Sunday 18 November 2012

Hair

This post was inspired by a comment to a post on my other blog, linked to this week’s Friday My Town Shoot Out theme: Self-portraits.

Shabby Girl commented that for some reason she always pictured me as a brunette. Actually, my hair colour has been something of an enigma even to myself over the years. It probably was to my mother as well, because back in the days when she cut my hair herself, she saved some locks and put into my photo album:

CIMG1932 CIMG1931

I was born with dark hair (see below), but by the time I was 1½ years old and had my first haircut, I was light blonde. At the age of five, I was more like medium blonde, and at 13 my hair was so dark that some might consider it brunette. (My passport from age 16 still says medium blond, though. )

I remained dark/medium blonde through my twenties and into my thirties. In my forties when I first began worrying over grey hairs I tried to better the colour from time to time (but without straying too far from my natural colour). In my fifties I gave up and decided to consider myself “ash blonde” until some day when I’ll have to drop the “blonde” part altogether…

Lilla Ja

1955

2 years

Growing up - 2 years old!

13 years

13 going on 14

21 years

Twenty-One. (Sometimes I had braids!)

40 years

40

CIMG1574-004

2012 (please do the math silently)

These days it depends a lot on the light – and perhaps my mood?? – what I see when I look in the mirror (blonde vs. grey). Two things there is no mistake about:

1/ I’m definitely not brunette.
2/ Even if I wished to, I would no longer be able to grow my hair to the length it was in my early twenties. 

~~~

“My real hair color is kind of a dark blonde.
Now I just have mood hair.”
~Julia Roberts~

~~~

8 comments:

  1. i can tell by the photos how different it was, mine was almost the same color my whole life, and now most of it is the same as it was at 2 years old except for a LOT of gray. i enjoyed watching you grow up... and I love the new header.

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  2. Was that ever a fun tour of your hair. One thing that didn't change was that cute dimple in your chin!

    I was born with dark aburn red hair and lots of it! Grey didn't show up till my 50's...Now I'm 71 and my hair looks rather blond. My mom told me years ago, redheads don't turn grey they turn blond. (That's not legally, HaHa)

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  3. A fun and interesting post, thank you, Monica!
    I was born without any hair on my head, and remained bald until I was almost 2 years old, when I was white blonde. My hair darkened over the years and on the pictures showing me on my first day at school (age 6), it was brown and stayed that way until I was around 15 years old, when we all (we = teenagers in the 1980s) thought it our duty to have a different hair colour every week.
    It runs in the family to have grey hair very early, and my first ones I found when I was 26. By my late 30s, I was very much salt-and-pepper, and these days, I colour them brown, more or less the way they would be without the grey. I keep saying that in 6 years' time, when I'll be 50, I'll stop the colouring...

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  4. I'm a little envious of the fact that you can all talk about having hair!

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  5. I was born with mousy brown hair and through the years it has been a number of colors, but for years I've been an ash blonde, it suits me and my grey hair.

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  6. Not to suggest you are abnormal but I have to ask the question - are such changes normal??? None of my children changed anything like so dramatically. I've known plenty who changed from light or dark hair when born to the opposite at around five or nsix but never such dramatic changes (and back again) as yours.

    I love all the photos except the 21 year old - you look so thoughtful - sad even - in that one. But the two year old is a gem.

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  7. I love that quote you have at the end. "Mood hair", that's funny.
    All of my brothers and sisters were blonde and blonde hair darkens over the years into what is called a "dirty blonde". My brothers have lost their hair but my sisters use the help of the wonderful aid of hair-coloring to make their locks look blonde and beautiful.
    Me? I have very dark hair or did! It turned grey in my teens and I have been coloring it ever since!
    I love that you inspired Meike to do a post. You are an inspiration!

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  8. I love the quote from Julia! I might have to adopt it for my own. My hair has been red (not all one shade because my hairdresser {my daughter-in-law} does such a great job of coloring it) for the past two decades. People who met after I started coloring it think it's my natural color. My hair always from teens on had red highlights. So, daughter-in-law call the red "my second natural color." But I like "mood hair" better!
    Wow, do I go on and on in my comments!
    I came from another blog, I will be back!

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