I tried to grow out my grey hair and only managed a month
And it's got a lot to do with work and 'career Jenny'
I’ve dyed my hair since I was 16. At first, it was clandestine visits to a friend’s house (also a Jenny) to use Body Shop Henna and smoke Marlboro Lights out her bedroom window as I wasn’t allowed to do either at home (rightly so on the fags).
Over the years I’ve gone to hairdressers for hair dye and done a lot of home dying, too. I’ve bleached short hair, and put on other colours (we had these pots I’d get from the Prince’s Quay shopping centre when I was a student in Hull, called Directions*).
I’ve tried boxed dyes that are bright red, gone darker and mysterious, everything from plum to a bright orange. I was always dying my hair to make a statement, I loved having bright hair, unusual hair, and not just brown hair.
It was never, though, to cover up greys.
As I ‘grew up’ I would go to the hairdresser more to get my hair done. For the year before my wedding I went religiously, working on the long locks I’d grown and getting the colours of red tone just right for my wedding day.
You see, the greys had begun to show themselves. Not a full white line of roots, but more and more those little wispy greys were coming out of my parting and waving at me in the mirror.
I hated them! I was Jenny, Red Head Forever. You see, I have had red hair more than any other colour and for me it is part of who I am. The thing is, I didn’t really realise that until I started to grow out the greys.
I decided to begin growing out my greys in the late summer and had a plan - I’d carry on until at least Christmas, and see where things were at. Perhaps I’d become this new grey-haired maven, a new lease of life with my natural locks and look.
As ever, Hollywood has a lot to answer for, and the images of stars like Andie Macdowell on the red carpet with their flowing grey locks had me inspired. I too could be a grey-haired goddess!
The first thing that nudged at my willpower was the hairdresser, who advised me it could take up to 3 years to have a full head of greys. That’s a long time. I immediately thought ‘I’ll be 49’ - nearly 50. I didn’t want to be 50 and not a redhead. But I could begin, at least, right? See how it went? I posted on insta and had a lot of support from those who have been through this whole process…
But then came the Zoom stuff. And work Jenny began to slip away.
With photo after photo and zoom/teams after zoom/teams. With brain fog already an issue, I was constantly distracted by the three puffs of white on my head - two in the sideburn area and one in the middle at my parting.
I began to look like I had a toupe on, as the side bits were less visible. I hated what I saw.
Now, should I have worried about how I looked on Zoom, and in pics?
Maybe not, some might say, but I did. That’s just me. And the biggest part was, not looking like me meant I didn’t feel like me in a work or business sense.
I like to be Jenny the redhead, I am not a huge make-up-wearing person but I like to have my red hair. That’s ‘me’.
I was seeing some strange version of myself - even with the special ‘Colour WOW’ product I used (it’s good, but became a faff).
So off I went to get some hair dye and now, here I am typing, with my red locks back where they should be. I feel like me again, and whether that’s on Zoom, or at a networking event, I feel more confident now I’ve got those ‘sixth form red’ vibes back.
There are so many variables when it comes to work - the behaviour of a boss, or colleague, the financial climate, stress, burnout, changes in your team, changes in the way you work, changes in your role or worries about whether change is ahead.
We can’t control any of those things - but we can control our hair. And so I have. And it feels like ‘work Jenny’ is more in control, too.
