I have been thinking over this decision for months, maybe even years, and have finally got things clear in my mind. For a number of reasons (septicaemia in 1996, underactive thyroid, menopause, meds) my hair has been thinning for a long time. Whilst it was never very luxuriant in the past, it was fine textured and curly. Now it is horribly sparse, particularly on the top. I used to like my hair, but now the state of it makes me very upset.

From my teens onwards, I used to dye my own hair and I wore it just about every colour imaginable, except green. But I stopped for a number of years just after Elder Son was born. When the lads were toddlers, someone took a photo of me and my Mum standing next to each other and my hair was so grey that it almost matched hers. I was shocked when I saw the photo and started dyeing my hair from then on until this day, over twenty years later.

But, I have started to notice that my scalp seems to be reacting to the dye with sore patches. I have also been following a lovely group on Facebook, which supports women who want to ditch the dye. So, as I am now almost 61, I have finally decided that I will stop dyeing from now on. My next hair appointment is on November 7th and I am going to ask my stylist to cut my hair shorter than usual and leave the fake colour alone. I am sure that she will try to persuade me to change my mind, but I will stick to this path until all of the colour has grown out and I can see how grey, or white, I am. I am sure that it will be quite a shock!

Anyway, for a bit of fun I downloaded an App called Hair Color Booth. This enables you to recolour the hair in a photo. In fact, you can use any colour of the rainbow, but I chose grey. See what I mean? It will be interesting to see how near to the right-hand photo I end up. I expect the final result will be a lot less uniform.

The Librain and the Librain?

I will report back on this after my next hairdresser appointment and each month going forwards. It feels like the start of a journey, although not one of those reality TV ones!

Best wishes,

💙💛💚💜❤️