Have y’all heard about grombre? My sister-in-law, whose style is one of the myriad of things I’ve always admired about her, alerted me a while back to this new trend of letting your grey (gray?) hair grow in naturally and gradually. Grombre, a mashup of grey and ombre, has its own Instagram, hashtag, website and merchandise. Their insta defines the movement as “a radical celebration of the natural phenomenon of grey hair” and it’s chock full of stories about how and why women have chosen to stop (or never start) coloring their hair to cover the grey.
The other day I cheerfully brought this to the attention of an older relative who seemed shocked to discover the number of silvery strands threading through my brown hair these days. This person was not trying to be unkind, but seemed genuinely embarrassed and almost sympathetic for me and others who are going grey at a relatively young age, as though it is proof of unlucky genes or maybe stressful lives.
But I didn’t take offense to her bewilderment because the thing is I just don’t care.
I haven’t the time, money, or desire to cover my greys. As a busy mom, there are so many things I’d rather be doing with a few free hours than getting my roots touched up. Some of these include:
- baking something delicious for someone I love
- napping
- grocery shopping alone
- reading a book for my book club
- napping…
Then there’s the money issue. Haircuts only factor into my budget on an annual, occasionally biannual, basis. There are so many other things I’d rather be spending money on than my appearance. Some of these include:
- food. good good food
- experiences with my kids
- travel
- gadgets for my kitchen
- ingredients to use with my gadgets to prepare good good food
But mostly, I just don’t have a desire to change my natural hair color. The body positivity movement is one of my favorite parts of engaging in social media. It has allowed women to take control of their own narrative and of the photos visible to the rest of the world, and especially young girls, in order to depict how diverse the female body can be. My daughter won’t grow up, as I did, seeing only rail thin, blond, white women held up in magazines and on the screen as the world’s standard of beauty. I’ve written other posts about how hoping to avoid body image issues for my daughter is helping to heal my own.
This includes letting go of the idea that going grey while I’m still “young” means there is something wrong with me, my body or my life.
