Going Gray - Not I

I am standing up today, and standing proud for all those women who refuse to let nature, science, age, God, stress, genetics, or any other force, strip them of their youth and vitality, at least at first glance. I will not go gray, for many many decades to come, and when it finally happens it will not be one strand at a time but an overall choice. When it happens, it will be my choice, in my control entirely, and I will chose the shade. 

Lets face it. It will happen to all of us at some point. The idea of hair “going gray,” is a bit of a misnomer. As baby boomers watch their locks turn gray, the only thing going anywhere is a pigment called melanin, which gives hair its color. The cells that make up melanin can be found in the skin’s follicles, the tiny sacs under the skin that produce hair. As hairs form, they get an infusion of the pigment. Melanin comes in two flavors, like Chocolate or vanilla,  light and dark. How much goes into a strand of hair, and in what mix, determines its color. Sooner or later, even as your hair keeps growing, those little pots of ink in the follicles start running dry. O.K., there aren’t really little pots or ink cartridges like in your photo printer, and there isn’t an allotted amount of pigment for any one person, but at some point, the production of melanin slows. Scientists describe the well running dry as a programmed death of the pigment-producing melanocyte stem cells, or apoptosis. 

For years I have watched and quaked in my boots as systematically, each of my siblings turned prematurely gray, By their mid twenties and early thirties, each of my siblings wells had begun to run dry. Their only defense was to color early, and color often, or to accept looking 20 years older. They also began to thin significantly early on. Something was different in me, I got lucky, because I neither thinned or grayed, though I watched and waited.

 I sat on pins and needles for years, panicking when my hair filled the brush each morning. But each day, and as each year passed, my hair remained thick and healthy, and dark.  My 20's came and went, and my hair remained a thick healthy brunette. My 30's passed equally as uneventful, and though life brought with it some high stress dose changes and transitions, my melanin wells continued to flow.

I am now midway through my 40's and the wells are just now showing signs of running on empty. But I have made the choice to not accept it. I have become intimately acquainted with Clairol and Garnier. With a simple process of washing my hair with a cream every 3-4 months I maintain my raven locks.  My hair, though thinner than 10 years ago remains, healthy and full. Those sneaky little grays, only appear in the temples and on the crown of my head, and I beat them back ferociously  with Loreal. I see no reason to give up the good fight.  I will hold out as long as possible. 

When this gal finally does go gray , it will be with grace and style, and in my full control. I will elect the shade, and it will not be a strand at a time, but an overall succumbing. There will not be a day by day torture and plucking of the strands as they wheedle their way in.  When I'm ready, somewhere around late grand-motherhood, perhaps in my late 60's or early 70's, I will choose a day and instead of washing that gray right out of my hair, I will elect when to wash it in. 

In the meantime,  expect and anticipate that I will remain a raven haired beauty for many years to come. I will not go softly or quietly into the gray.