Happy birthday, Jenna! Hope you enjoy your special day! Appreciate your honesty as aging is tough and I can feel all my poor choices earlier in life catching up to me. My body feels like it is biologically 15 years older than it really is. Anyway enough about me. I hope Mark has something special planned for you today!! 🎂🎈
Happy, happy birthday, Jenna! I hope your day is filled with unplanned joys.
I am not ready to accept my gray hair, but then I haven’t been ready to accept my dull-brownish-blonde natural hair color for decades, and have treated it as an irrelevance I can pay to vacate. I don’t feel competent to dye it myself, though, and coloring always been a stinging pinch in my wallet even as I enjoy the self-expression of it. Recently I decided I’d be happier with less hair, period. (This is accompanied by deep feelings of gratitude for LGBTQ folk who have fought so hard for survival and representation that now I get the choice, in my normy little way, to not lean so hard into femininity.) Now that it’s short, I wonder what it would look like gray, but I more wonder how I could spend less on it and still like it ok.
Happy birthday! Use the dye!! Whatever feels good. Mine started going grey in earnest during the pandemic but I have lighter hair so they hide themselves more easily. Gives me more time to focus on my laugh lines and the growing furrow in the middle of my forehead from 42 years of "you've gotta be kidding me" face. Hope you eat something delicious and the weather stays nice!
Happy birthday! I developed a severe allergy to chemicals in hair dye a few years ago and have been forced, sadly, to accept the multiplying grays. Dye away -- I would if I could!! :)
an other comment from a fan of your writing. You are not alone!
Hair is a such facade of our soul, a statement of how we feel at each stage of our life. Young we rebel, with screaming colors, sophisticated breathes or sharp haircuts. But when the gray appears we know that we went to the other side, there's no going back. Then the little tango danse of acceptance and resistance starts. I went with it, embraced it, owned it, I tried and tried, but my gray was not a happy gray, too dull. Then I didn't like using chemicals, it's a tedious process, it's expensive, I have better things to do. But I did it anyhow. For a long period, reluctantly. And I realized that for my well being I had to find peace with it.
So I did some research and you know as an artist like you, we love exploring and find our own way. Henna became my savior. I love it and my hair too. It is a ritual of care and a day for myself. I enjoy the process and have fun with experiencing various shades of brown playing the apothecary mixing indigo, alma, cassia to henna. I found a platform made by wonderful women, authentic and friendly. I felt that I belonged and found my sisterhood.
I wanted to share how much I learnt to love the process thanks to this platform. To add my take, I kept a color resisting very white mesh framing my face while the rest of the hair is dark brown for contrast and good appearance. This way I don't feel like I am hiding myself, it's playful, honest and fun. Plus it adds flair, I am not invisible anymore. 😊
Re: going gray. I actually think the ‘line of demarcation’ happens with those who dye… whereas going gray naturally (as I did) you end up with a long while of ombré.
I’m not totally gray yet but I’m 75% there. I may end up being like this for a while, if genetics is involved. My dad’s hair at 78 looks like mine at 58.
Why I went gray? Cuz I’m lazy and cheap.
I get a lot of compliments (even though in my mind, my hair is a frizzy bird’s nest, but people do like the gray/black. I’ve been asked if it’s natural!)
I have brightly colored hair and have since around 2007, in various combinations. I don't dye the parts of my hair that are still (mostly) brown. The weirdest bit for me isn't so much the change in hue, since I've always messed with that anyway, but the change in texture. I don't think I'm quite 50% gray yet, and I don't have any cool streaks or anything like that. It's something random like every third hair.
I don't know if hair-dying represents a kind of vanity or not. I don't think I care. All of us should just do what makes us happy when it comes to personal appearance. You do you anyway that makes you feel good!
Happy Birthday! Gotta have cake, even a hostess cupcake or tastykake chocolate bell…
Mid-fifties is 53-57, late fifties is 57+ Maths!!! ChatGPT is an unreliable narrator; so is Google. Just telling us all what it thinks we want to hear… (have you heard about these AI boyfriends?! I know, tangent… but.. )
… I’m in my 60s and I didn’t think much about what “old” meant until I crossed over that threshold and yup, that’s it!! 😜 (also haven’t had a haircut since this pandemic started and I just now wear a hat… I’m hat-wearing-dog-walking-old-guy #2 in my little neighborhood diorama… no name, just a character 🤷♂️ )
And absolutely NOBODY can figure out the Apple Remote. Worst design ever… I’m convinced my kids (and now grandkids) are just faking knowing what they know. They just keep pushing buttons until something works!
Happy birthday from an other hair dyer :-) I hope you have a lovely day - and year.
Happy Birthday! I always enjoy seeing your newsletter gimmick in my inbox
Happy birthday, Jenna! Hope you enjoy your special day! Appreciate your honesty as aging is tough and I can feel all my poor choices earlier in life catching up to me. My body feels like it is biologically 15 years older than it really is. Anyway enough about me. I hope Mark has something special planned for you today!! 🎂🎈
Happy Birthday! I’m with you, I can’t embrace the silver hair yet.
Happy birthday, Jenna! I hope all your wishes come true today and for the year to come.
Happy, happy birthday, Jenna! I hope your day is filled with unplanned joys.
I am not ready to accept my gray hair, but then I haven’t been ready to accept my dull-brownish-blonde natural hair color for decades, and have treated it as an irrelevance I can pay to vacate. I don’t feel competent to dye it myself, though, and coloring always been a stinging pinch in my wallet even as I enjoy the self-expression of it. Recently I decided I’d be happier with less hair, period. (This is accompanied by deep feelings of gratitude for LGBTQ folk who have fought so hard for survival and representation that now I get the choice, in my normy little way, to not lean so hard into femininity.) Now that it’s short, I wonder what it would look like gray, but I more wonder how I could spend less on it and still like it ok.
To me, mid 50s would commence at 55.
And PS, birthdays in the office was always quite awkward. That’s why I almost always took that week off.
Happy birthday! Use the dye!! Whatever feels good. Mine started going grey in earnest during the pandemic but I have lighter hair so they hide themselves more easily. Gives me more time to focus on my laugh lines and the growing furrow in the middle of my forehead from 42 years of "you've gotta be kidding me" face. Hope you eat something delicious and the weather stays nice!
Happy birthday! I developed a severe allergy to chemicals in hair dye a few years ago and have been forced, sadly, to accept the multiplying grays. Dye away -- I would if I could!! :)
Happy birthday, Jenna!!! 🎂
Hi Jenna,
an other comment from a fan of your writing. You are not alone!
Hair is a such facade of our soul, a statement of how we feel at each stage of our life. Young we rebel, with screaming colors, sophisticated breathes or sharp haircuts. But when the gray appears we know that we went to the other side, there's no going back. Then the little tango danse of acceptance and resistance starts. I went with it, embraced it, owned it, I tried and tried, but my gray was not a happy gray, too dull. Then I didn't like using chemicals, it's a tedious process, it's expensive, I have better things to do. But I did it anyhow. For a long period, reluctantly. And I realized that for my well being I had to find peace with it.
So I did some research and you know as an artist like you, we love exploring and find our own way. Henna became my savior. I love it and my hair too. It is a ritual of care and a day for myself. I enjoy the process and have fun with experiencing various shades of brown playing the apothecary mixing indigo, alma, cassia to henna. I found a platform made by wonderful women, authentic and friendly. I felt that I belonged and found my sisterhood.
I wanted to share how much I learnt to love the process thanks to this platform. To add my take, I kept a color resisting very white mesh framing my face while the rest of the hair is dark brown for contrast and good appearance. This way I don't feel like I am hiding myself, it's playful, honest and fun. Plus it adds flair, I am not invisible anymore. 😊
https://www.mehandi.com/default.asp
Re: going gray. I actually think the ‘line of demarcation’ happens with those who dye… whereas going gray naturally (as I did) you end up with a long while of ombré.
I’m not totally gray yet but I’m 75% there. I may end up being like this for a while, if genetics is involved. My dad’s hair at 78 looks like mine at 58.
Why I went gray? Cuz I’m lazy and cheap.
I get a lot of compliments (even though in my mind, my hair is a frizzy bird’s nest, but people do like the gray/black. I’ve been asked if it’s natural!)
Happy birthday! I'll be 53 here soon myself.
I have brightly colored hair and have since around 2007, in various combinations. I don't dye the parts of my hair that are still (mostly) brown. The weirdest bit for me isn't so much the change in hue, since I've always messed with that anyway, but the change in texture. I don't think I'm quite 50% gray yet, and I don't have any cool streaks or anything like that. It's something random like every third hair.
I don't know if hair-dying represents a kind of vanity or not. I don't think I care. All of us should just do what makes us happy when it comes to personal appearance. You do you anyway that makes you feel good!
Happy Birthday! Gotta have cake, even a hostess cupcake or tastykake chocolate bell…
Mid-fifties is 53-57, late fifties is 57+ Maths!!! ChatGPT is an unreliable narrator; so is Google. Just telling us all what it thinks we want to hear… (have you heard about these AI boyfriends?! I know, tangent… but.. )
… I’m in my 60s and I didn’t think much about what “old” meant until I crossed over that threshold and yup, that’s it!! 😜 (also haven’t had a haircut since this pandemic started and I just now wear a hat… I’m hat-wearing-dog-walking-old-guy #2 in my little neighborhood diorama… no name, just a character 🤷♂️ )
And absolutely NOBODY can figure out the Apple Remote. Worst design ever… I’m convinced my kids (and now grandkids) are just faking knowing what they know. They just keep pushing buttons until something works!
HBD!!! From a balayaged fellow (middle aged???) Asian who is still uncomfortable w the idea of graying.