THE HAIR AND NOW

What's at the root of our hair choices? Three writers unravel the state of their strands.

Gray Area

Sometimes your defining feature chooses you. Rory Evans assesses her roots.

Earlier this month, I bought a Nice'n Easy haircolor kit. It's been sitting on my entryway console ever since, as I mull over whether I should actually break down and use it. I say "break down" because I've been going gray for 25 years now and haven't dyed it yet.

In my late 20s, when the grays started coming in, I didn't explicitly decide to not fight them. It's more like the decision was made for me, because at the time I was an early adopter of the Japanese magic perm straightening treatment (which predated the widespread availability of the Brazilian blowout), and they didn't really know if the straightening would make color-processed hair fall out. (It certainly made my grays less wiry, and almost gave them a shiny sparkle.) Since I valued straight hair over brunette hair, I went with the straight.

In my mid-30s, I got together with my now husband, who, importantly, has always loved my gray hair. In fact, he says that of all the things I've gone in for over the years-Botox, permanent eyeliner, laser hair removal (all the set-it-and-forget-it treatments!)-dyeing my hair would be grounds for divorce. (If I did find myself single in my 50s, I would hightail my ass to a colorist.) When people ask me why I let myself go gray and Jesus, do they ask!-I always explain that "I caught my fish, and my fish likes my gray hair." My fish also had the good sense to rapidly go gray himself in the past five years, with a full-on Dumbledore situation in his beard.