One woman hops on the wagon to “hair sobriety

ON THE WAGON TO HAIR SOBRIETY

Do you need a support group to keep you from a coloring addiction?

BY: » Jean Spangler

If you’re like many women, you have a deep dark secret that may have come out during the long months of the pandemic. No, it’s not allowing your 14-yearold to play video games until his eyes are crossed or ordering clothes online that you tell your spouse you got for “such a deal” but actually paid the full price. What’s the big secret? The cost of a good professional “cut and color” as many women describe their six-week pilgrimage to haircut and color nirvana.

I told my spouse at one time what I actually paid for a good cut and highlights. That was the last time I divulged what he described as “a ridiculous extravagance.” Never mind what he spends on his weekly golf game and the side bets that go along with his round.

I worked hard during my career to afford my cut and color. Now, I’m retired and have to watch my budget more diligently. Then the pandemic hit, and I had failed to get my hair cut or highlighted prior to the unsettling news of “shelter in place.” Until the pandemic, I never gave my hair color addiction much thought until I heard the words “COVID-19,” “Possible Recession.” Then the television shows started telling me how to save money by giving up my favorite mocha cappuccino at the corner coffee shop and hair salon highlights. I calculated the cost of my coffee ritual and my cut and color and decided, since a grey streak had appeared, I would go on the wagon to hair sobriety.

Like many women my age (sixty plus), I haven’t seen my natural hair color since I was 14 when I used “Sun In” and other home coloring products to look like Joni Mitchell. At 25, I started on the hard stuff – frosting kits that came with a white cap with holes in it that resembled a colander wrapped around my head. A friend would come over to insert a metal hook to poke

through the holes in the cap and pull up tiny stands of hair from my tender scalp before applying what looked like white cake frosting. Looking back, those were the good old days when a box of hair color was $7.

As I aged, so did my quest for obtaining the perfect blend of buttery blonde with just enough brown, now called “low lights,” showing through so I looked like I spent more time in the sun than under the fluorescent lights of a salon. That $7 investment now became a whopping $150 a month investment, not including tip and take-home products like shampoo and conditioner for color-treated hair.

I love my hairdresser and I support her all the way in getting people back into salons safely. She knew in the fall that I was leaning towards going naturally grey and supported my decision at our last visit in mid-February. Then, with the pandemic in full swing I became more confident of my decision to go on the wagon to hair sobriety.

The first few weeks were okay, but by week eight, I had a grey streak and silver strands shining through ash blonde staring back at me in the mirror. I tried not to linger too long at the mirror. It is now 12 weeks into my hair sobriety and I feel I need a support group to keep me from going off the wagon. At press time, I had an appointment in late June for a haircut and it’s all I could do when she asked me “do you also want color or are you staying natural?” to say, “I want color!” But I am staying the course.

Like anyone in recovery, I’m taking it one day at a time. I’m asking my friends

Coloring our hair is a luxury, but when is the right time to get back to our roots? to help me refrain from my hair running toward a hair color addiction. So, if you salon, stop and remind her see a little over middlethat she is beautiful despite aged woman with a head her grey and buy her a nice full of half blond, half-grey mocha cappuccino.

Empowering Workout for Everyone!

FREE One Week Trial

Our Rock Steady program enables people with Parkinson’s disease to fight their disease by providing non-contact boxing-style fitness activities to improve their quality-of-life and sense of self-worth.

The Rock Steady classes for people with Parkinson’s and seniors

107 Commons Dr (Suite I), Mooresville, NC 28117 | 704-657-1080 | www.lakenormanmuaythai.com