you ancestors

To color or not to color? That is the question. Many, many days I have clients sit in my chair who are up against this dilema. The old way of thinking is that men look distinguished and women look, well, look old. What BS!!! Women too can look distinguished and men can look old. I guess what it comes down to is how you feel. Your only as old as you feel I am coming to understand. As I enter into my 40’s soon and don’t feel as old as I thought I would feel when I was in my 20’s looking at the future me, there is a big sigh of relief. If life continues to go this way, then I should still be growing and feeling challenged and hence...young. I was talking to one of my clients, who is in her 20’s and is starting to get some grey and told me a story of the first time the subject of grey hair came into her consciousness. She was on the subway with a couple of friends and one saw a grey hair on the other and proceeded to pluck it. The guy, who got plucked, freaked out. He said in his culture grey hairs represent your ancestors and the wisdom they have handed down to you. I like it!!! Well, it got me thinking. In our culture we also think of someone with grey hair as being wise, maybe even distinguished, albeit sometimes stress related. Why the negative connotation to grey hair? Oh...aging. Is it the fear of death? Ha-doesn’t everything lead back to the fear of death? To quote Moonstruck-”Why do men chase younger women? Fear of death!!!” We come up with all kinds of crazy stories and ideas about the afterlife to ease the anxiety of the ultimate unknown. Maybe if we could just appreciate the now and not keep our minds on the past and future all the time, we could not be so scared of what we know is gonna definitely happen one day, but not how or when. So to color or not to color? Well, do it for fun! Do it because you want to! Don’t do it because you are scared of looking a certain way. As far as your ancestors and their wisdom turning into your wisdom, the grey is there regardless if you cover it up or not. So I guess that it just depends on if you want the world to see how wise you are or surprise them with your wit.