Tuesday, September 21, 2010

The ol' grey mare he ain't what she used to be?

"Sir?"


"Sir."


"SIR!"


For the third time this week, I turn around and a shopper sees that I did not respond the first two times because I could not have imagined he/she was talking to me. It cannot be because of the length of my hair. I believed that, and maybe it was even so, when my hair was 3/4 of an inch long. It isn't any more. I thought I might like to see what it looks like long and grey, and it's in transition. Short. But it looks like girl hair. Actually this morning after I combed it I said to the woman in the mirror "Jane Hathaway, 2010".


Maybe part of it is that I have no fanny. Recently I have dropped a few pounds and I have even less fanny... and all those shoulders. I also wear men's pants to work, because they don't much make sensible work pants for women and offer them at a reasonable price. But I really think it's because I'm grey headed.


In spite of the fact that when Googling one can easily find a dozen articles about women who are letting their hair go naturally, confidently and gloriously grey, you just don't see so many of those women on the street. I'd wager that if we counted and figured, at least 95% of the grey haired people we encounter would be men. So I try to cut those shoppers some slack. At least they are saying "sir" instead of "hey!".