by Toni Murphy

Created on: June 26, 2009   Last Updated: July 02, 2009

My mother-in-law is 87 years old and she doesn't have a gray hair in her head. It is just as brown as when she was a young woman. My young daughter has often ask me, why doesn't' Grandma have gray hair? She doesn't look like a grandma. Do we have to look like a grandma to be a grandma? Should we let our hair turn gray naturally just so we can fit the part of the little old gray haired granny?

Hair color is a very personal matter, especially to a woman. Many women can't handle the thought of losing their nature color and having their hair turn gray like every other person their age. It can be a depressing moment when we find those first gray hairs. For many middle-aged women those first gray hairs are why we begin to color our hair, so why would we stop after it has turned completely gray? Which is more important our mental health or letting our hair gray naturally? Aren't there enough things that we are unable to control as we age? The color of our hair is one thing that we can change that isn't as hard on our body as Botox or other anti-aging products.

Our mental health plays a large part in our physical health. If mentally we are depressed over losing our hair color eventually this is going to affect how the rest of our body feels. Before we know it our whole body is starting to fall apart and we are spending all of our time and money at the doctor's office trying to figure out why we feel so bad. Maybe all of this could have been avoided if we had ignored the peer pressure and colored our hair. We all need a little spice in our lives, even when we are 80 years old. That's what keeps us young and feeling good about ourselves. I tell my husband every day that his mother is going to outlive both of us and maybe it is the hair coloring that has kept her so spry.

Truth is a lot of young people have changed their hair color every time you see them, so how is that different when we get older? If we say that we should just let our hair go gray naturally then shouldn't we also leave our hair its natural color when we are younger? Is there an age limit to when we have to stop coloring our hair? To my knowledge there is nothing on a box of hair color that says, Do not use after the age of..."

Let's face it, times are changing and there are more things available to us than ever before to make us feel better about ourselves. If gray hair makes us feel tired and old and a little color would spice up our lives, I say go for it. We deserve it!

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