Guys, I’m going au naturel. With my hair color.

You know, I’m low maintenance. I don’t really do much of anything, but I do have some beauty routines. Of all of those, the one I hate the most is spending hours at a salon to get my hair colored.

I’m 40 years old. I have a house. I have something better to do with my money than coloring my hair.

Well, I’m saying this now. This might just be “alternative facts” a few months down the road. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, say hello to the Silver Fox Project.

Damn Genetics

My dad’s side of the family grays early. You can see here my dad was already salt and pepper when we were young.

A photo posted by oakley boren (@oakmonster) on Dec 5, 2016 at 11:16am PST

My brothers and I got our first grays in our twenties. I took to yanking off the obvious ones, and tried to ignore the rest. But in my 30s, it started to come in more than my 30-something vanity can handle.

So, I tried to color my own hair first which ended up mostly on the floor, towel, and my forehead. I can paint a canvas but not my own head. Go figure.  So, I gave that up and found a stylist who totally gets me.

Sedley would give me a cut that would hold for 2 months, almost 3 months sometimes, and color that wouldn’t look too obvious if I went that long between visits. Besides, most of my grays were around my temples then, easy to hide.

Breaking Point: The Patch

Everything was fine until about two years ago when “the Patch” started to come in. You know, a cluster of white hair, right in front of your head. Since the discovery of the Patch, I noticed that my visits to Sedley became more frequent.

The Patch was obvious. Just like the salon bills I started to rack up.

So, I started thinking about growing out my gray and discussed it with Sedley. At every session, we’d have the same conversation.

She would riffle through my hair and say, “You really don’t have enough gray hair to go all gray. I have clients who have a LOT more gray hair before they’d do that.”

“Oh, I’m collecting them right now. By 40, I’ll have plenty. My family’s genes are strong.”

“I don’t think you will though, not even when you’re 40.”

“Wanna bet?”

I started to discuss the Silver Fox Project with friends. Everyone asked why I would want to look old. My older friends said that when time comes I would switch right back once I see how old I’d look.

Why would anyone want to look older when they can keep looking young?

That’s the point. My face still looks young-ish. I need to try out this silver hair look while Granny Hair is still a thing with the kids these days.

By the time my face catches up with my hair, I wouldn’t care about silly stuff like that any more. 😉

When Sedley riffled through my hair a week before my 40th birthday in November, she finally agreed and gave Silver Fox Project a greenlight.

And we begin

This is me this morning, a little over 2 months after my last salon visit.

Obviously I won’t have THAT much silver to pull off the hipster Granny look. So Sedley and I talked about some transition ideas like putting in highlights to soften the gray, going “Rogue” with the two white stripes in front, or even ombre gray the whole damn head.

I haven’t decided yet, but going cold turkey sounds good right now. I might change my mind next week on that.

Anything can happen now that the Silver Fox Project has already begun.

Are you ready for this granny?