What Color is My Hair?

Roz Chast, The New Yorker, April 13, 2020

I don’t know what color my hair is because I have been dyeing it for about 25 years.  Clearly it is some kind of gray, but what kind? A beautiful silver color like my 95 year old mother? A kind of pepper and salt, like many of my friends in their late sixties and early seventies?

Through high school, my hair was blond.  In college it turned a kind of auburn.  By the time I reached my thirties, it was an ordinary brown.  In my forties I decided to become the red head I had always wanted to be.  My first adventures were with home color kits and even the mud-like henna.  The results were sometimes hilarious. As my income rose, I turned to the professionals who were able to create the same color every time.  It was so convincing that I began to think it was real.

Well, now the jig is up.  To be honest, I’m kind of curious. What color is my hair? Watch this space.

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5 Responses to What Color is My Hair?

  1. eimear says:

    good luck- I had been dying mine so long I was surprised to see it all grey when it grew out, I think I still expected to see the brown….I still miss my brown hair, but way prefer the condition of my natural hair….I am however cutting my own fringe so who knows where that will end up!

  2. Nann says:

    I have all my own color and all my own curl — but the April 1 haircut appointment was cancelled so it’s getting pretty bushy. I’m going to try trimming my husband’s hair this weekend…..

  3. JS says:

    My hair was slightly under 1/4 gray when I started dyeing it several years ago. I need to look for work and ageism is a thing so I’ll resume having it dyed once self-isolating is no longer required.

    I’d never try dyeing my hair myself as all my DIY experiments have had tragic results. I once used a conditioner that had color to enhance the hair and it left pigment all over the tub. When I was much younger and relaxing my hair, I once tried doing it on my own. I ruined a brand new, beautiful dress and scared myself to death: the chemicals are very caustic and cause burns.

  4. Black Tulip says:

    Chatting to a friend who, like me, dyes her hair, I discovered that when it became obvious that lockdown was only a matter of time, we both thought to stock up on hair colour. (I also stocked up on thread, zips and buttons for several planned dressmaking projects, but that’s another story.) However while we have the colouring sorted out, we’re both now starting to worry about fringe-cutting!

  5. Lizzie says:

    I stopped dyeing mine several years ago. I had a stranger who was walking her labradoodle come up and want to take my photo with the dog because my hair and the dog’s fur were twinning!

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