Get out of my head! or My first gray hair

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

So, this morning, as I was doing my makeup, I noticed a glint of white from my head. “Oh,” thought I, “I must have a few highlights left from the summer. Or the sun’s hit my hair just right. Pretty little blonde hair in my otherwise brunette head! How sweet you look as you curve behind my ear.”

And then I took a closer look.

Egads. It’s white. And coarse. And in the front of my head! It’s been there so long without me noticing, that the entire strand is white, with one patch of my usual brown in the middle of it.

What the hell? I’m only 21! That’s too young for gray hair.

So, emergency phone call to my parents before they left for work.

The phone rings.
Mom: Hello?
Me: Hi, Mom? Um, when did you find your first gray hair?
Mom: Oh, dear. Laughter. I didn’t find any until I was in my thirties, but your dad’s had gray hair since I met him.
Me: Grits teeth. How long has that been?
Mom: When he was nineteen, so, let’s see that’s . . . about 25 years now.

Argh. Dammit. Why couldn’t they have told me this earlier? I always assumed I’d take after my Grandma Joanne, who’s 70 and only has a handful of gray hairs, which she starting discovering in her forties. We have the same hair color, hair texture, eye color . . . it was fated. I was supposed to take after Grandma! Not Dad. I have no room for gray nosehair in my life.

I’m not entirely convinced that this hair didn’t spring up over night, due to the incredibly stupid sentence I wrote in a job application yesterday. Writing about working on the family farm for every summer since I was twelve: “It was hard and hot and I did it for free.” Yes, thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I am that clueless. I assure you, it was not a chicken ranch.

On the bright side, Dad’s 45 in a couple weeks and he still has mostly black hair, with only a few sprinklings of gray. His beard’s going salt and pepper, but I don’t have one of those, so I’m not too concerned about that. As long as this single white hair on my head isn’t a harbinger of back hair to come, I might make it through the week.

2

You might want to stock up on peroxide so you can bleach out the ear hair. Just sayin’.

3

<Yawn.> You’re 21? What took you so long?

4

Eh, I’m 17 and I find a white hair every now and then. My mum is like your grandma though - she didn’t start going grey until her 40s.

5

well, if a gal did it right, gray could be sexy…shrug

besides, one rogue hair doesn’t mean anything.

it’s when they start collecting on your pillow AND turn gray…that’s when worrying can begin.

i won’t even say that worrying about gray hairs makes more of them pop up, because that’s just not fair…oops!

6

I’ll be 50 in June, and I still haven’t seen the first gray. Mom grayed relatively young. My dad was quite a bit older than me before he did. And my mom’s sister was well into her 60s before she had gray. Fingers crossed!!!

7

I found one when I was in my mid-30’s - I pulled it out of my head, and haven’t seen another one since. It was much thicker & coarser than my “regular” hairs.

I actually saved it, like it would serve as a magic talisman to protect me from getting more.

Seems to be working…

8

I found my first one last week (it’s rather long - so I must have gotten it some months ago. I just didn’t see it.)

It’s horrible.

My parents didn’t seem to go gray until their 40s or 50s. Or at least there wasn’t enough to notice until then. I’m years away from that. And there was so much stuff I was supposed to have done before I had gray hair. And it isn’t done.

At least the wrinkles, I could blame on bad sun worshipping habits. This - this is just old.

9

I found my first grey when I was 19. They’re multiplied in the last 7 years. I recently noticed 2 grey eyebrow hairs.

10

[Avril Levigne]
Get out of my head, get out of my bed, yeah, that’s what I said…
[/Avril Levigne]

11

I’ve been getting them since junior high!

12

I can sympathize with the OP. I went extremely bald extremely early, and after a while, began to sport the goatee and mustache look. I actually got a lot of compliments on the facial hair, and so I was happy with it for about 10 years. It was a great way to compensate, as it were, for being a chromedome.

Until about two years ago when it started going “salt-and-pepper”. And it seems like every single damn day there’s more salt and less pepper. I know I’m not young, but I don’t want to be a greybeard yet! So for now I just trim it as close as I can, but I’m thinking of getting rid of it completely. I’d actually consider coloring it, but I don’t see how that’s practical when the roots would show in, like, 12 hours.

13

Pshaw…That’s nothing…Nothing like a grey pubic hair to make one feel old…

-Tcat

14

Faster than that, even. I don’t know if it’s just me, but it sure seems like the white hairs in my beard grow at about twice as fast as the (fewer and fewer remaining) brown ones do, and I’m only 30. I asked my dad about it a while ago, but he doesn’t have a basis for comparison anymore.

My dad had to apply for a new passport when he was in his late 50s. Without thinking about it, he filled out the “hair color” box as “brown.” It had been about ten years since the last brown hairs on his head gave up the good fight. :smack:

15

I’m actually holding off on pulling this one out of my head, to see if any others grow in around it. If they do, and I end up with a kickass white streak in my hair, then I am styling my hair to suit the streak. I always told myself I would gray gracefully, but I was kind of anticipating it happening later. Like after I had graduated from college, had a couple kids, etc. Telling my kids they’re giving me gray hairs just isn’t going to be the same when I’ve already got 'em. “You see this, Little Billy? Mommy got this gray hair when you shaved the cat. And she got this one when you made the trebuchet and tried to launch your little sister over the house. This one? Mommy got that one bringing you into the world. And she can take you out. Remember this.”

I’m actually more disturbed by the fact that I found my first white hair than that I fully anticipate my future children trying to kill each other, whether in the name of science or accidentally-on-purpose.

16

Meh. I got my first grey hair when I was 15 or 16. I’m 24 now, and while not major, I have noticeable grey peppered through the brown at my temples. Mom and Dad both went grey young, so it didn’t take me by suprise. At least I’m keeping my hair (Dad started balding pretty young). It’s never really bothered me.

Although, just the other day I found a white arm hair, which was odd. Pulled that sucker right out.

17

I’m 25. I’ve always had a few strands of gray since middle school, but over the past year they’ve multiplied like crazy and show no sign of slowing. What’s worse - they’re all on the top of my head, right around my side part. I used to pluck them out, but then they would grow back and stick straight up! Now I just leave them alone - only my close friends notice anyway.

18

I found the first white hair when I was 21. I’m still waiting for the next one* to show up, but it should be soon, since my mom went grey in her 30s. I’m looking forward to it.

*Of course, in order to do that, I have to stop dyeing it weird colors…

19

I was 15 or 16 when I got my first. I’ve got a lot now (almost 27).

I keep saying I’m going to go grey gracefully (it’s really shiny silver, so I don’t have anything to worry about) but I keep breaking down and dying my hair. Sigh.

20

I got my first one when I was maybe 7 or 8. I’ve got quite a few on my temples. I’ve also found the rogue mutant white armhair. I let it grow for a while out of some morbid fasciantion to see how long it would get. It got about an inch and a half before I yanked it out. I just turned 31 this month.

I’m still ahead of the curve. My grandfather’s hair had turned completely white by the time he turned thirty. My mom’s hair went gray in her mid thirties.