This blog was initially meant to be a survey of the current state of the myth of hair\u2026but as often is the case, if you focus on a specific topic, your become aware of your own personal relation to the subject at hand and hence I ended up exploring my own hair issue\u2026 Which made this blog entry two: this first part deals with my personal issue, the second a more general discussion.<\/p>\n
Due to recent experience I was confronted yet again with a fundamental question: to dye or not to dye?<\/strong><\/p>\n Those, who know me, know that my grey hair began sprouting naturally in my midtwenties \u2013 at that time I still dyed it\u2026I wrote the whole story down in my old blog \u201cPowergrey\u201d (see below). At that time I was of the firm conviction that you could change the conditioned perception of grey hair = old and thought, that the many people who dye their hair grey for fashion reasons, are an encouraging expression of that. For wanting to dye your hair grey you really need to invest a lot of time and money \u2013 it\u00b4s not easily accomplished with a ready-made lotion from the drugstore.<\/p>\n I finally stopped dyeing my hair nine years ago and find it most delightful in many ways: no more financial and time stress with the organic dyes. For there are some exquisite ones, that look awesome afterwards and are no strain for the metabolism. But for someone like me, whose white roots show after less then ten days \u2013 an expensive endeavor and since it takes four hours for the colour to sink in\u2026also a lot of time. Besides: I really love naturalness and authenticity\u2026<\/p>\n Fortunately \u00a0I\u00b4m lucky. My hair is strong and voluminous and after having worn a pageboy hairstyle, I felt like something else and so by now I have something like a silver fox mane of more than shoulder length. Luckily it suits me and as my facial features seem younger than I actually am, it is a wild mixture that many people like or at least notice. As a matter of fact sometimes people turn around in the street or stare at me a little too long on the subway\u2026<\/p>\n Women seem the most impressed, and some men who consider my avowal to my grey hair courageous for various reasons. I seem most attractive to men who are already close to or far into retirement age\u2026 And that\u00b4s my problem: I often notice that most men generally are attracted to younger women, and\/or those who radiate innocence, youth and a certain freshness\u2026<\/p>\n I knew when I stopped dying my hair that I would immediately seem at least ten years older than I actually was\u2026and I thought that now, with almost fifty, it might seem rather coherent. But far from it: for now I have a bit of the aura of\u00a0 a \u201cwise, old native American woman\u201d which is certainly attractive in a general sense, but which excludes me from the \u201cprey categories\u201d (we have an actual word for this in German\u2026) of most men, that I find attractive in turn.<\/p>\n But the subconscious conditioning \u201cwoman with grey hair=grandmother\u201d also works in men, who should actually know better. But we do not choose our potential partners with our mind \u2013 some cryptic multidimensional chemistry gets becomes active\u2026which to decode perfumers, fashion designers, dating coachs, sex therapists and matchmakers have tried since the dawn of our couple culture\u2026<\/p>\n Out of sheer cluelessness we call it magic and we might be able to strengthen or weaken it a little but it can\u00b4t be manipulated fundamentally and in the long run. Dynamics are in effect that we have not come to completely fathom yet and in a way that\u00b4s also most pleasing, for then also the question of hair only has an inferior role\u2026 if it fits, it fits, if not \u2013 well then it doesn\u00b4t.<\/p>\n But in order to find out if \u201cit\u201d is a match or not, a certain contact has to come about and that\u00b4s exactly where I am stuck at the moment. For even though I don\u00b4t want to dye my hair in the least bit, I am even less inclined to end up in the pensioner\u00b4s column, when it comes to dating categories.<\/p>\n Therefore I decided to get some input from my friends and of course some suggested to definitely dye or at least to tinge or highlight my hair. Others declared that by no means should I corrupt myself for a potential partner just because of the \u201cdemands of the market\u201d. And the very smart ones declared that it the actual factor was my own sense of feeling attractive: if I felt attractive and sexy myself \u2013 no matter how \u2013 this would convey itself to potential men. And then there were a few who carefully hinted that I might have to give men I was interested in a more clear signal of availability so that they could consider a silver fox among all those bunnies, gazelles, lionesses and other animals of prey\u2026<\/p>\n I mulled it all over and decided that dying my hair is really out of the question for me. However, I carefully checked my clothing style as not too appear either as a \u201clate girl\u201d nor a \u201cdynamic granny\u201d, decided to occasionally use more make-up and also decided to appear more self-confident about my appearance\u2026 with the intention of evoking less the image of the wise, old, mellow native woman, but that of a prudent, curious, adventurous and sensual woman in her prime!<\/p>\n My first article on the topic from my old blog \u201eNotes of an every day goddess\u201c on March 28th 2013.<\/p>\n Today I noticed for the first time an ad in the paper for \u201cpower grey\u201d: German shampoo company advertises their men\u00b4s product with the slogan: \u201cThe new grey men\u201d. So far I\u00b4ve always associated the grey men with the time thieves in Michael Ende\u00b4s novel \u201cMomo\u201d.<\/p>\n But not so the shampoo company. They recommend the use of their product to get rid of the \u201cshabby yellow glow\u201d by turning it into the aforementioned \u201cpower grey\u201d. Further they say that more and more men in public are making use of power grey. Subtext: it makes them all more sophisticated and sexy. The grey temples from Cary Grant to George Clooney are always considered ultra attractive!<\/p>\n But what about women? What about power grey for power women? Those who know me personally, know that I turned rather grey before the age of thirty. It actually started in my mid twenties. At that time I furiously dyed my hair \u2013 considering myself far too young then. In the following years I was a redhead, a blond, a zebra (blond and dark brown mixed\u2026)<\/p>\n At 33 I finally had the guts to publicly admit to it: since a young face and steal colored hair do have a certain charm. But only if one doesn\u00b4t happen to look pale. With that look I was in China in 2001 and unfortunately did not always look as fit as I wished: jetlag and the bad air in the Chinese hotels took their toll. The consequence was that many Chinese always stared at me and on one occasion a woman asked via the translator whether I intended to die early\u2026<\/p>\n I also learned with certain interest that if women have great hair it\u00b4s nature\u2019s way of communicating that a women has lost her fertility. And so men who still want to procreate tend to be turned off consciously or subconsciously by women with grey hair.<\/p>\n That made for some interesting reactions from men concerning my oh, so authentic hairdo: from some I got some really nice compliments. As a matter of fact even men on the subway or in line at the post office have commented my hair positively.<\/p>\n On the other hand while online dating I noticed that as soon as I had sent my picture the contact was broken off \u2013 even by the previously most euphoric men. Usually the older they were, the faster\u2026<\/p>\n 2005 I dyed my hair for a while again \u2013 because I felt like a profound change and the 50ies effect with a new hat or new shoes is so uninteresting in our day and age. Thanks to a great organic product I had great dark chocolate hair.<\/p>\n But the effect only worked for ten days \u2013 since my hair grows so fast, that the roots could be seen in no time again and I soon lost the enthusiasm to constantly die my roots. (dying it blond would have not really lessened the effect: the roots were too white). Besides organic meant that dying my hair myself at home meant four hours and 25 $ for the color per session.<\/p>\n My laziness and my need for authenticity finally won and after a courageous phase in which I had grey hair in the front and chocolate brown in the back, I had the dyed parts cut off and had a short and sexy haircut \u2013 all in grey. Now I wear my hair a little longer \u2013 and maintain an elegant haircut.<\/p>\n Little children like addressing my as \u201cGrandma\u201d and there is often the notion of a witch on the minds\u2026 That matches the mythological point of view: admitting to one\u00b4s own grey hair is considered an expression of great wisdom and inner peace: people with grey hair are in peace with themselves and life and don\u00b4t try being something, they\u00b4re not\u2026 I like that!<\/p>\n My insight: we grey people are growing in numbers \u2013 at least in Germany due to the demographic situation. Theatre actors have been calling their audiences \u201ccotton fields\u201d for a while already. I wonder whether grey hair will receive a re-evaluation \u2013 away from old, biologically unfit and mean witch towards wise, of mature sexuality and magical\u2026 I\u00b4m certainly willing to do my part!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Even though grey hair may be in fashion right now, it is still a challenge if nature bestows it on you too early…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[446,250],"class_list":["post-1225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essays-en","tag-body","tag-society"],"yoast_head":"\nThe power of nature<\/h2>\n
Naturally grey and shoulderlength<\/h2>\n
The power of conditioning<\/h2>\n
Increasing chances!<\/h2>\n
Self-confidence helps<\/h2>\n
POWERGREY<\/h2>\n
Grey hair makes men become respectable, but women dowdy?<\/h3>\n
A direct effect on flirting<\/h3>\n
Grey hair will be ever more with us<\/h3>\n