Dye Hard.

Yes I'm back. I guess the first thing to do is to confess my surprise & express my gratitude for all the comments & notes in response to my first effort - all of them were motivating. Well all except the 1 comment that asked me to shut up & not pollute the airwaves but I'm used to hearing that from Priya.

Anyone who has seen me will know what I'm talking about when I say that I am grey. UFOlogists apply that description to small, wrinkly, strange looking alien visitors & while most of that description could apply to me as well I am actually talking about my crowning glory - my hair. The salt started joining the pepper on my head very early on & I have spent a large portion of my life explaining it away as "premature greying" - at 43 that no longer holds water. To make matters worse it's not the stylish sequential greying that starts at the temples & works it's way inland like a well organised invading army but rather a random sprinkling that at just the right angle looks like sunlight reflecting off. Unfortunately there are no longer many of those angles left to hide behind.

At most times my condition is easy for me to ignore but it's brought home to me emphatically every time I visit my neighborhood hole in the wall barber shop. The routine is always the same. Looking at my head after the haircut could give people the impression that the person who took the shears to it had a special brief to address only the black hairs & that this discrimination caused the white hairs to stand up for their right to be seen. On seeing this the barber (how can you call someone who takes things off the hair rather than dress them up a hairdresser ?) invariably feels compelled to ask me if he should colour my hair ? I always refuse. He then tries to entice me with the various colour options available. I refuse again - in this at least I prefer black & white to coloured. He looks at me with a mix of pity & bewilderment & leaves it at that until the next time.

Somehow I've never wanted to hide the grey - never even considered it in fact. I guess the reason is that maybe in my mind I don't consider myself any older than I was while I was in college - despite everything that my body & slowing metabolism may scream to me. Somewhere I'm probably thinking that this is still premature greying - if I don't feel old then even if I look old it should not matter - right ? The grey in my hair is probably why I get a salary too - what else signifies my experience at the job that I do ?God knows that sometimes my actions do not show that !

So in the end analysis my leaving the grey in my hair undisturbed is my own little expression of freedom from some preconceived notions of what is "age appropriate" for me. Live Free or Dye Hard !