sleek hair as opposed to fluffy hair.  Fluffy hair is too big for my head.  Now these gray hairs are trying to make my head fluffy by fluffing up one by one.

Maybe I ought to go back to really, really short sticky-uppie hair so I'm not noticing the gray soldiers standing at attention.  That is one way to resist: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

2 comments:

susan m hinckley said...

I feel your pain, VO. I've always had sleek hair as well, and now it's kind of a frizzly gray mess. With little hairs sticking up all over (I didn't think 2" was an exaggeration -- sounds about right to me!)

Last time I saw my mom she said, "Wow, your hair has really changed texture!" which was her way of saying "Wow, you look a lot older!" Thanks, Mom. Yes, I am old enough to remember when you wore those little caps on your head that VO was talking about . . . I'm sure I could find a picture of that and post it, if you make any more snide remarks about my gray hair.

VO said...

Hmmmm, texture - yeah, now I've got texture.

hahaha, I so wish I had a picture of my mom in one of those caps.