Going Grey with Glamor and Grace

“Grey hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” – Proverbs 16:31 (NIV)

I can’t blame my early grey hair on the Camp Fire or our decision to move into an RV. I can’t blame my kiddos either. I can (and I will) blame genetics.

My dad’s side of the family all went grey/white early. I had been dying my hair, since my early 20s, to cover the grey. A few years ago (2017), at age 37, I gave up the dye. I’m so glad that I had already jumped through that hoop before this RV adventure of ours. I don’t think there’s any way I could keep up with dying my hair in this nomadic lifestyle.

I recently noticed that the silver was looking a bit yellow-ish/dingy/brassy, so I bought some Milk Shake Silver Shampoo for grey hair on amazon.com. The shampoo is dark violet. Here are the before and after photos. I think the purple shampoo definitely made it brighter and more silver and took out the yellow tone.

Before purple shampoo:

After purple shampoo:

Ahhh, that’s much better. I feel a little bit more glamorous. I used the purple shampoo 3 times the first week and now I’m just using it once a week. I think, that after about 2 years without dyeing, I finally like it. At least, I like to pretend that I got struck by lightning and it gave me super-powers. lol. The windy weather while I was trying to take selfies helps with this struck-by-lightning fairytale. Can’t take myself-ies too seriously!

There are a few reasons I decided to leave it natural grey instead of dyeing it.

• I didn’t dye it while I was pregnant with any of my kiddos because I’m paranoid about the chemicals. After B was born, it was already pretty grey and grown out.
• I want to add to the collective unconscious that natural grey hair on women is beautiful.
• I want my kiddos to be confident in who God has made them to be. I feel like I should lead by example. Or at least, fake that I’m confident enough to pull off natural grey hair.
• Hair dyeing is expensive, and time consuming, even if you DIY.
• There is that trend where millennials are dyeing their hair grey to be trendy. “Thank you” to the Kardashians for this fabulous idea!

If you are thinking of going natural with your grey, here’s an inspiring website about 50 Women Who Ditched Dyeing to check out.

I feel like I’m a little too young for so much grey hair; I’m only 39 after all. Maybe it just means I’m a little bit wise for my age! J/K haha! I’m definitely not leaving my hair naturally grey because I don’t care how I look. I do care how I look! Full disclosure, I also care what other people think about me. People who don’t care how they look, do not spend $22 for a 10oz bottle of purple shampoo (like I did). People who do not care how they look, do not need to take 30 selfies to choose two for a blog post (like I did)!

“I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.” – 1 Timothy 2:9-10 (NIV)

“But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)