It’s All Maya!

If there was one thing I had a lot of while growing up, it was hair!  So much of it, that I was constantly getting it thinned out when I was young, but the more I thinned it out, the more it just seemed to grow back in!  I know, you can say the same thing about weeds, but seriously, if there was one thing I thought I would never have to worry about as I got older, it was losing my hair!

I started cutting my own hair in my early twenties, first out of necessity when I was a nomad wandering around the world.  Later, it was more out of habit, because no one could cut my hair exactly the way I wanted it, but me.  To this day, I still cut my own hair. 

Women in Paris, Rome, and Madrid would stop me in the street and ask me, “Who does your hair?” 
“I do.” I would reply. 
“Aw, so your curls are natural?” they would say disappointed. 
Pleased as punch, I would think, Sure, if you want to call this explosion of hair, curls - who am I to argue! 

One afternoon in Madrid, one cheeky woman insisted, “But that’s not your natural color, is it?”
Offended, because I’ve always liked the color of my hair, I said, “Yes it is!  I’ve never had my hair colored or tinted!”
She twisted her mouth like she didn’t believe me and said, “Why is your hair a lighter color on the sides?”  It wasn’t so much a question as stating a fact, as she stared intently at my hair.

Who was this stranger, I thought, stopping me in the street and now she thinks I’m lying to her!  “Because of the sun and because I have a lot of red mixed with my dark brown hair, but it’s natural whether you want to believe me or not!”  I said, walking away in a huff!

Fast forward to a few days ago when I decided to give myself a trim.  Okay, so the volume of my hair dwindling is not anything new.  It started a few years back, but don’t forget I had a lot of hair to begin with!  I could afford to have it thin out and still have a normal head of hair!  Hmm, but the fact that my scalp is beginning to peek through my hair, is new! 

I demand to know, where did all my hair go?!!!

Maya Muses:  If that isn’t bad enough (I’m sure a lot of Baby Boomers can sympathize) the gray showing up in my hair is not a dull gray that I can mask and hide with my dark brown hair.  No!  It’s a shiny, neon-flashing, silver, that if the Sun hits it just right it can beam up signals to the astronauts at the Space Station!!! 

It must be all those copper, “shiny like a new penny”, red hair that I use to pull out of my head when I was young, now taking revenge on me!  They know that I can no longer afford to pull out their silvery cousins! 

Hmm, unless I decide to go in for the bowling ball look!

Photo Credits:  Personal Photos and Flickr