The biggest journey in mid-life is a constant run backwards.
It is the most difficult Olympic one will ever have to run. And at the risk of sounding dark, ultimately, it is a race we will all lose. Running backwards, we are trying to keep up with the person we remember so vividly and are shocked to no longer see that person with the aging hair when we look in the mirror.
The technology for anti-aging is a global industry. I remember my grandmother rubbing lemons and Crisco on the skin of her elbows and knees. The acid in the lemon and grease in the Crisco exfoliated and moisturized her skin, making the baggy elbows and knees look so much better! She was applying chemistry before the world of anti-aging was ever harvested.
If she could come back to me now, she would be so impressed by enzymes and glycolics that have taken over our shelves, outperforming homemade remedies. It’s all a simple matter of chemistry, and yes, that’s where we are on our time reversing run today.
However, keeping hair youthful seems to be the one part of ourselves that is just plain hard. You can’t rub on a special cream or inject a bit of Botox to take away the gray and give yourself the shine of youth. What once happened in a day at the beach seems to have disappeared for good. Being middle-aged myself, my gals have aged with me. I can’t tell you how often I hear, “What’s happening to my hair Paul?”
The decline of estrogen in the female body is a huge factor in the change of a woman’s hair. Shine seems to all but go away, elasticity of the critical begins to stop overnight leaving a woman with baby hair protrusions over the entire hairline, and the thickness one once had tends to diminish. All this, and then I still have to deal with what’s happening to the skin on my hands.
Backwards run, is there enough time in the day?
“I used to color my hair once every 10 weeks, and now it doesn’t last 4!”
“Sometimes I feel I should just go gray!”
What’s a girl to do?
Here are the facts:
Less is more as we age. The further we take the color of hair away from its original depth, the more we will have to do our color. Precisely why a woman goes blonder with age. Sure, you were born a brunette, but time erased the brown. Trying to stay at that level of darkness makes the gray stand out like a sore thumb.
There is also a choice of color bleaches and strip colors deposit. Strip is harsher than deposit, so working with tints as opposed to bleaches does keep hair younger. Innovation and technology cost money. Today, gray doesn’t have to be covered with ammonia based colors. Redkin, Fusion and L’Oreal Inoa have established an oil delivery system, meaning your hair gets colored and conditioned in one go. Wow! Add another $25-$40 onto your monthly ticket. Still a bargain in comparison to my quarterly Botox.
But, oil delivery isn’t enough. Biotin is in my favorite Viviscal Professional and is the key to Regenisis aid in keeping your hair thick, luscious and sexy between colors. Beware however, these products that I stake my career on promote more speedy growth so your salon visits become more frequent. A small price to pay for younger looking hair.
You will love your hair, and the one thing I’ve learned about aging is that everything I like to do that makes me look younger has a cost. So, I guess what I’m saying is…I may need to be working an extra five years before I can retire, but, at least I will look great at 70!
Here’s to a sexy you on Valentine’s Day!
xoxo
Paul
