Funny story: I'm 49, and I have fabulous hair genes. My maternal grandmother was well into her 80s before she was fully gray and my mother is 73, and has just a few strands of gray hair. My paternal grandmother was gray, but dyed her hair a stark, jet black, and it looked really unnatural. When I was younger, I decided that when my hair went gray, I was going to leave it - I had delusions of well-earned battle scars and rites of passage, and other such nonsense floating through my head.
One day, about 16 years ago, I was sitting in my friend's kitchen with her. She was also the woman who cut my hair, so she was "attuned." We were chatting when, all of the sudden, she squinted and leaned closer to me. She reached her hand out, grabbed a hair by my temple, and pulled. My hair is curly, but the hair she pulled out was wiry. I swear it was 4 inches long, completely gray, and like a corkscrew.
Where did it come from? How does a hair go from nothing to 4 inches long in an hour? Had it been hiding? And, if so, where? In the midst of these questions, all my delusions went right out the window. In the next instant, I was wondering if I should buy boxed hair dye or get it done professionally. Battle scars, be damned.
I was lucky and it was an isolated incident - I still have naturally brown hair. But it makes me laugh how quickly my resolve to not dye my hair dissolved. Gone. When the time comes, Miss Clairol will be my best friend.