I Flunked Going Gray 101

I am here to admit defeat. Again. I tried not coloring my hair for six months, but I just couldn’t take it anymore! I had the best of intentions and gave it the old college try – some things you learn just by doing them – and found that the ‘natural’ look is not for me at this time.

The thing that surprised me the most was how greasy my natural hair was. It was a complete Exxon Valdez oil slick. At one point it got so bad that I had to wash with Dawn liquid detergent to clarify all the oil from my hair (it actually worked very well; just like washing the birds after an oil spill). A day later, the oil would start pumping out. Blech. It was like being in high school once again where I had to wash my oily hair every day just to keep it clean.

To add insult to injury, my natural color roots were growing-in in varying shades from a really dark taupe gray in back, pewter gray on top, and a silvery blonde in front. The colored part of my hair, that I was trying to grow out, was a blonde shade that was seemingly getting lighter by the day. It was all a bit depressing, and I was beginning to hate looking in the mirror. I would pull up a hunk of hair and obsess over the difference in shades, and measure growth. Plus, I just looked (and felt) drab. Mama don’t do drab!

I am a big believer in following your intuition, and for weeks I’d been feeling like a failure in the ‘going gray’ department. So one morning I had just had it, and seized on the box of Clairol Expert Age Defy hair color in Medium Golden Blonde 8G that I had tucked away ‘just in case’. It was a hair dye that I’ve never used before but promised to ‘Fight 7 Signs of Aging Hair’, and to ‘Look 10 Years Younger’ – ha ha. Since I’ve just celebrated my 60th birthday; to look 50 isn’t really all that big of a deal to me anymore though.

The Clairol Age Defy coloring experience was pretty cool. They have a smoothing pre-treatment serum you put on before you color. This serum had a viscous, almost mucous-y quality, but it sunk into my hair quite rapidly. The activating color creme had a weird texture and I was quite alarmed by the color at this point – it looked and felt like applying golden mustard to my hair. But I got it all on, piled my hair on top of my head, and let the color develop. One nice thing is that there is no awful smell at all! It was actually quite a pleasant experience sitting there letting the color do its thing. Then, after rinsing all the dye out, I applied the Patene Pro-V ColorSeal conditioner all over and left it on for 2 minutes before rinsing out. Voila -done!

I have to admit that I love my hair once again. The allover color (medium golden blonde) is just beautiful and so me. My hair is shiny, swingy, and seems so much healthier. The most important thing is that it seems to have conquered the dreaded oil slick. I can go back to my specialty shampoos and put the Dawn liquid detergent back where it belongs – in the kitchen!

Stay colorful 😀

~Marilyn