I’ve reached that age.  I realize for some that age arrives sooner than it does for others.  And I’m truly not surprised that it has reached me at this point in my life. 

I’m getting gray hairs.  Not so many that I’d consider dying it.  I only do that for a change of pace.  And I’m usually unhappy with the result.  But I’ve got 2 or 3 or 27 gray hairs.  They aren’t the soft silver strands that some people are blessed (yes, blessed) with.  Mine are loud and wiry – rising above the other hairs like a hard-of-hearing old guy at the movie theater.

“Eh??” they shout.

“Shh!” I persistently tell them.  “Will you *sit* down!?” I plead.  My other hairs don’t seem to mind – or even notice.  They just lie there softly and calmly in a pile of brown.

So now, the question is:  To pluck or not to pluck?

I heard a scary rumor back in my gray-free days, that if you pluck gray hair, you’ll accelerate the growth of new gray hair.  That just can’t be true.  It harkens to old wives’ tales such as: 

• Swimming after eating is BAD.   (I’ve heard everything from “you’ll get a cramp” to “you’ll drown.”  Which is really bad.)
• Sitting too close to the TV will ruin your eyesight.
• Swallowed chewing gum stays in your belly for seven years.  (I used to swallow gum on purpose, thinking it was great exercise for my belly.  It didn’t work, by the way.)

So I did some research.  According to http://regrow-hair.org/dont-pull-out-gray-hair/, you should not pluck.  It could damage the hair follicle.  The site explains that plucking does not increase the rate that your hair turns gray.  One hair per follicle, and the surrounding hair is not swayed to turn by one hair’s unnatural demise by tweezers.  

And http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/44/32.cfm suggests that you wear a hat outside, because, theory is, the sun makes your pigments work overtime.  Just like your skin tans, the pigments in your hair may “work too hard and burn out early,” resulting in gray hair.  But, there’s no concrete evidence for this… soooo… makes me wonder if this is just a future old wives’ tale.

They did offer this interesting fact:  “The average white woman starts developing gray hair at age 34, while the typical black woman gets about a ten-year reprieve.” Heehee… at least I beat the average!  Yea me!

Mothernature.com does confirm that once a hair follicle produces a white hair, that’s it.  There’s no turning back.  The process has begun and cannot be stopped.  I’m on a runaway train to OLD.  Oh well, might as well grab on and enjoy the ride.

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