OK, so you have taken the plunge, told your hairdresser, shocked all your friends, and joined the ranks of daring women whose hair is turning silver!!!
The fun part is yet to come! Your wardrobe (next post) will need revamping, your make-up will have a different palette, and your accessories will need to match your new color scheme, and colors you never thought of wearing will look very flattering!
What about your jewelry?
These are the bling No-Nos for a woman with silver locks:
Anything gold (sorry)
Anything bronze
Anything copper
Now for the gems:
NO:
Amber
Coral
Tiger's Eye
Topaz
Beryl
Basically nothing in brown, beige, orange, gold, olive green, or tan
The Bling Yes goes to:
White gold
Platinum
Sterling Silver
Now for the gems:
YES:
Diamonds (a girl's best friend)
Sapphires
Rubies
Emeralds
Amethyst
Aquamarines
Onyx
Black pearls
Basically everything blue-tinged, white, black, vibrant, bright colors, that are cold.
Ok ladies:
- Dig out that jewelry box, or the old hidden gym sock that houses every anniversary present given to you by that special guy.
- Once you have found your jewelry box, open, empty it out onto the bed and start sorting.
- Make 3 piles:
- The keep pile
- The "find a deserving relative who is turning 21" pile
- And the" I am going to sell my gold jewelry for cash" pile (Many TV adds for such offers)
The keep pile will have:
- All your diamonds or any other gem (rubies, emeralds, peridot, sapphires, etc..) set in white gold or platinum (no yellow or rose gold)
- Anything sterling silver, including your turquoise jewelry
- Onyx
The 21 year old's pile could have:- An old gold charm bracelet
- An antique locket
- A pair of rose gold earrings
The sell for cash pile could be:
- Anything gold that you don't like anymore
- Any mis-matched or single earrings
- An unfashionable brooch or two
Once you have sorted your jewelry, the fun part is bringing it up to date. You can mix and match: old with new, platinum with sterling silver, gems and costume jewelry.
The reason why Platinum, sterling silver, and the vibrant cold colors work well with a woman whose hair is now silver is because those colors complement her coloring.
Have fun!
I was born in 1957, a baldy, then as I grew oder, I became a toe head, really blond, my hair became darker as I grew older. In the last 53 years, I have sported many different hairdos!!
The decades have been as follows:
The Sixties:
From age 3-12: My sisters and I had pageboy haircuts, courtesy of my mom. Our bangs were always a little crooked, and we were not allowed to have long hair (too much work said mom).
The Seventies:
From age 13-22: I stood my ground and was able to grow my hair. It grew, and grew and grew. I could sit on it, I put flowers in it, I wore peasant headscarves, I peeked through curtains of golden tresses. I loved my long hair, I looked like Julie in the Mod Squad.
My mom didn't like it so much, and suggested I cut it, like Dorothy Hamill. I did. I still have the long honey colored braid in my "treasure box".
By the way, as soon as I cut my hair, Farah Fawcett put on that red bathing suit. Silly me!
The Eighties:
From age 23-32: Wow how I wish we could forget that one!
Important: Also I remember going to Duane Reade in New York City to buy my first can of this amazing, revolutionary product called "Styling Mousse", and hair conditioner!
The following is a list of hair blunders, and I think I made most of those:
Very tight perm (twice)
The Flashdance mop
Madonna's coiffure
The scary spikey do
The weird Grace Jones look
The Nineties:
From age 33-42: So there I was with 3 kids, and not much time for beauty treatments. My hair was getting darker, and I decided to get some highlights. My hair was short, manageable and boring. I wasn't really adventurous, and so my hair was quite basic.
200-2010
43 to 52: I have had a lot of fun with playing with my hair: perms, highlights, bleached blond, short and black... I decided in 2009 to stop coloring. It was a challenge at first, but I am starting to get used to it!!
I am letting it grow out against my mom's advice: she believes anyone with silver hair longer than 2 inches looks like a witch. We'll see!!
Ok, it's all about the hair. A woman's hair is her crowning glory. Does this mean it has to be gold, or copper or bronze?
No.
It can be silver. I prefer the word silver to the word grey. Grey is depressing, sad, old. Silver is fun, sparkling and bright.
Both my parents were prematurely silver! As far back as I can remember, my mother had silver wings on either side of her head!
When I was in high school, and my mother was about 48, she was talked into "Low Lights" by her hairdresser. She took the plunge and came back looking like a tri-colored Collie. Her gorgeous hair was gold, brown and black. She was a mess. She wept, had a glass of wine, cried some more and got out the scissors: "What the hell was I thinking?" she cried as she hacked away at her golden tresses. She spent 6 agonizing months trying to undo her hair faux-pas.
I went the other way, the day after Halloween 2009, I decided that I was no longer going to color my hair. I was sick of people talking to my hairline instead of to my face two weeks after I had my roots "done".
I equate my hair color to a tankful of gas in your car: You fill your car, the gastank is full, and for a while it says 1/1, then as soon as it says 3/4, the gas gets sucked out faster than you can say Clairol. The same goes for colored hair: you look great for a week and a half, then that nagging silvery shadow appears, and before you know it, you are using mascara on your hairline, covering the grey because your hair appointment is still 3 weeks away.
Upon decided to "go natural", I had several options:
1. The skunk thing: You go cold turkey, and the color grows out, revealing the snowy reality. Also, you never set foot back at the hairdresser's and you turn into a middle-aged older woman with long grey hair, put on a bustier and get a job at the medieval fair.
2. The butch thing: cut it really short and let it grow back, sort of like Jamie Lee Curtis, except she's in better shape.
3. The gentle way: My choice: get some highlights, and gradually go from chestnut to blond to silver, and gradually cutting off the length!
Well, I did it, and I love it! The only thing is I miss the "therapy" sessions with my hairdresser. We talked about family, relationships, jobs, parents, everything. Now, a hair appointment is a mere hour long, and I am on my way.
I am liberated!!
