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I just finished a 20 mile bike ride and the whole time I thought about my hair. Yes, my hair, pathetic as that is. I’ve thought about my hair a lot lately. Truth be known, I spend way too much time thinking about my hair and have for a long time. It all started when I was 18 years old and found my first grey hair. Nothing much happened for years but as time goes on the grey started to take over. I have colored my hair sporadically over the years and lately quite a bit. I’m not ready for grey, I’ve told myself and others. Last fall my husband Bill and I went to Kauai where I had the good fortune to meet a wonderful woman who the natives said was a true healer. She was giving me a nice massage on the beach, telling me that she could tell how healthy I was but that my head didn't like what I was putting on it. Hummm. I had just spent a fortune having it done, so I know there were no “part lines.” My arms are blond, so she had no way of knowing that the hair in question was altered by use of chemical application. I’ve thought about it a lot since last fall and changed to an herbal coloring kit I purchased at Whole Foods. Who am I kidding, most of the words on the box I can’t pronounce. Anything that lasts a month or so has chemicals in it that shouldn’t be put on one’s head. Just go to PubMed (a site where you can research health issues) and type in hair coloring; you won’t believe how many potential illnesses are involved with dyeing one’s hair; bladder cancer with light hair color and Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma for dark hair color (think Jackie O.) Not what any of us wants to hear.

All this being said, what am I going to do about it? Any of you who have heard me speak know that I only eat organic foods, I drink enough water and exercise regularly; I also throw chemicals on my head every month, or I pay someone to do the same, exposing them to chemicals too. I need to stop it. Why do women think we have to do this? I can tell you, vanity. We don’t want grey hair; we want the hair of our youth. We want, (I’ll change this to I want and not presume that you all feel the same way,) to look great, sexy and vital. I don’t feel as sexy when my grey roots start to show. Why is this? Mass marketing I suppose. We have a youth driven society.

If I was on a tropical island with only women and no mirrors, would I care what hair color I had? Probably not.

What about natural or herbal air colors? I went on-line to research and discovered a site where some woman (I say some woman in that tone of voice for a reason) says to cook up a mixture of rosemary and sage and your own hair color will show through (I should have questioned that one) and cover all the grey. Great! Off to the garden I go, pick my herbs and boil it, strain it and rinse my hair with it for 3 days straight. Now I’ll cut to the chase. I’m in Santa Barbara with my son, Russell, looking at the college and I overhear some man say, “Look Marjorie that woman has green hair.” O.k. her name wasn’t Marjorie, it was Saturday night in a college town and he was a little tipsy, and loud, but truthful. S*#*! I hadn’t noticed green, but after that comment I looked in the sunlight and sure enough I’m ready for St. Patrick’s Day. Onward…

The saga continues next week... Pictures will be in Part 3.

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