A life more ordinary
Now that I've landed, I feel more free to flit back and forth between the present and the earlier side of the life/blog narrative gap. As a measure of how sharply towards the prosaic my life has tilted in the past six weeks, let me share with you the burning question on my mind this morning:
Shall I go gray?
Or, rather, since genetics decided that one for me some 14 years ago:
Shall I stop fighting my gray?
I'm hugely undecided. Gray as an aesthetic, I can sort of appreciate. I don't think it has to telegraph dowdiness; there's also the Warhol route, or even the 18th-century French courtesan look.
It's gray as a signifier that worries me: when it comes to women, can people get past the semiotics of gray long enough to judge the look on its own merits? As my friend A offered, with characteristic honesty: "Gray can be elegant; gray can even be beautiful -- but gray isn't sexy."
So, then, that launches me down the path of other weighty questions, like: Do I care? (Read: Am I that definitely off the dating market?)
I don't have anything against hair dye, though it seems to be in the basket of items I'm developing middle-aged allergies against, and lately I end up with a headache or rash every time I use it. Also, my hair grows freakishly fast, so coloring sort of forces me into a disheveled root-concealing style that I'm getting a bit bored with.
The complicating factor is that I don't want to spend the next year with a skunk stripe slowly unwinding from the center of my scalp (yes, I'm that gray), and, at two months since the last touch-up, I'm already doing the hair color version of the combover, and fooling about as many people. So, I'm contemplating a very, very short crop.
Abruptly going short and silver is likely to age my appearance ten years or more. Considering that up until now I've generally been taken as younger than I am (sometimes to professional detriment), this could induce temporal whiplash in those around me -- and, yes, ok, fine, troubles my vanity a bit.
Tentatively, I'm thinking about going for it (and by "tentatively," I mean I'm booked with Ola for next Wednesday) -- after all, it's a decision that can be reversed at any time, with just six months of awkward interim styles (plus whatever traumatic glimmers of mortality arise from looking in the mirror the first time) as penalty. But I'm open to opinions.
Shall I go gray?
Or, rather, since genetics decided that one for me some 14 years ago:
Shall I stop fighting my gray?
I'm hugely undecided. Gray as an aesthetic, I can sort of appreciate. I don't think it has to telegraph dowdiness; there's also the Warhol route, or even the 18th-century French courtesan look.
It's gray as a signifier that worries me: when it comes to women, can people get past the semiotics of gray long enough to judge the look on its own merits? As my friend A offered, with characteristic honesty: "Gray can be elegant; gray can even be beautiful -- but gray isn't sexy."
So, then, that launches me down the path of other weighty questions, like: Do I care? (Read: Am I that definitely off the dating market?)
I don't have anything against hair dye, though it seems to be in the basket of items I'm developing middle-aged allergies against, and lately I end up with a headache or rash every time I use it. Also, my hair grows freakishly fast, so coloring sort of forces me into a disheveled root-concealing style that I'm getting a bit bored with.
The complicating factor is that I don't want to spend the next year with a skunk stripe slowly unwinding from the center of my scalp (yes, I'm that gray), and, at two months since the last touch-up, I'm already doing the hair color version of the combover, and fooling about as many people. So, I'm contemplating a very, very short crop.
Abruptly going short and silver is likely to age my appearance ten years or more. Considering that up until now I've generally been taken as younger than I am (sometimes to professional detriment), this could induce temporal whiplash in those around me -- and, yes, ok, fine, troubles my vanity a bit.
Tentatively, I'm thinking about going for it (and by "tentatively," I mean I'm booked with Ola for next Wednesday) -- after all, it's a decision that can be reversed at any time, with just six months of awkward interim styles (plus whatever traumatic glimmers of mortality arise from looking in the mirror the first time) as penalty. But I'm open to opinions.
4 Comments:
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- 9:47 AM
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- 10:20 AM
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Anonymous said...
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- 8:33 AM
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Anonymous said...
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- 5:42 PM
Post a CommentI vote for short. I just had my first all-clipper cut of my adult life and I'm very happy with the result. (Not that you should go the clippered route -- then you will REALLY put yourself off the dating market.)
Beware of the pixie cut, though! It works well on about 5% of women, I think.
You want sexy? Go red. A totally disinterested observation, of course. Too bad this wouldn't address any of your allergy/fast growing issues.
-Shani
Actually, going red would really suit your fair complexion. Good suggestion, Shani!
Right before the door catches me in the ass......
I vote against short hair, but I'd try a blondish/grayish dye close to your 'natural' color, so that as your hair grows, you won't have the skunk stripe...And you can transition off the hair dye without such a bruise to your vanity.
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