A stunning woman strutted down a Manhattan street, silver locks flying, pointedly ignoring Jack. That woman was Cindy Joseph, a pioneer of the Grey Hair Movement.
As an infantryman’s spouse, there was never any shortage of stress in our lives, and after every tour of duty, I found that I was spending more time covering up my rapidly silvering hair.
When I returned to her chair, she gave me her honest assessment: I was over 50% grey, and had some fantastic lighter bands of more solid grey near my temples and in my bangs.
My final colour, two full shades lighter than my original colour, was in late July. The idea was to create a softer line of demarcation in my naturally dark hair and to let the longer, stronger summer sunlight help to bleach out the colour.
I pored over images of gorgeous silver women on Pinterest (Instagram hadn’t yet caught on as a gathering place for #silversisters to encourage and inspire one another) and pinned any images of women with similar skin tone and eye colour to me.
With my new silver hair, my stylist insisted that we grow it out in slow stages, because unfortunately, grey can look dowdy if it’s not kept crisp and stylish.
In my wildest dreams, I never thought that I’d be having this much fun in my mid-40s, and cheering other women on via Instagram and on the street, as they contemplate their own journey to silver hair.