It was the thing to do. I had gray strands since I was 18. In my mid 20’s, I started covering the gray. I don’t really know why. It’s what everybody did. There are no gray haired people in my whole family and most of them are older than I am. I stopped coloring my hair when I was 42. I was intermittently coloring at Bergdorf Goodman and once in a while at home and one of those times, I was standing in the bathroom with this plastic bottle of goop and I couldn’t remember why I was doing it! (Laughs). I looked in the mirror and I said; “Wait. What’s the point of this exercise?" I realized I was failing at looking 27 so I dumped the stuff down the toilet. Growing it out was hell. It’s just awful. I felt like I was Mt. Fuji with a little white top.
I had this thought that; what am I telling my daughter? She was 7 then. What am I telling her about growing older? What’s the message I’m giving? And I realized, it wasn’t such a good message. Because age is not the enemy. There was nothing to be afraid of or ashamed of. The enemy is stupidity, bigotry, narrow mindedness, unwillingness to change with the times. All that is the enemy. But getting older by itself is kind of cool.
I was really surprised that most of my male friends thought it was great looking and most of my women friends said; “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” Women were like; “Algh. Go color it.” My friend who was the epitome of style, she said to me: “It doesn’t make you look younger but it makes you look interesting.” And I thought, interesting? I like interesting. I can do interesting. I’d much rather do interesting than perpetually young. It’s really liberating. I like it, a lot. I am walking my path and getting older and it’s a privilege and so, I just went with it!