Every time the greys start reappearing in my regrowth, I consider giving up dying my hair.
Immediately, a pit opens in my stomach at the thought.
Why do I feel that if I’m going to take the plunge, I need to head into some self-imposed witness protection-type program?
Move town without a word, delete all my social media and hibernate in a cocoon for a while before emerging as a salt-n-peppered butterfly, presenting only to new people who’ve only ever known me to look like that?
I blame the phrase ‘you’re losing your looks’.
How can one lose the looks that are theirs?
You have them at any given age, and at any given age, you’re supposed to look how ‘you’ look.
In a parallel universe, losing your looks would refer to the use of fillers and make-up, fake tan, hair dye, false lashes and fake nails, right?
Because they’re not ours, that’s not how we look naturally; we’ve added those things because the beauty industry has told us that we look better if we don’t look like us, that that’s what we have to do to keep our looks.
But ageing is as natural as childbirth. You’re not supposed to look like a newborn when you’re 90. How freaking creepy would that be, Benjamin Button?
Growing old is a privilege many are not gifted.
Wear it like a badge of honour, ladies (and gentlemen).
What societal pressures do you refuse to give in to as you age?
Email us at: othersideof40@mmg.com.au
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