| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
02 Jan 2008 10:07:57 AM |
| Object: |
To Dye Or Not To Dye? |
"To dye or not to dye?" ... that is the question. At least that was
the question I began asking myself a decade ago as I grew weary of
dyeing my grey-streaked hair. Back then, upon presenting my dilemma to
my hairdresser I chose to follow his self-serving advice, "You'll have
plenty of time to go grey!"
Giving up the quest for a glamorous, youthful look was especially
difficult for me as I had been the fashion queen; owning fashion
boutiques, doing image consulting and writing a fashion column for ten
years. I had felt pity for my sister-in-law years ago, when she
decided not to dye her hair. At that time I vowed to never "let myself
go," and remain as youthful and glamorous as human powers would
permit.
Held Hostage to the Beauty Industry
Yet, rather suddenly, more years of dying my hair passed and I found
myself resenting being held hostage every six weeks to grey roots,
chemicals soaking my scalp, dark stains along my hairline, and fumes
in my eyes and lungs.
More and more I begrudged the societal message clouting us: "Women
lose their value, beauty and worth as they age and must do their
utmost to hide the fact." Proof of this message drives the multi-
billion dollar beauty/anti-aging industry which goads
http://www.dontplayplay.com/html/Bothsexes/20061002/47567.html
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| User: "skyeyes" |
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| Title: Re: To Dye Or Not To Dye? |
02 Jan 2008 01:42:59 PM |
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On Jan 2, 9:07=A0am, wrote:
"To dye or not to dye?" ... that is the question. At least that was
the question I began asking myself a decade ago as I grew weary of
dyeing my grey-streaked hair. Back then, upon presenting my dilemma to
my hairdresser I chose to follow his self-serving advice, "You'll have
plenty of time to go grey!"
Giving up the quest for a glamorous, youthful look was especially
difficult for me as I had been the fashion queen; owning fashion
boutiques, doing image consulting and writing a fashion column for ten
years. I had felt pity for my sister-in-law years ago, when she
decided not to dye her hair. At that time I vowed to never "let myself
go," and remain as youthful and glamorous as human powers would
permit.
Held Hostage to the Beauty Industry
Yet, rather suddenly, more years of dying my hair passed and I found
myself resenting being held hostage every six weeks to grey roots,
chemicals soaking my scalp, dark stains along my hairline, and fumes
in my eyes and lungs.
More and more I begrudged the societal message clouting us: "Women
lose their value, beauty and worth as they age and must do their
utmost to hide the fact." Proof of this message drives the multi-
billion dollar beauty/anti-aging industry which goads
http://www.dontplayplay.com/html/Bothsexes/20061002/47567.html
Unfortunately for both you and me, the fact that "women lose their
beauty as they age" is hard-wired into the male brain. All the
invective in the world leveled at the "beauty industry" won't change
that; and indeed, the beauty industry is only reacting to how the
world really is. Human males are hard-wired to be attracted to the
signs of youth in females - clear, unwrinkled skin; bright shiny hair
with no gray in it; a curvy figure. That's because these are clues to
a woman's favorable reproductive status, i.e., the message the male
brain receives is "she's still fertile!" Don't forget, the whole
point of being sexually attractive is *making babies*. Sounds silly
in this day and age, but it's only been an evolutionary eyeblink since
the time when sending your genes forth into the next generation was
the major thrust of human existence.
And I disagree with your assertion that women lose their value when
they lose their beauty. There is a very well-respected hypothesis in
anthropology called the "Grandmother Hypothesis," which states that
aging women are repositories of knowledge and techniques for living
that enhance the chances of younger generations to successfully live
and reproduce, and are therefore quite valuable - valuable enough that
younger humans gladly supported them with food and shelter after they
were too old to either reproduce or do much in the way of physical
labor.
That said, I'm off to color my hair. Just not ready to be gray yet,
and as long as the "beauty industry" makes hair color, I'll keep
buying it.
Brenda Nelson, A.A.#34
EAC Professor of Feline Thermometrics and Cat-Herding
skyeyes at dakotacom dot net
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