A high school classmate of Italian ancestry had red hair, courtesy of grandparents who came from Milan. She has always been good-looking, but didn’t look particularly Italian to me. Now that she has a flowing mop of gray, white hair, she reminds me of Sophia Loren.

My brother-in-law had a big bucks sales manager job until he was 79. He dyed his gray hair in the belief that it made him look more youthful and energetic, and would thus help customers’ response to him. I can’t say that he was wrong. He also went to the gym.

I find it rather comical that someone would dye hair to get it gray. Dye hair gray versus dye gray hair…

My sister was a blonde as a young child. Her hair got progressively darker as she aged- reddish light brown as a teenager, and brown in middle age. She commenced dying her hair a light brown- touch of blonde- and I have to admit that she has looked better for it.

I inherited my maternal grandmother’s un-graying tendencies, and in my mid sixties have only a touch of gray at the temples.

My father, and his whole family, had a gorgeous crown of thick, waving, springy silvery white – not gray, white – hair by the time he was 65 or so. Just beautiful. I’m hoping I will, too.

Dying one’s hair a lighter color always involves stripping, which is harsh, and then dying on top of it. But for some reason this seems particularly difficult to maintain; I don’t know why.

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/grey-new-black-hollywood-silver-foxes-gallery-1.23709?pmSlide=1.41531

I view my gray hair as a sign of achievement as having survived this long. But there is genetics involved, too. My Dad had black hair which didn’t turn gray until he was in his late 60s. My Mom had shock white hair early on; she also carries the bald gene, which my brother is. So I got my Dad’s hair longevity and my mother’s early gray hair coloring. I can deal with that, as if I have a choice.