Tow Head

When my brother and I were little, we had white blonde hair. It was pretty white. The old folks in my family called us "tow heads." Apparently the term originates from an old German word that refers to weaving flax fibers into tow sacks which are burlap sacks nowadays. Flax is a very light golden color, which only rural farm folk would really know, thus alluding to my hick roots.

As I grew up, my hair turned an ever "dirtier" blonde. In the summer, it would still lighten up to a pale blonde again, but come winter time, my hair could turn almost brown. Recently, over the last couple years, I've noticed gray hairs at my temples. Sigh. About 6 months ago I actually dyed my hair blonde for winter. It looked great. It looked like my old hair - my younger hair. I've gotten a lot of sun already this spring, thank you yard work and poolside fun. I thought my hair would stay light and blonde for summer. In fact, I have this one patch of total buttery yellow blonde going on. I think it looked fabulous. But this morning I really looked at it. My roots are totally showing now and I am shocked to see a full root system of silver.

Aaaaaaaaaaagh! When did that happen??!!

The pale blonde I see is not really blonde. It's gray/blonde. Noooooooooooo! It looks so - so - harsh. It doesn't look anything like the white blonde hair I use to have as a toddler. That was so silky, smooth, fresh, and soft. Now, this white blonde just looks faded. Aged. Brittle. Tarnished... Yuck. That hair dye is really calling to me now.

And when did I get so old?