I posted last about the slightly uncomfortable stage I find myself in currently – not retired, but not actively seeking a paid position and feeling vaguely guilty that I should be ‘doing something.’

I have made a conscious effort to both challenge the negative thoughts, and also start to accept and enjoy this new phase; where pretty much for the first time in a very long time, I get to choose how I spend/invest my time.

While  in these throes of sea-change, I have also decided to experiment with another transition and grow out my colour to my what is now fairly grey hair. It feels like a good time to do it at the beginning of autumn  here in NZ, when everything is in natural seasonal transition, reinforcing to me that we are all subject to times and seasons, and that it’s best to just try and go with the season you are in.

It is something I have been toying with for several years but have never been quite able to pluck up the courage. I started getting grey hairs in my late-20s and have spend a large amount of time and money establishing a relationship with a fabulous hairdresser/colourist.

But at 53 my natural hair colour is very grey/silver and I now have to get my colour done pretty much every month. With all the travel recently I had gone a lot longer than usual, so there were a lot of grey roost showing. Seemed to me I should take advantage of this head-start on the process. So, with the support and guidance of my hairdresser, I have decided to stop colouring my hair. She is taking me through a slow transition rather than just stripping the colour and dying it grey (which would be easy but not great for my hair). So I have lots of time to wonder if I am doing the right thing as it slowly grows out…

I did download an App where you can use change the colour of your hair in a photo to see what it might look like and it seemed like it might look pretty good! Also as  grey is fairly ‘in’ at the moment, my theory is by going grey by choice  is  more of a fashion statement rather than announcing surrender to my advancing years. Now that I have made the decision, I see women of all ages with grey hair and most of them look fantastic.

I like the colour of my grey I see  so far and it isn’t wiry or coarse so I’m hoping this is a good transition. Worse case scenario, I start colouring again!

I’ll keep up some progress reports or fess up if I chicken out! I do definitely have ‘what on earth am I doing’ crises, but my hairdresser assures me I am at the hard phase at the moment.

Photos are taken 6 weeks and 12 weeks into the process.