Living with Mr. Gray
A not so serious story about change, aging, patience, curiosity, and the surprisingly emotional journey of growing out gray hair.
“When gray hair arrives, it doesn’t ask permission, it just starts rearranging the furniture of your hair.” ~Goodmoodism
It’s been a year since I stopped coloring my hair and started letting the gray grow out. I didn’t do it to make a bold statement about aging gracefully, not to prove acceptance, and not to “embrace change.”
Nope. I did it for four selfish and slightly funny reasons:
1. I’m lazy. I’ve never been good with beauty routines, and constantly touching up roots felt like running a marathon I didn’t sign up for.
2. I was working remotely. No one cared if I showed up with silver roots on Teams.
3. My hair was falling out. Stress was the main culprit, not the dye, but I thought giving it a break couldn’t hurt.
4. I was curious. I wanted to see how I’d look with gray hair before I turned wrinkly at 82. I’m 42, and curiosity won.
And let me tell you: the transition was not easy.
I hated my reflection about 99.9% of the time. I thought about coloring it again more times than I can count. And to make matters worse, I picked the worst possible time to do it, a year when I was stressed, gained back the weight I had lost, and felt unwell overall.
On top of that, the mirror was serving me more and more gray hair each day.
And yet, somewhere in the middle of all that frustration, something softened. I stopped caring as much and started looking forward to seeing how I would actually look with my natural gray hair.
I stopped using chemical dyes in September 2022, switched to henna for about a year in 2023, and finally stopped coloring altogether in mid-October 2024.
There was still some henna mixed in, so I hadn’t seen the full natural look yet.
Until recently.
I had two haircuts during the transition, each one a little shorter, helping me slowly say goodbye to the leftover red tones. I thought about chopping it all off pixie-short, but I wasn’t ready to meet that version of myself in the beginning.
And the third one on October 11, 2025, changed everything.
I finally cut off the last bits of henna and walked out of the salon with a bixie-style haircut, all natural, all mine.
I caught my reflection and actually smiled. In love with my new hair, the beautiful silver strands shining freely without all the leftover red shades. I looked… really cool.
Even my hairdresser smiled and said, “You look five years younger!”
And she was right, not just about the look, but the feeling.
So, would I recommend it? Only if you’re already in a place where you feel okay with yourself. If you’re going through a rough emotional season, maybe not, at least that was my experience.
Will I keep it this way forever? Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe I’ll color it again one day. Maybe I won’t.
For now, Mr. Gray and I are figuring out how to live together peacefully.
What’s your relationship with gray hair: do you fight it, hide it, or welcome it?
Have you ever made a change in your appearance just out of curiosity? How did it feel?
With a fabulous smile,
GOO:DMOO:DISM