Short Story

The Root Of The Problem

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

Written for Stream of Consciousness Saturday where we are asked
to start our piece with a question. Bonus points have been hinted at
if we also end our piece with a question. Here is my questionable
stream based on a conversation I had with my husband.

“What would you say if I decided to let my hair go natural? You know, go grey?”

“I’d have to ask why you would want to do that. You always take great pride in looking younger than you are. Wouldn’t grey hair make you look older?”

“Well, I’m not sure we can toss a blanket over all women with grey hair and say they look older. There are other factors that come into play. I’ve always had great skin. Won’t I still have great skin if I go grey? How can I just arbitrarily assume I will look older?”

“Ok, I’ll give you that much. You can’t assume you will definitely look older. You’ve told me how much you like the color of your hair. I’m surprised you’re suddenly considering changing it. Where is this coming from?”

“Honestly, I’ve been thinking about it for a while. It would be so much easier not having to color my hair and get highlights every couple of months. Besides, when we were at your sister’s house the other day, I was the only woman who still colors her hair.”

“And you were the best looking one at the table!”

“You have to say that; I’m your wife! Your sister’s grey hair looks gorgeous. I know women who’d kill to have her color.”

“But there’s no guarantee you’ll end up with the same color, is there?”

“Well, no …. I suppose not. But my colorist is so talented, I just know she’d do a great job transitioning my hair.”

“Now I’m confused. If you want to stop coloring your hair, what does your colorist have to do with any of this?”

“My colorist will add some grey to my hair …. like getting highlights only they’d be grey instead of blonde. She’d gradually add more until my hair is completely grey, then I can naturally let my grey roots grow out.”

“Seem’s like an awful lot of work to me. Why not just stop coloring your hair and let nature take it’s course?”

“That’s a terrible idea! It’ll take forever and look awful growing out!”

“Well, if you’re convinced this is what you want, I’m not going to stop you.”

“I’m not at all convinced this is what I want; that’s why I asked you in the first place.”

“Ok, then my answer to your question is ‘Don’t go gray. I love your hair color the way it is.”

“Well, I’ll have to give that more thought. What do you think about me cutting my hair?”

“Seriously?”

NAR©2024
#SoCS

The Friday Reminder and Prompt for #SoCS June 8, 2024

This is “The Girl I Love She Got Long Black Wavy Hair” by Led Zeppelin

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

41 thoughts on “The Root Of The Problem”

  2. So you will embark on going a shader grey bit by bit? Your hair in your current photo here matches your beautiful complexion.
    I’m 50 years old and I have had persistent grey hair growing for the past few years, like it’s on a mission. But we are talking a more grey than a ‘Richard Gere grey’ which is scary. I put it down to a life time of indulgences where by my excesses have caught up with me faster than I imagined. I thought about changing the colour like I used to, but the few people who already know me or those that I will come into contact; will of course come to the inevitable conclusion ‘He’s just ‘reaching’. Like when people can tell someone is wearing plugs haha. I spoke to my mother 2 days ago and she dyed hers and I suppose if it makes her feel in some ‘rebooted’ – that’s cool and all.
    There is such an amazing excerpt from Oscar Wilde’s book ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ which I titled ‘Youth is the One Thing Worth Having’. Nothing beats that as far as my experiences with ageing and beauty. As usual I hope you don’t mind me sharing:

    ‘Youth is the One Thing Worth Having’ – The Picture of Dorian Gray

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    1. Perhaps! I keep waffling about this and I take that as an indication that I’m not ready to make a decision. Best to wait until I’m sure this is what I want to do.

      If you can find the original movie from 1945 called The Picture of Dorian Gray, it’s highly entertaining. I recommend it.

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  3. Do you know Shelley over at QuaintRevival.com? She started her blog when she decided to stop coloring her hair.

    Mary colored her hair for a while, then decided to stop. I like the way it’s gone gray, and she’s gotten nothing but compliments on it. She also stopped wearing makeup and just uses Lubriderm, and has gotten nothing but compliments about it.

    I started getting gray hair when I was 40. So did my mother, and so did her mother. It’s natural…

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    1. That’s great to know, John! I recently stopped wearing makeup. I have good skin and figured I’d give it a go. I think my skin looks even better without it; it can breathe again!

      Women in general are quite particular about our hair. I wish I could make up my mind as easily as I did about makeup!

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  7. I joined the ranks of quite a few of my friends, thanks to Covid. It is SO liberating! As it started to grow out, I noticed I had mostly one streak. II liked it. I let it grow for a good while, tying it up so it didn’t look too gross and then just chopped it off. I would not go back for any money in the world.

    Okay, there are times (very few) when I do consider it but I shoo it away 😉

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    1. Covid was good for something! I remember the first time seeing my GYN after Covid. She let her roots grow out and the top half of her gorgeous straight black hair was white! It looked pretty funny but I give her credit for sticking to it. She said ruefully “I know. I waited too long after Covid to start this project.”

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      1. Yes, indeed! A friend of mine, ten years my junior decided to stop dying her hair… but it goes down to her waist and she refuses to cut it. Even if she cut 8 inches, it would still be long (plus look healthier but hey, to each her own).
        It’s a helluva decision. A close friend with super curly hair decided one day (way before covid) that she was done. So she cut her hair super SUPER short (and it looked fab). She never looked back and her hair is back to where it was. Oh, you mighta seen her in one of my pics on the blog 😉

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          1. I’ve never had it much longer than that. I go up and down all the time. I’ve gone from below the shoulders to a short pixie cut in one fell swoop. My hair grows so fast and I love to change. You stick around this blog long enough you’ll see 😀

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  9. Interesting conversation! For the record, I’ve never coloured my hair – it started going grey in my thirties with no help from me!

    And you did well to dig that Led Zep track out of the archives: they played it once for a BBC Radio broadcast and apparently never played it again.

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    1. I’ve heard that men in general aren’t bothered overmuch about going grey; it supposedly makes them look distinguished. Women, it seems, do not look sophisticated or chic with grey hair; they just look old! I don’t feel that way as I have seen many women with grey hair who look stunning. I noticed a tiny bit of grey right at the top of my forehead (widow’s peak) and I like it. That’s not to say I’d like more of it but I am curious. The best thing to do is pop into a wig store and try on a few. Bill is not grey which is also a deciding factor for me.

      Regarding that Zep song, I am nothing if not ground-breaking here at The Trunk! 😉

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      1. I think you’re right. Most guys aren’t bothered, it is only the vain ones who resort to colouring it. In my case, it would take a lot more than grey hair to make me look distinguished!

        I’d expect nothing less of you with the music.

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  10. I agree that the transition from dyed to natural grey hair would take a bit of work but I think you’d look lovely with natural hair, you could definitely pull it off and still look young.

    I am at a crossroads myself, being in my early 30s I am only just starting to go grey- or white in my case! And I have very dark hair, if I’m lucky I’ll end up looking like the photo you used, though not nearly as pretty, sadly.

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