GOOD HAIR DAY

When I made my way to the bathroom, in the early darkish-dawn this morning, I flipped on the light and glanced in the mirror.  My hair looked great!  I am blessed with good hair, I know.  It's thick and turning gray in a good way -- sort of streak-y and people will often say they like my "hair color" or my "highlights" -- as if a compliment to my stylists/colorist.   That makes me smile because I have never, ever colored my hair.

My hair was bright red when I was young. (Yes, everyone called me "Red" or "Carrot-Top" when I was a little girl, which I hated, since I was shy and just wished my hair was brown or yellow like everyone else's to avoid the unwanted attention my redness attracted).  As I got into adulthood, it seemed to darken a bit into a red-auburn, long and thick and quite pretty -- and I didn't mind the attention it attracted nearly so much!

Over the past 5 (OK, maybe more) years, it has "lightened" again.  So much so that people I have met within this time frame do not believe I was ever a redhead.  I was in a waiting room one afternoon and heard the receptionist refer to me as "the blonde woman waiting in reception".  I looked around and realized I was the only one there who could remotely be considered "blonde".  I was shocked!  And saddened.  My very identity has been tied to the unique genetic accident of being a redhead.  That recessive gene's unlikely emergence created a "me" that I had grown to love.  And now I seem to be the only one who still sees me as a redhead.   I look in the mirror and I see red.

Well, I see the gray too, but somehow that just seems like a mistake, like maybe it's temporary and will go away once it's had it's fun with me.  On the other hand, I try to pride myself on being a realist about certain things, and I know that my mother's hair went from tow-head blonde as a young girl to light brown, then darker, and then a slow and progressive graying until in her later years she had a headful of beautiful thick pure white hair.  If that is what is before me, I won't complain.

The women in my family really do have great hair; I see it on my niece and her daughters too.   This gift of good hair may seem trivial, but there is a multi-million dollar "hair industry" that caters mainly to women who's hair seems to betray them at every turn.  Some women spend an inordinate amount of time and money on it.  And I'm all for looking our best (can't beat a really good and face-flattering haircut!), but with all things we have to concern ourselves with in this crazy off-kilter world, I'm just glad my hair isn't one of them.

At least that's the view from here...©