The amount of maintenance involving hair is genuinely overwhelming. Sometimes I think that not having to worry about your hair anymore is the secret upside of death.
-Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck
I was looking at last month's AARP Magazine yesterday, which, by the way, I love. In it was a little article by Maya Massar, an actress and artist who lives in Southern California.
Maya's article is called "Going Gray." She's 55 years old. This is her photo. She's advocating going gray but she doesn't hold anything against those of us who choose to color our hair.
Are you kidding me?
This woman is gorgeous and has gorgeous hair. My niece has hair just like this. So does my daughter. It doesn't matter what color it is, it's gorgeous.
Let's give Maya another twenty years. Then she may be trying to figure out what color will help camouflage the little bald spots that keep popping up or what color will camouflage the many interesting (but not necessarily attractive) new spots that appear on her face. Let's remind Maya that for every hair she loses on her head she may gain one on her chin.
Nora Ephron, who's quote is above, tells the story about having a luncheon in Manhattan for Jean Harris the day after she was released from prison. Jean had been put away for killing her lover, the Scarsdale Diet Doctor. Of all of the women assembled to welcome Jean home, all approximately the same age, the only one with white hair was Jean, who was fresh out of prison.
On the other hand, I was with an old friend on Tuesday. She's very old. She'd led an amazingly interesting life. She's come through several bouts of cancer. She was standing before us, leading us in singing old hymns. After many rounds of chemo she is essentially bald on top. What little hair she has is white.
She is beautiful.
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