Gray

My hair has long since reached the point where it’s much more gray than not. I noticed this more during the isolation, since I went a long time between haircuts. The gray is also more noticeable when there’s no gel in my hair.

I’m realizing in recent years that if I had to write down my hair color on an official form or whatever, I can no longer honestly say “black.” Now it’s “gray.” If I had to describe myself to someone I’m about to meet in public for the first time, I’d have to say, “Look for the guy with the gray hair.”

So I’m going gray—correction: I’ve gone gray—and it doesn’t really bother me. That’s probably because I started finding gray hair at about age 16, so I was still a young person when this started, and therefore I don’t necessarily associate gray with age. The advantage to going gray young is that you’re less mortified than when you find gray hair in your 30s and 40s.

I remember a commercial that showed a woman, who had to be only in her 30s, who was counting individual gray hairs. When she got to the 40^th gray hair, she gasped. Forty gray hairs! This was years ago and even then I remember thinking, “Counting individual gray hairs on my head would be like counting grains of sand on the beach in Wildwood.” I just laugh when people in their 30s find gray hair for the first time—not laugh at them but laugh that I reached that milestone 30 years ago. I roll my eyes when celebrities stop dyeing their gray and people call them brave. Where’s my Gray Heart medal for bravery?

I have no interest in dyeing my hair. I did once for a show I was in and the process was deeply annoying and it didn’t look good. Every time I walked in a room, people noticed immediately. It would be even worse now. Can you imagine how ridiculous I’d look if I showed up with black hair? That ship sailed long ago.

I don’t think people look bad or old with gray hair. The increasing gray is just something to remark upon when I see more and more of it falling on my apron when I get a haircut. I’m fine with this. I mean, what do you want at 46?