Feb 11, 2010  •  In Personal

My First Gray Hair

I know I said I’ll be away for at least a week but…

Today I discovered my first gray hair.

I know that many people start getting gray/white hair at an early age (including my husband, whose head has been peppered with white hair since his early twenties) but I know that this can only mean one thing —

— because I asked my mother (whose hair most closely resembles mine) when she first started graying and she replied “When you were 6 or 7” and she was 24 when she had me which means that at 29 I’m definitely just starting to gray —

I’m getting old.

My immediate reaction was to call J and cry. Yes, I CRIED. Call me immature, call me a drama queen. I cried over my first gray hair and I’m not afraid to admit it.

Do you have any gray/white hair? When did you first discover it?
How did you react?

P.S. — I’m having a horrible time thus far. I have a whole new appreciation for my mother who does this every day. I’m exhausted, cranky, and COLD (there’s no heater at the store). Oh, and did I mention that the water heater at my parents’ house is broken? I miss my husband…

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17 Responses to “My First Gray Hair”

  1. Jennifer says:

    I found my first gray at the ripe old age of 23. I pulled it. There are now 8 in that spot. Moral of the story: Leave your gray’s alone!!!

  2. Aw!!! *big hug* Don’t worry, I think I had my first gray hair around 12 or 13. 🙁 And they’ve just been multiplying ever since. If my hair was longer, I’d look like Rouge from X-Men. Yeah, I’ve got a huge gray patch (with random single gray strands scattered across my head) directly to the left of the center part on my head. I should take a picture. It would scare you. lol.

  3. Abbie says:

    My friends all have gray hair. They pluck them and now they dye their hair. Seriously, you aren’t old!

  4. Emily says:

    I just found my first grey hairs on Monday! I was pissed.

    I have a buddy who started getting grey hair when she was 19, you’re not old. But I totally get it, because I felt the same way on Monday 🙂

  5. Tiffany says:

    I discovered my first gray hair a year and a half ago, when I was 26. It runs in my Dad’s side of the family to gray early. I’m just glad I’m not like my aunt and have gone all gray by her mid-20s. I actually started leaving them instead of plucking them out just to be sure they aren’t mulitplying. Or, maybe I’m just pretending to myself that the one I see was already there before?

    Hang in there!

  6. Stacy Marie says:

    Can you bring in a space heater to cozy it up a bit? And my guy had his first gray hair in his beard, he’s 25.

  7. I’ve been finding them for a few years now, and now it’s gotten bad enough that I’m coloring my hair. =( My mom started going gray at 25, so it’s about right.

    Hope it warms up soon!

  8. Gloria says:

    Don’t get too caught up with the white hairs! I started getting really random ones a few years back when I was living in SF. I kept them around because when I’d get bored, I would make it a game and try to find them. One day, I realized it was harder to find them because they started changing back to black! I’m so serious. Whenever people saw the white tip, they’d want to rip it out of my head for me (like they were doing me a favor) but I would show it change to black closer to the root, everyone was amazed. At this point, I don’t have any more white hairs, they’ve all grown out! So yeah, don’t pluck them out, you never know 🙂

  9. Moll says:

    I got my first gray hair at 16! I’ve ignored them and called them quirky as they’ve multiplied over the years, but they’ve recently started to group up (I’m 28) so I’m finally going to have to decide how I want to handle them. I hate the idea of dying my hair regularly, but at some point gray switches from quirky to aging…

    Good luck!

  10. Tara says:

    A hairdresser found my first gray when I was 17. Seemed scary at the time, but actually now I see it was a bit of a blessing — at least I didn’t associate it with suddenly feeling old. And blessedly they haven’t multiplied TOO badly since. Hopefully yours will go slowly too!

  11. I found my first white hair when I started dating Mr. Shortcake – so I must have been around 19-20. They’ve mostly been in one area on my right side of my head, but recently I found a rogue one by my scalp. Horrors! Sometimes, I’ll find one that has a dark brown root and tip, with white in the middle, and I’m not so sure what THAT means. Stress? Who knows! I’m not so upset though – my mom said she had a full white patch when she was a teen and had to part her hair differently to try and cover it!

  12. HamiHarri says:

    Aww…I can totally relate!

    I noticed my first gray hair the summer after our wedding (so 24-ish). But my hairstylist is convinced it was due to the stress of the wedding (I had some mucho mother issues…) and haven’t noticed anymore since plucking all of them out…lol

  13. Jina of JAC says:

    It’s a good thing you have such great skin and look like a 16 year old. But I totally feel you… I found my first white hair in high school. I just pluck them as soon as I spot it and hope it doesn’t double.

  14. Because I have such light hair, I am hopeful that greys will just disguise themselves nicely 🙂

  15. I remember when I found my first gray hair. Trust me it gets worse with time, lol, luckily gray on men doesnt look as bad but I still prefer to color anyhow to hide it.

  16. I’ve spotted my first gray hair when I was only 15. From that time, I’m seeing a day by day increment and now I’m 26 and have almost 20-30 gray hair which makes me feel old inside

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