Grey's Anatomy

Here's a little-known fact:  I found my first grey hair when I was 15.

I plucked it and, after a while, forgot about it.

Cut to a day three years later when my college crush was wheeling me around campus in my wheelchair, which gave him a great view of the top of my head, and he said teasingly, "Hey, I see a few grey hairs up here."

TOTAL MORTIFICATION.

It's not what an 18-year-old girl needs to hear from the guy that she wants to impress more than anything in the world.

Still, it was only a few strands here and there ... until I turned 25.  Then those pesky greys seemed to multiply like rabbits.

That's when the ego takes over, screaming:

GREY = UNATTRACTIVE and OLD

So, for the next 25 years, I turned to the bottle ... the COLOR bottle, that is.

Every time my hair dresser finished dyeing my hair, I'd look in the mirror and exclaim with relief:

"I'M YOUNG AGAIN!"

In hindsight, since the grey always started to appear around my temples before I scheduled my hair appointments, I'm sure I'm not the only one who saw it.

So the only person I was really trying to cover it up for was me.

Fast forward to late August 2017.  If you've been reading my weekly emails, you know what happened.

Stage IV pressure ulcer diagnosis ... Strict bedrest ... There was no way I'd be able to sit long enough for a color processing.

(&$#*)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Insert the worst curse word you can think of.)

There was nothing I could do about it ... or was there?

I'd already made the decision to share my healing journey on social media, so why not accompany it with pictures and videos of my increasingly salt 'n' peppery noggin?

This photo, taken a five weeks after my diagnosis at the hospital waiting to go into surgery, is particularly enticing.  I started calling it my Cher Two-tone Hair look.

This was the beginning of the end of the brunette me. 

This the REAL ME.  Looking back, I now wish I had let nature take its course and not covered up the grey.  I can't change that.  But what I can do is appreciate THE REAL ME going forward, grey hair and all.

So, after reading today's long email ... and, by the way, thanks for reading and responding to my weekly emails ... my question for you is this:

What parts of the REAL YOU have you perhaps uncovered and now appreciate more than you have in the past?

Email me at [email protected].  I'd love to read YOUR story.

Until next week ... Keep enjoying the beautiful spring weather!

Yours truly,
Andrea
aka InspiraWoman

P.S. If you want to see my transition from brown to silver grey, feel free to follow me on Facebook and check out the photos.  You'll find whole lot of inspiration there, too!