Long, straight, curly, fuzzy, snaggy, shaggy … it’s Hair

      Today I’m thinking about hair, and I don’t mean the hippie musical.

       I am talking about the stuff that grows out of our heads. Something happens to our hair as we age.

       First and foremost, the color changes to a drab and unappealing grey or a brassy bright white. My husband’s hair is still brown but he lost most of it in his twenties. I think that is an ok tradeoff.

       I used to have a terrific head of hair which I rarely coiffed or fussed about. Being a hippie, I grew my hair long and natural. That said, my hair turned white in my late thirties. I began to color it a yellow blond for the next twenty years.

       When I hit my sixties I gave up and just let it go full white. Luckily, I have hard water from our natural spring which is full of minerals, and it gives my hair a yellow-green glow. I also rub amber on my hair, which tones down the brassiness and makes me smell yummy.

       My grandkids call me Doo Doo and (I am not kidding) they call the amber scent “Doo Doo Smell.” They generously rub amber in their hair, and I know when I am dead and gone my signature scent will linger on in their memories.

       Lately, my hair has been thinning. I invest in collagen powder which is supposed to thicken hair, strengthen nails and bones, and help our skin look more youthful. I am not convinced it works, but at this point, I am game for anything.

       After my illness this winter, I noticed that my hair began breaking off— literally. Everywhere I went I would leave chunks of white/yellow glowing Doo Doo-smelling hair. I was confused and embarrassed.

       Finally, I reached out to my hair guru. In order to reenergize my hair, she told me we had to cut it super short and let it grow back again.

      I cannot express the freeing exhilaration I feel with super-short hair. I am Mary Martin in Peter Pan, my first boyfriend in seventh grade, Twiggy in the ‘60s and Joan of Arc all rolled up into one cute old lady.

       It was a magnificent transformation. My husband—the guy without any hair—still sees me in his mind’s eye with long flowing hippie hair. I was so afraid he would not adapt to my new look. But he has! When I returned from the hair guru my husband took me in his arms and whispered in my ear, “I guess I will be sleeping with a new woman tonight!”