Life in black and white… and gray

In between black and white, there are shades of gray. And sticking out of my otherwise black headful of hair is my first gray hair. In case you’re planning to plant your tongue firmly in your cheek and say, “Oh! Really?”, please hold your horses. Though gray is one of my favourite colours, the gray that has just sprouted on my top storey somehow fails to elicit the same enthusiasm with which I usually greet anything wearable in gray.

This is certainly not the age to grow your first gray hair – or at least that’s how I look at this new, unwelcome development. I mean, my mom got her first gray when she was well past her 50s! Life certainly isn’t fair.

After discovering my first strand of gray hair, I looked at Crazy P for some sympathy, only to be further disappointed. I needed someone to lend his sympathetic ear and also his helping hand to pluck out that gray monstrosity. Instead what I get is a guy – who just had his dance with Mary Jane – laughing his belly off at my newfound misery.

So I continued my futile attempt at plucking out that scalp intruder. An attempt, like I said earlier, as futile as straightening Crazy P’s curly locks. So the only recourse left for me to take was to come upon a firm – and inconvenient – decision. From now onwards, I’ll colour my hair every month. Heck, if required, I’ll colour it every week.

Between his throaty laughs, Crazy P suggested I just let the gray hair be. Oh, I’ll wait till he gets his first gray; then I shall tell him “Honey, it’s no big deal; after all, it’s just gray hair” with a smug contented smile on my face. That, I shall do certainly. Yes, I shall… one day. One fine day. One fine, glorious – and very gray – day.

Until then, for me, it’ll be a case of careful parting of hair to cover that gray monstrosity. Colour my hair frequently? Nah! Too impractical and time-consuming. And have you noticed how gray hair turns an ugly shade of orange when coloured brown? Yuck! Anyway, I don’t think the next gray ‘hairling’ will freak me out the way the first one did. And after the third strand, I guess I’ll even get used to the idea of graying.

Let me grow a few more gray strands; then I can carry around this salt-and-pepper look… and wait for Crazy P to grow his first heartbreaker and see him freak out. More I think about this, more I like the idea. Revenge is sweet. Very gray and sweet.