What’s The Natural Color of Your Hair?
Disclaimer: Views expressed in Bob’s Blog belong solely to the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the CAC Office in Aging or its staff.
A warning up front.
This post is different from any I have written before. I have had fun writing it. I hope it makes you laugh or, at least, brings a smile to your face.
What is my topic?
Gray Hair
Yes, Gray Hair.
At various times during my life, I have thought about gray hair. Never planned to. It just happened.
Ever since my own hair turned gray, those thoughts became more frequent.
During the last few months, there was a shift. I started to wonder what the natural color of a person’s hair really is.
Growing up your hair may have been blond, brunette, red or black. Now your hair may be gray if you don’t color it.
Think about this.
Was Blond, Brunette, Red or Black Really the Color of Your Hair or Was That Only Temporary?
How long do you expect to live?
In a prior post, I mentioned there are several different Life Expectancy calculators on the Internet. Answer several questions and you get an estimate of how long you can expect to live.
I have done every one I have found. I enter my age and that my health is relatively good. I get an answer. Almost everyone says I am likely to live until I am 90.
When I first started completing these several years back, most estimated I would live until I was 85. I didn’t add five years to my expected lifetime because I am eating healthier or exercising more.
The reason for the increase in my expected life span is I have not died. I am still alive since I completed the first one. People who are as old as I am right now can expect to live until they’re 90.
Look at This
Social Security has a calculator. It only asks two things – first, if you are male or female and second, your date of birth. It doesn’t ask about your health. It estimates a 65 year old man can expect to live until the age of 85. A 75 year old man can expect to live to 86.7.
That calculator predicts 65 and 75 year old women will live longer than men the same age.
I believe Social Security’s calculator is more conservative than the others. For me, that’s good.
Social Security probably estimates how much I will receive in monthly Social Security benefits from the time I started receiving them until I die. They use the determination from their calculator in their calculations.
By living until 90, I will be receiving Monthly Social Security benefits much longer than they think I will. They will be paying me much longer than they expected.
Sorry for that rabbit trail I just took you on. Time to get back to gray hair.
Say you are going to live until you’re 85 or 90. That would mean . . .
. . .The Halfway Point in Your Life Was Between Ages 42 and 45
What was the color of your hair when you were between 42 and 45? Be honest now. No one can read your mind and know your answer.
I would imagine at that age you had a considerable amount of gray hair.
If you are 50 or older now, how much gray do you have? If you are over 70, is your hair all gray?
You may say you color your hair, and the true color doesn’t show. That’s ok.
If You Let Your Hair Grow Out, What Would Your Hair Color Be?
If you think about it, one of the reasons we are going to live into our 80’s and 90’s now is because of the advances in medicine. Because of these our health has improved. Better health means added years to our lives. It’s very possible our grandchildren and their children may live until they’re 100 or more.
While advances in medicine have added years to our lives, have you ever heard of any medical research to find ways to stop hair from turning gray. I haven’t. They’re probably not doing any because hair color is cheap. Research would be far more expensive.
The hair of our grandchildren and their children may be gray over half of their lives.
So, gray will be the natural color for them. The blond, brunette or red hair they had until their 30’s and 40’s was only temporary.
Most of us desire to look younger that we are. One way to do that is by coloring our hair.
What is the Real Reason We Resent Getting And Looking Older?
I suggest the main reason is people in America have always looked down on older people. Many times, they don’t want to be around them and have nothing to do with them.
We realized this and as we aged, we wanted to look younger.
Right now, do you willingly let people know how old you are? For me, it’s based on how old the person is that I am with.
If they are younger than me, I avoid telling them my age. I am afraid of what they might think and how they might react. They may not want to be with me.
If they are older, I have no problem telling them my age. They are not going to look at me as a youngster.
By the Way, I Have Gray Hair. I Like the Way It Looks, So, I Don’t Do Anything with It
I imagine right now you don’t think twice about the color of your hair whether it is gray or you’re coloring it.
Let me tell you a story from my past.
When I was younger, my hair was blond. The nice thing was with blond hair, people couldn’t really tell when I started to go gray. l was proud of that.
That came to an end very quickly in my early forties. I went for a haircut. When I sat in the chair, the stylist asked me how I wanted my hair cut. I jokingly told her to cut out all the gray. At that time. I didn’t think I had much gray.
I’ll Never Forget the Concerned Look on the Stylist’s Face
I must have had a lot of gray hair – far more than I thought. If she had to cut out every single strand, she probably figured she would be there for hours. That image I had of myself suddenly was deflated.
Right now, I realize as older adults, you and I probably have had gray hair for a long time. We may not have liked it when our hair started to turn gray. However, there was nothing we could do about it. We either started to color it or we kept it gray. That is our way of life. There is nothing wrong with it.
Feel Sorry for Those in Their 20’s and 30’s Seeing Their First Gray Hair
When you get a chance, do a google search about the way people react to their hair turning gray. You will find people in their 20’s and 30’s thinking the end of their world is coming.
This can’t be. It is not supposed to happen. Their lives are over. They just can’t handle it. Only old people have gray hair.
If they hadn’t done it before, very quickly they start to color their hair. It’s going to take a long time for them to get over that crisis they had when they saw that first bit of gray.
Fortunately, you and I are well beyond that now. This sure is a nice place for us to be in right now.
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If you have any comments on what you have read in this post, please email them to me. Also – if you have any ideas about subjects you would like to see discussed in future posts, please send me an email and let me know. My email address is bob.ooablog@gmail.com.