Do women with gray hair who don’t dye their hair look like they are neglecting themselves in your opinion?
What do you think when you see a woman with gray hair? Do you think she has given up on herself? Perhaps, that she is lazy? Or maybe, because of the rat race she’s probably so involved with her work and kids, she merely forgot to take care of herself?
This week I turned 30 and at the same time I found 3 white hairs. No one can see them now because I have blonde highlights. But it wouldn’t bother me even if they were able to be seen. When I told my mom about it, she made me smile by saying that my grays were “physical expressions of wisdom and experience.”
I remember hearing one woman talking to her friend about another woman once and say:
“Why doesn’t *insert name* dye her hair ? It looks really bad like that, totally neglected.”
Criticism by others is not something I am afraid of. If I was scared, I wouldn’t make my voice public like I do here. But, the newly discovered white hairs once again confronted me with the thought of how others perceive me. Because I am very aware, when such a thought creeps up on me, I immediately recognize that it is happening and act quickly to shake it off, returning once more to a state of Zen.
We, Homo Sapiens, are programmed to be social animals, part of a group, and it’s important for us to be loved and accepted. This is one of the reasons we have thrived and became the most dominant and powerful species on Earth. It is indeed inherently evolutionary for us to want to be accepted and fit in. Even with something as seemingly minor as grooming and beauty routines.
I don’t know what I’ll do on the day when there will be more than 3 white hairs. I will probably not dye them (but I’m leaving myself the option to choose differently when the time comes.)
It seems a very strange concept to me personally, to go to “renew roots” once every month and let someone apply nasty damaging chemicals to my scalp so often.
I am currently wearing blonde highlights as I said, doing it once every eight months and promptly forgetting about it. Yet, even with that, I plan to ultimately quit this beauty regime and not continue it anymore. I miss my natural hair color.
At my previous job, there were two women who did not color their gray hairs- one of them was nearing the age of 60 and the other was in her 30s. They both looked beautiful to me and I always enjoyed looking at them. They calmed me, I admired that they were doing what was in their head (no pun intended, but hey). I never thought of these two women as negligent or remiss in their looks. Nor did I think they were lazy or sloppy (they were both high caliber performers, each in her own field), and I appreciated that they cared about their health.
I mentioned in a past blog post that 95% of the waste of a particular product happens in the production process, rather than using the product itself. The toxic chemicals emitted by hair dye are harmful to our world, yes of course. But in addition to that, they further harm and do damage to our bodies.
I am seeing a wonderful change happening, while currently living in an upscale neighborhood in Miami Beach, and I pay close attention to it when I’m here. Many women of the highest socioeconomic status are around.I see them coming out of their yoga class and stopping to buy fresh organic juices. Many of them are wearing their gray, uncolored hair, and they look super elegant!
Nobody would think they dye their hair because they were “Letting themselves go”. Hey, even the Queen of England doesn’t dye her hair. Does anyone think she’s neglecting herself?
So what do you think when you see women with gray hair?
Do you avoid or will avoid dying because of minimalism / sustainability / health? Or will you be disturbed by the opinions of others about your looks and societies’ standards and their beauty expectations of women?
There is also a possibility that you dye your hair because you like the way it looks. That’s OK! There is no dilemma there or need for discussion from my standpoint.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Lee Snir is one of the founding partners of Legendary Life and is the original author of these blog posts. Lee is an active environmental advocate and in-demand speaker, writer and influencer in her native Israel. These blog posts were originally published in her native Hebrew in her personal blog titled, “Elita Yeruka” (“Green Elite” in English.)
When we translated Lee’s blogs for Legendary Life our goal was to only edit for grammar and clarity but to retain “Lee’s voice”. Thus the editorial choices were to err on the side of not “Americanizing” the language and thus leaving the translated blog as close as possible to the original. Therefore, native English speakers may occasionally find the word choices and phrasing a little different than they are used to.
For those of you who are Hebrew speakers and wish to read the blogs in their original form and follow Lee’s Personal blog you can do so here:
https://www.facebook.com/elitayeruka/?modal=admin_todo_tour
DISCLAIMER: Any statements, opinions or conclusions contained herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the statements, opinions or conclusions of Legendary Life (a Legendary Products, LLC brand), its owners, employees, contractors, affiliates, partners or advertisers.
