Hatrack River Forum: Growing Old

This is topic Growing Old in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

I think.... I'm being anal about this, but is it normal to get gray hair starting when you're 17? I had my first gray hair at the end of February, and I preserved it and only freaked out for a little bit. Then I found another one a few weeks ago....

This time I freaked out a little more. Now I find myself inspecting the roots of the day's shedding and looking for a dearth of color...

Is that normal? I'm afraid I'm going to be one of those forty-year-old women with long gray hair that everyone makes fun of. I don't wanna be old, I haven't even done anything fun yet!!!

[Cry]

[ September 17, 2003, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Ryuko ]

Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :

Grey hairs happen at all ages.

One grey hair is only uncommon in that there are ususally a few more thrown into all that hair up top.

Don't worry about it.

Worrying gives you grey hairs.

Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :

My mother started going gray at nineteen. I never saw her with her natural hair color in my life. It's normal, though.

You could go for the Rogue look. Is it coming in that way? *hopeful*

Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :

I get odd white hairs in my eyebrows, but ONLY my eyebrows; they stick out at strange angles and make me look more than slightly eccentric, when untended. [Smile]

Posted by Danzig (Member # 4704) on :

I think I got my first grey hair when I was around twelve. So far, it is the only one. I would not worry too much.

Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :

My friend in high school (15-17) had gray hair. My son had a gray hair at 2! I still have it.

(Weirdo gray hair things? The hair on my dad's left arm is gray. His twin brother has gray hair on his right arm. They are mirror image identical twins. One arm only, though? Isn't that weird?)

Posted by Damien (Member # 5611) on :

Sorry, I dye my hair too much for gray hairs....although, if/when I dye it too much in too little time, it will turn that funky too-dyed grayish shade.... yeah, don't worry about it...

Posted by odouls268 (Member # 2145) on :

just be glad you still HAVE hair.

You could be a short fat bald clown like me.

Posted by saxon75 (Member # 4589) on :

Uh, I don't have any gray ones yet (that I know of), but I apparently have an orange one. Juliette likes to point it out to people. I have yet to see it, myself.

Don't worry Ryukochan. You'll never be old in my eyes.

Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :

Ryuko: I started going grey in my 20's.

When I was in my 30's, people always complimented the way I had "streaked" my hair, although I've never even put a color rinse in it. (A few people did ask if I had done it "on purpose" or if "G-d did it" for me, but they still thought it was beautiful.

By the time I reached my 40's, I was mostly grey. I don't know who you are hanging around, but no one has ever made fun of me for having grey hair. On the contrary, I have received many compliments over the years on my hair.

When I was considering dyeing my hair, a very stylish woman down the block from me told me I was "crazy" to do anything to it, because she thought it looked great the way it was. Plus, my husband has always been dead set against me dyeing my hair - he likes it the way it is.

Lately, several women at work have used me as their "inspiration" for letting their grey grow out.

And remember, if you don't like your hair color, you can always resort to that bottle of dye. [Wink]

I have occasionally considered doing that. I know it would make me look younger. But I am basically too lazy to bother. So grey it remains. [Razz]

This is me, though I look sort of blond here.

Here is another one...I am the grey-haired lady on the right. [Wink]

**Ela**

Posted by Toretha (Member # 2233) on :

one of my friends started getting white hairs at....16 or 17. and she's chinese, so it REALLY shows up. Don't worry too much

Posted by T_Smith (Member # 3734) on :

You noticed your first gray hair in Febuary?

They say that a traumatic experience can get rid of all the pigmentation in your hair (aka, the Rogue thing in X-Men). Out of curiousity, since this might have been around Valentines, were you asked out by a really really geeky guy? Cause you know... that could be... traumatic and stuff...

Hmmm... I wondered why that girls hair went white when I asked her out.

Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

[Razz]

Maybe I got a gray hair because I was so worried about not getting asked out...

No, I was really stressed at the time, but I suppose that doesn't account for all the time before that that I was growing the hair.

I'm just nervous because I don't like the idea of dying my hair. It's a nice color as it is, and hereditarially... (is that a word?) OK, well, since my mom has gray hair sprinklins that just look icky without dye, I'm probably going to have to do that.

As of yet, though, the gray has only come in on a few strands, easy enough to pluck out.

Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :

My mom and dad both started getting gray hair when they were 18, and I'm 16 now. They could both get the Senior Citizen discounts by the time they were 25, but, of course, the waitress would always ask my mom how she got her skin so smooth. [ROFL]

Anyway, I'm still waiting to get mine...I'm sure it will come a few months into my seventeenth year, maybe sooner. I don't think I'll use dye, though; I just don't like the idea of chemicals in my hair for that long. I'm hoping it will either come in in a strange pattern so I can show it off and get famous among believers of extraterrestrial life forms; or it will come in all at once so I don't look all that strange, and I can get some discounts at an early age.

Posted by littlemissattitude (Member # 4514) on :

My mother says she started getting gray hairs at the age of 15. Her mother only started getting gray right at the end of her life, when she was very ill. I started finding gray hairs when I was in my mid-20s; now, at age 47, I've got gray hairs in my head that can be seen pretty clearly in certain kinds of light (generally that awful flourescent light in public restrooms), but most of my hair is still it's natural color (auburn) and when I complain about starting to gray people tend to look at me like I'm crazy.

I guess what all this means is that it can happen at just about any age. Don't worry about it. I'm actually kind of proud of my gray hairs - I've earned every single one of them, thanks very much.

Posted by Cecily (Member # 5675) on :

Ela, you're one of those ladies that makes us all wish we had gray hair...you make it look good!! [Wink]

Ryuk, do you have dark hair? Most people tend to have a few gray hairs in their teens and twenties, and it's just easier to spot on a brunette or a raven-head. My best friend has beautiful silky Filipina hair and she yanks 3 or four grays a month. She's 25 and she's definitely not 'going gray.' She just notices them more often than anyone else because her hair is dark.

No worries dear. Just yank 'em and breathe deeply.

Posted by celia60 (Member # 2039) on :

i was was 14 when i started to go grey. it was one of the reasons i dyed my hair red in highschool. i don't dye it anymore, so if you look at the picture of me at foobonics (age 23) you can see how much it's progressed (not much)

Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :

Thanks, Cecily. [Big Grin]

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :

At least your hair doesn't fall out. When I was fourteen I lost half my hair due to stress. Occaisionally, it will start to fall out, but now I know to slow down and take it easy.

Posted by Fishtail (Member # 3900) on :

I got my first gray hair at 18. I believe I know the specific stressor that caused it and all the ones I've gotten since.

Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :

I've been losing handfuls of hair at a time for several months, my haircutter has nooticed and was worried, but no one knows what it is. At least it isn't noticeable yet.

Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

Yeh... I have dark hair.. I guess they usually just show up when I'm stressed.

Teshi: Wow. That can happen through stress? Well, it's good that you can deal with it now, right?

Also: I didn't mean anything by the "40-yr-old women people make fun of" thing... I just remember how weird it was seeing people who were, like, 35, and completely white. Not bad-weird, just weird. (Doesn't want to insult)

Posted by Erik Slaine (Member # 5583) on :

When I'm Sixty-Four

(The Beatles)

When I get older losing my hair many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine,
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?
If I'd been out til quarter to three would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?

Oh, you'll be older too - Ah
And if you say the word, I could stay with you

I could be handy mending a fuse when your lights have gone
You can knit a sweater by the fireside,
Sunday mornings, go for a ride
Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?

Every summer we could rent a cottage in the Isle of White,
If it's not too dear
We shall skrimp and save, grandchildren at your knees,
Vera, Chuck, and Dave

Send me a postcard, drop me a line stating point of view
Indicate precisely what you mean to say,
Yours sincerely, wasting away
Give me an answer, fill in a form, mine forevermore
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?
[Smile]

Posted by Ralphie (Member # 1565) on :

I'm totally going gray. Twenty-six is looking me disturbingly in the face.

But I've decided I don't want to be twenty-six, so I'll just stay twenty-five until I'm ready. I'm thinking, maybe, in about ten years twenty-six will sound nice. I'll try out, or something. But until then, dammit, I'm twenty-five.

(Tom - Oh, you SO are going to have that old, crazy professor thing going on.)

Posted by Ela (Member # 1365) on :

I wasn't insulted, I just wondered where you would have heard that kind of remark. I have never heard anyone make fun of 40 year old women with grey hair, myself or others. Though I don't doubt there are people who might make fun of it, people make fun of a lot of things.

**Ela**