Beauty on a Budget - Keeping it Natural

My hair is streaked with silver. 

This does not fill me with feelings of delight and pleasure. Aging is something we would all avoid if we could. However, I have chosen to keep my hair colour natural as it slowly turns to shades of grey.

 My reasons for doing so are varied:

* Natural hair colour is free, and freeing.
*Colouring hair costs a lot of money if done in a salon, money that an Elastic Mom could put to better use elsewhere.
*I know that I can buy home hair-colouring kits and colour my hair myself, or get a willing friend to colour my hair, but that also requires a regular outlay of money. However, it still is a cheaper option than going to a hair salon.
*Once you start coloring, you have to touch it up every six weeks or risk looking cheap and nasty.
*Every time that I have coloured my long hair in the past, I have ended up cutting it drastically a few months later because it turns brittle and damaged no matter how gentle the product was supposed to be.
* Hair colorants have made my scalp tingle and had me nauseous for the next 36 hours after application. This made me question the toxins in commercial hair colourant.

*Mostly though, I believe in accepting myself as I am, and presenting my true self to the world. Something in me rebels against the facade of pretending to be younger than I am, or someone I am not.
* The peer pressure to colour my hair is enormously strong. So many well meaning people have suggested natural ways that I could enhance my colour. When in public, I am amazed at how many women colour their hair, last count was 95% of the women I saw. I am not afraid of being different.
*God designed our hair colour to fade as we age as a mark of splendour....Proverbs 20:29 says:

 "Grey hair is a crown of splendour..."

* Lighter hair as we age is softer and more flattering than dark hair which highlights wrinkles.

*I am secure in my husband's love and acceptance. I do not have to pretend to be younger than I am to maintain his attraction to me. My confidence in who I am makes me attractive to him. Anyway, he is balding, so we are aging together. When we were dating, we would often sing the Beatle's song, "When I'm Sixty-Four" to each other, and mean it. What a privilege to still be securely in love after 20 years of marriage and on right into old age.

* Although I can fight the natural process of aging, I choose to embrace this new season in my life.

There is more beauty in an inner smile than any amount of external adornment.