Hair Color of the Year: Pandemic Gray
A 2021 Pantone color of the year is “Ultimate Gray,” described as “quietly assuring, evoking the feeling of a firm foundation of reliability, wisdom and experience.”
That’s a flattering description of the shade of gray that’s covering my head these days — now that I’m into my 11th month without dying, bleaching, or glazing.
In truth, it’s the first time in 46 years I haven’t added or subtracted with highlights, lowlights, and everything in between.
I’m impressed that I’ve been faithful to this expensive and time-consuming habit since I was 16 years old.
But during this year of pandemic isolation there have been few options and lots of time to consider them.
I thought I could get a do-it-yourself kit, but the family collectively thought little of my painting skills, so that idea was abandoned.
And early into Covid I naively went to a hairdresser because she worked out of her home.
She met me with, “Oh, you don’t have to wear a mask. I haven’t been sick, and you look healthy.”
I told her I was there for a cut and to go gray, yet somehow I left with blonde stripes down either side of my face.
I’m embarrassed to say I stayed because she agreed to cover her face, though I trembled as the mask became a nose tease she let slip and stay halfway down.
I told her I was there for a cut and to go gray, yet somehow I left with blonde stripes down either side of my face.
Since then I’ve welcomed the reemergence of gray though a voice from the past has whispered warnings.
“What is your natural color?,” a color consultant once asked me.
I couldn’t say because it had been decades since I’d seen it, and a lot has changed since I was a dirty-blonde, teenager.
“Well never mind,” she said, “You’re too pale for gray. You’ll be washed out. Don’t ever do it.”
So this year I’ve asked myself, “Is it true? Am I too pale to be me?”
Reassurance came as it always does, by consulting my non-fashion-conscious, entirely white-headed, ever-supportive husband.
“If I let my hair go gray would it feel like you’re with an old lady?”
“You’ll be beautiful, no matter what color your hair is.”
Even though I wondered if that answer was a definitive “yes” or the strategy of a domestic, diplomatic genius, I accepted it. Completely.
I’m now partway into the process of becoming a gray/brown-headed woman.
“Is it true? Am I too pale to be me?”
The blonde stripes are washing out, and I may find that my skin tone is, too.
But no matter. I’m liking it.
And while it might not be the “ultimate gray” Pantone advertises, instinct tells me I do, in fact, have a foundation of reliability, some wisdom, and a whole lot of life experience to pull this off.
“Hello you!” I say into the mirror, thinking it’s time the 16-year-old’s decision be vetoed for good.
It took a pandemic to welcome this part of me home, and I’m curious to see what other stray pieces will find their way back now that the door is wide open.
Ellen Webster is waiting for the gray in Laramie, Wyoming.
www.EllenWebster.com
