At what point should you stop dyeing your hair? At what juncture does the idea of you being a natural brunette (in relation to the rest of your appearance, that is) feel a little improbable? It’s something I have been thinking about a lot lately, as I approach 60 and, after nearly a quarter of a century of having my hair professionally dyed brown, I have come to the decision it is time to stop.
Time to admit to the world that I am not, in fact, a natural brunette anymore. I am almost completely grey. And so it is that I am sitting in my favorite hair salon, finally ready to take the plunge.
To go out proud and grey, that is, which means getting rid of all the brown and dyeing it to match my grey — no, hang on, let’s be clear about this — white roots. If this doesn’t seem such a very big deal to you, then perhaps you are a blonde and can get away with leaving them undone for a while.
For dark brunettes like me, where the contrast is high (and the grey started sprouting in my mid-30s), it is a different story. In the olden days, I could just about manage to visit the salon only every two or three months.
Now that it takes only ten measly days for the roots to grow back in — less for my wretched ‘sideburns’, and don’t even talk about my nutty professor eyebrows — it feels almost not worth going home in between.
