Paula commented on my last post and left a link to an article about Liz Jones and her so-called battle with gray hair. It's like a train wreck. I just can't look the other way. Neither can anyone else apparently. There are more than 500 comments.
For those of you with stronger will or more important things to do, the gist of it is that Liz struggles with looking old. She dyes her hair black and hates gray roots. Lizzy mustered up a whole heap of courage and switched to the patented caramel mush with gold highlights. She feels strangely liberated.
The comments are kind of snarky. Liz, you aren't pretty enough. Liz, your eyeliner sucks. I could say that women are way too hard on other women, but it looks like some of the contributors are men. Maybe people are just too damned hard on other people. She looks fine to me. I just think it's sad and silly that gray hair is such a buzz killer.
Wikipedia says Liz is anorexic, and Liz herself has written about her struggles with food. She also wrote about her facelift and well, probably lots of other stuff. I ran out of time. I mention this not to criticize Liz. I struggled with food in my teens and early adulthood. I haven't written a whole lot about eating issues, but I did describe some of my problems in an older post I called Food fight!
I mention it because I'm beginning to realize the buzz killer isn't gray hair itself but the inability of some women to reinvent themselves as they morph into middle age. They are not who they were or wanted to be, and that skunk stripe in the mirror is just another poke in the eye. And we will continue to read about women with self-esteem issues who hate gray hair because reasonably well-adjusted women who rock the silver aren't nearly as entertaining. Be ready, and come back when you need reinforcements.
Although I am partial to silver, I recognize there are plenty of cool women out there who are evolving as they age, and they continue to dye their hair simply because they like it. It's a style choice not an act of desperation. Some of them even read Rock the Silver because they aren't scared or threatened and they might just do it some day, and if that's you, welcome!
You don't have to be gray to pull off a spectacular second act, but I say why not? It's beautiful, sexy and fun ... and to borrow from Edna Ferber, a delightful sensation once you cease to struggle.
