Do you have a question about gray hair? Ask us! Photo courtesy of goodhousekeeping.com

We love mail!

A lot of you have reached out to us about growing out gray hair, and here at the Going Gray Blog we take your courage to make this step very seriously. From here on out, we thought it would be a good idea to highlight your questions (with your permission, of course!) and open them up to our readers. Last week, we received this message:

“Hi my name is Christy, and i know that i have salt and pepper gray under my dye job. I color it a medium golden brown; I’ve been coloring it for a long time. I’m now 53yrs old and curious, but I feel I will need to go to my hairdresser to make the transition because it will be something that makes me nervous. I used to go to my hairdresser and she would do my hair a medium blonde with highlights. It was pretty but i was getting tired of doing all that so now i do it one color myself at home, and i still have never seen my gray.. do you think i should try letting it grow out some and decide from there?”

- Christy

Thank you Christy for allowing us to share your question and we hope you know there are many others just like you thinking about the same thing. Feel free to chime in, and keep those questions coming!

Thoughts, anyone?

Gray is Gorgeous. Photo courtesy of Complete Woman Blog

Wanna show off your gorgeous gray hair?

Let us give you a chance to do so! We’ve been working on a special project for a while now that’s all about the gray movement. Like we said in our previous post, gray hair is all the rage—and we’ve got proof. Here’s your chance to inspire others and get in on the fun.

We’ve been collecting stories from women of all ages who have made the choice to go gray. There has been a nice mix of stories—from one woman who had her first gray at 14, to another who decided to keep her silver locks to honor someone special, and other tales of acceptance, courage and newfound confidence.

What’s your story? Shoot us an email at goinggray.ebook@gmail.com for a chance to be published in our eBook.

We’re very excited to hear from you!

Photo Courtesy of eHow.com

Everyone has their bad hair days. Whether it’s from sleeping with your hair wet, getting a bad perm, or growing out a nasty haircut–it happens, even to the best of us.

Check out Carol Holoboff’s piece on The Western News and find out how a bad dye job made her resolve to embrace the gray. Good luck Carol, we hope you’ll send us a picture of your new gray ‘do soon!

Any bad coloring experiences out there? Do tell.

We love getting letters like this! Check out Danielle’s e-mail below:

Hello,

Midlife Speed Bump

Adapted from: Amazing Grays – A Woman’s Guide to Making the Next 50 the BEST 50 (Regardless of your hair color!)      

Maggie Rose Crane; FTA Press

 www.maggiecrane.com

As I aged, I became less interested in pleasing others and more committed to honoring myself. I realized I had the option to live the rest of my life without all the self-doubt, hesitancy and second-guessing that I tormented myself with during the first half.

In conversations with a number of women, I discovered that right around the big 5-0 many women begin to seriously question and challenge the need to adhere to standards that no longer support them in living fulfilling lives. Many referred to it as a midlife speed bump! This seems to be the age juncture where many of us choose to slow down, reassess our priorities, turn up the heat under a simmering passion, allow our hair to go natural or make any number of choices that support us in living more authentically.

It wasn’t until I had a salon epiphany (at age 55) that caused me to stop coloring my hair that I really began to look at my life through fresh eyes. I finally stepped out of the perpetual “self-improvement” loop and started to ask some serious questions. Why was I so invested in looking youthful? What was I really afraid of? What would happen if I stopped? Who am I now?

Living in a culture of distraction, it’s easy to gloss over what’s really important. We know the importance of slowing down, but few of us do. Sometimes life has to shake us up to remind us how important it is to sink into the stillness and listen. My “salon epiphany” encouraged me to pay attention, and the answers slowly surfaced.

Bubbling just below my conscious awareness was a potent layer of beliefs and fears about aging, messages that influenced so many of my thoughts, feelings and actions. Old people don’t matter. Gray-haired women are not attractive. This is the beginning of the end. Unexamined, these limiting beliefs and fears were dictating my experience and stirring up a low-level anxiety about what was to come as I aged.

It finally occurred to me that the energy necessary to hold these fears at bay was probably far greater than the energy it would take to make peace with them, once and for all. Rather than spend my time, energy and money trying to override Mother Nature, I wondered if it might be better spent on embracing Mother Nature. Perhaps it might be more useful to focus on the things I could do something about, and let go of the rest.

I reminded myself once again that I could face the next step kicking and screaming, or approach it with grace. I did a lot of both. Actually, I still do a lot of both. Going gray was relatively easy; it’s the graceful part that I struggle with.

Learn how you can age with grace, gratitude and gusto in “Amazing Grays – A Woman’s Guide to Making the Next 50 the BEST 50 (Regardless of your hair color!)” If going gray is something you’re considering, visit the Gallery of Silver Sages, both in Amazing Grays and at www.maggiecrane.com. Here you will find photos and stories of women who have taken the plunge and embraced their choice to live without hair dye.

Dear Friends at Going Gray, I have been colouring my hair all my life for fun, whimsy, brighten up my face, etc. I have decided to go gray because I am sick of covering it up;. it is coming in fiercely now. it is practically white. Also I saw all the before and after photos on the going gray websites and lo and behold (with few exceptions) everybody looked fine and not necessarily older or dowdy.  Also since I have decided, I have been seeing a lot of silver and white haired (Eileen Fisher/Flax-types, which I am one) on the streets, in stores, etc and they all look great.  I have decided that I am secure enough in my working situation to do this and I am totally psyched. Now for the transition, I am not willing to cut my hair because it takes too long to grow back. By the way, I have no support for this decision. Friends and clients are stunned into silence. Hairdressers want to cut. But with every passing day, I am more resolved to do it, my way.

I have already come through what I call the first phase of discovery.  On the chats, go gray people (my friends) advise to lighten up to blend (low lights). Well I have been dark blonde and burnished red for so long it took me while to realize that none of these colours would work anymore and looking at my actual grey roots, I discovered that they are salt and pepper because, duh, my original was some kind of brown. So I went dark, I picked up a box of brown colouring and just 2 inches from the actual roots, covered up the red, blonde, etc.  So that now it actually looks very natural.  soft brown with the salt n pepper roots.  Another funny thing is that the grey actually now seems to be coming in very slowly, especially when I wear it curly; but every now and then I like blow it out and wear it straight. Now my main problem is that none of the roots actually show up in a photo.  I just look like I have a silver aura around me in the photos so I don’t know how I could possibly document this process (for your project). …..I live alone; no one to take these pictures, I am not particularly photogenic and just using a cell phone camera, the roots simply do not show.. And you are right this is becoming way to introspective…….obsessive.  Anyway I will attach some photos if that is allowed. and I will try to document in a few months perhaps it will be more dramatic then.  Thanks for being there.

Do you have gorgeous gray hair worthy of flaunting? Do you know someone else that does?  Are you looking for support with letting your hair go gray?  Send us your story along with a picture to goinggray@goinggrayblog.com.

Featured earlier on this blog, Liz Rizzo is a beautiful 30-something with gray hair.  Along with 70% of our readers, Liz’s hair started turning gray in her twenties.  She is an inspiration to all!  Listen to her review of Anne Kraemers’s book Going Gray. Liz also gives a great gray hair styling tip at the end.  We hope to hear and see more of Liz!

Caring about the environment has become very fashionable lately, hasn’t it?  Well for people like Diane MacEachern, it has been her mission since the 1970’s when she graduated with an MS in Natural Resources and Environment from University of Michigan.  Her family built an ecologically sustainable home twenty years ago, before it was all over the internet.  She is finally seeing the benefit of decades of hard work and activism while the rest of us are just starting to wake up to the issues. Her website, Big Green Purse, teaches women to use their spending power for a better earth.  The environmental, social, and economic changes that need to take place are going to happen when big business feels the impact of America’s women—who she says spend eighty-five cents of every dollar in the marketplace. Diane’s newest book, Big Green Purse – Use your Spending Power to create a Cleaner, Greener World was released in March 2008 and is available on Amazon.com or through her website.

Speak and be heard at a fantastic website called Vibrant Nation. Vibrant Nation was built especially for accomplished women in the second half of their lives. Recognizing that women over 50 represent the healthiest, best educated and most accomplished generation of women in history, Vibrant Nation is a place where women can gather, share opinions and ask questions on topics that help them get the most out of life.

Vibrant Nation encourages readers to raise their collective voice on a special section on their site called Voices. Voices offers a platform to discuss what matters most to you. Click here to visit the Voices main page.

This week Vibrant Nation is having a health and wellness makeover! Don’t miss their talks with four extraordinary women who work to help women get healthy in body, mind, and spirit:

Going Gray’s favorite, Author Anne Kreamer talks about Going Gray.
Janice Taylor, weight loss artist, shares her first encounter with Our Lady of Weight Loss and how it changed her life.
(Plus, her Top 10 Creative Acts of Weight Loss and Top 5 Ways to Set Your Table for Change.)
Dr. Pat’s Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Gynecologist
A Conversation with Diana Rowden, Vice President of Health Sciences for Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Please support Vibrant Nation by stopping by their website this week.

WOW!! IT’S ROCK’N'ROLL!!!Originally uploaded by David Zellaby

After much-acclaimed success documenting the life and music of Bob Dylan, famed movie director Martin Scorsese has turned his attention to the Rolling Stones in a film released just this month. In Shine a Light (http://www.shinealightmovie.com/), Scorsese documents a band that has throughout the years proclaimed itself the greatest rock n’ roll band in history.

The Stones have been together for 42 years, and while many people claim they are beating a dead horse, or in it just for the money, they are still worth seeing—live and on film. At this point, they are a rock n’ roll institution, and even today’s youth appreciate their exciting live shows.

The Stones are proof positive that you don’t have to be 22 to rock n’ roll. Of course, we all knew that, but it’s good to have it documented on film.

Read reviews about the film here:
Variety Review: http://www.variety.com/VE1117936095.html
Rotten Tomatoes Reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shine_a_light/