For the past several months I have been stopped by total strangers in Walmart, No Frills and Costco among others and asked about my hair. Questions range from, who is your colourist, where do you go to get your hair done, what colours do you use? The answer is that I don’t use a colourist. It is my own hair colour. Do you call grey a colour?

Let me state for the record, it does seem to be a love it or hate it, no grey – but black or white about the subject. Heath told me it made me look 10 years older. Every time I would tell him I was going to get a cut, he would mumble under his breath “and coloured”. NO, not coloured I would scream back, jokingly annoyed by the comment.

Up until 2015 I had been colouring my for over 20 years. I started to go grey in my early 20’s. My mom did as well as my grandmother. It wasn’t just the stress of my job, but my DNA.

When the company I was working for at the time closed in May 2015 I decided I couldn’t spend the money each month at the hair salon. I wasn’t good at colouring my own hair, so I left it. Once I was working again and back at the salon I looked at the roots growing out and decided I was going to give it shot. If I didn’t like it, I would colour it.

I am not going to lie, it took over three years for it to fully grow in. There were times when it was about five different shades, leftover highlights, brown and whatever else.

When my Auntie Winnie passed away a few years ago I was sitting in the second row with my parents at the funeral service. When we walked out of the chapel my cousin came over to me and said she was trying to figure out who the blond person was sitting between my parents.

It is not for everyone. I have a few friends that would agree (and have many times) with Heath and said it makes me look old. More people have complimented me on how nice it has grown in and how they wish they could do it as well. It is not easy, especially if you have long hair. If you have short hair like my mom, it is easy. We stopped at the same time, and within a few months she was done and she looks amazing. Her “no colour” suits her perfectly.

It is still strange sometimes, when I will see a photo of myself from years ago and my hair was dark brown with red or even a violet tone here and there, to now. When I see white hairs on my sweaters or coats I think, “oh right, that is my hair”.

Like Carole King wrote and sang, “you make me feel like a natural woman”…my natural is Grey and I am owning that.

Live your best life – in colour or in GREY

Lisa