Even when you’re old, I’ll take care of you. Even when your hair turns gray.

Well, it wasn’t met with much enthusiasm at home. I suppose my spouse didn’t want to face the fact that we were both getting older.  

Eventually I went back to coloring it. But, I kept it really short for several years as it was such an easy cut to keep looking nice all the time and not stringy long hair.  But, men like long hair. And women with short hair sometimes are judged to be feminists. Incredible how we make first impressions. I used to dress relatively artsy and my pixie cut seemed to me to be youthful and easy to maintain. I never was a person to labor over getting ready in the morning and spending hours in front of the mirror. I have always had a simple efficient routine and perhaps have been blessed with good genes. I used to look older for my age as a teenager, and younger than my age as an adult.

Eventually, I decided to grow out my short cut and also stop coloring it. My hair grew fast, so I became a slave to the beauty salon and by that time in my life, I wasn’t in a position to afford it. But I also loved the look of my gray hair. 

My faith conversion began to strip me of many worldly things, I suppose hair dye was one of them. I really loved the way that my gray hair looked anyway. The variation in the color was something that would be hard for a colorist to duplicate.

Our culture has lost respect for gray-haired people. I see this all the time on social media. The term “boomer” now has a pejorative connotation often invoked by younger adults as ad hominem responses when they don’t agree or just want to be shills. It almost evokes rage against the boomer generation. I suppose one could get into the why’s and how’s there is such disrespect for older humans and devaluing their life experiences. Even with healthcare, we see legislation for “complete lives” and support for euthanasia, and assisted suicide, the proliferation and normalization of hospice.