Thursday, February 8, 2018

Becoming the Silver Fox : Part I

It all started with my Dad's skiing accident, back in January of 2010. My Dad really had no business skiing at the age of 87, but nevertheless, he was in a severe accident, and he suffered a traumatic brain injury.  He'd been living in a cabin, alone, in the middle of the woods in the mountains, but clearly, this was no longer a viable option.  At first, he was in the hospital near my home in Los Angeles, CA.  Then he was moved into a Rehab Facility for another three weeks.  Of course, I visited him every day, and even observed his rehab sessions.  Upon discharge, Dad moved in with me and my family, while my brother (who lived out of State), and I set about finding a more workable long term living solution.  In the meantime, I shuttled Dad around to all manner of Doctor appointments, on a nearly daily basis.

Well, quite suddenly, I found that my already quite limited personal time (I am married, had two school aged kids and was running my own Pilates Exercise Studio) was now non-existent!  First thing to go was my monthly Hair Salon appointment.  I had luxuriant, long, reddish blonde hair, but it was extremely high maintenance:  I was in my middle fifties, and there were a LOT of gray hairs to cover.  My beauty operator first did a base color, and then she blended it with the rest of my long hair.  It took HOURS, and it was a $$$$ Beverly Hills Salon!  So, I visited the hair coloring aisle at my local Rite Aid store, and I quickly became a L'Oreal Girl. 

I know I saved hundreds of dollars over several years, and many hours of personal time.  And, the results weren't too bad.  I did sometimes consider letting my hair go natural, but my two kids, adopted from birth in my 40's, were still in Middle School!  I just couldn't do it--yet.  Once a month, I'd pick a Saturday or Sunday morning, and go through my ritual of mixing two different hair colors together, apply the dye, let it sit on my hair while I did other activities around the house and then rinse it all out.  This went on for nearly 5 years, as my kids grew up.  Each month, however, it seemed as if the dye worked less well, and there were STILL lots of gray hairs immediately AFTER I'd only just applied the dye!  It also seemed I was losing a LOT of hair each time I combed it out after dyeing, so there were always flyaway short hairs growing back in, which didn't really match my long hair look.  Very frustrating, but at least I was a blonde, so the gray didn't show too badly....TBC


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