13 Tammuz/25 June, 2010
Jun. 25th, 2010 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bearshortyI was thinking about something I got a comment on a few weeks ago. I’ve never colored my hair. I love my hair, even though I went through a period when my hair got big and liony after a haircut when I was twenty and I wished it would go back to regular hair. But over the years, I’ve learned to love my hair as it is – big and bushy after a shower. But there is lots of it and I love it. And I like the color of it.
For the past few years some gray started to set in. This is genetic in my family; Mama started to go gray early and my cousin, who the same age is me, also has gray streaks. There is more gray hair every year, but my hair is still mostly dark brown. I never spent too much money on my hair. I wash it and I cut it once in a while and I only style it for big occasions, like weddings, once in a blue moon. I hate hair spray and how it makes my hair feel. I’m not big on lots of traditionally girly things and don’t care about style or make-up or things like that in general.
And I admit to myself that one day I will start coloring my hair – still, dark brown – eventually. The idea of chemicals in my hair does not appeal and neither is spending money on it. But I do know that I will eventually get to it. Well, a few weeks ago, one of my friends told me that I needed to start coloring my hair immediately, because, god forbid, there is some gray in it. And another friend, agreed. They been coloring their hair for a long time and it is a second nature to them. And I know they mean well.
But I sort of bristled at their suggestion mostly because I don’t like people telling me what to do in regards with aesthetics. I had the same reaction when the same friend tried to get me to pluck my eyebrows in college (I like them thick, thank you very much, and I refuse to conform to standards of beauty). The fact it, I’m not ready yet to start coloring my hair because it is well, my hair and I like my color, and I’m not ready for it to be another color or to feel too different.
But I get so many comment about how women need to embrace regular manicure/pedicure and facials and make-up and all that in general (I got many comments like that in Belarus under a category “Women should always take care of themselves”) that I just resist it. I do like color on my toes, but I’d rather do it myself, and I like my fingernails short. But can’t bring myself to care about other things like hair style or make-up or spending hours in the morning getting ready for the day. I put on lipstick if I have to go teach, I brush my hair, and that is the extent of it.
Which bring me back to coloring my hair. I always said that I will color it after 30, but now that I am 30, I don’t want to yet. And I can’t explain it adequately to my friends who are so into the culture’s idea of what a woman should do. I’m just trying to figure out why that comment bothered me.
“The Young Victoria” A nice movie. I do like historical movies but I can’t decide if this movie shouldn’t be called “Victoria and Albert” instead, because the story is pretty much all about them meeting and, despite the arrangement of it, falling in love. And this movie has a bit of pre-Albert stuff. But the movie ends with the show of the two of them, not Victoria by herself. She realizes that she can let him help without losing her strength, which is a nice idea but the implication that he would be a solution and fix lots of things is a little uncomfortable. At least, she has a fight with him in the movie about that. I do love the actors in this, and both actors who play Victoria and Albert do such a marvelous job. I love the scene where Victoria proposes to him.
After I watched the movie I was looking over the geneology of Hanovers and Windsors online and it was fun to discover that there are over 600 living descendants today of Victoria and Albert (pretty much all nobility in Europe). And there are about 5,000 descendants of George I.
For the past few years some gray started to set in. This is genetic in my family; Mama started to go gray early and my cousin, who the same age is me, also has gray streaks. There is more gray hair every year, but my hair is still mostly dark brown. I never spent too much money on my hair. I wash it and I cut it once in a while and I only style it for big occasions, like weddings, once in a blue moon. I hate hair spray and how it makes my hair feel. I’m not big on lots of traditionally girly things and don’t care about style or make-up or things like that in general.
And I admit to myself that one day I will start coloring my hair – still, dark brown – eventually. The idea of chemicals in my hair does not appeal and neither is spending money on it. But I do know that I will eventually get to it. Well, a few weeks ago, one of my friends told me that I needed to start coloring my hair immediately, because, god forbid, there is some gray in it. And another friend, agreed. They been coloring their hair for a long time and it is a second nature to them. And I know they mean well.
But I sort of bristled at their suggestion mostly because I don’t like people telling me what to do in regards with aesthetics. I had the same reaction when the same friend tried to get me to pluck my eyebrows in college (I like them thick, thank you very much, and I refuse to conform to standards of beauty). The fact it, I’m not ready yet to start coloring my hair because it is well, my hair and I like my color, and I’m not ready for it to be another color or to feel too different.
But I get so many comment about how women need to embrace regular manicure/pedicure and facials and make-up and all that in general (I got many comments like that in Belarus under a category “Women should always take care of themselves”) that I just resist it. I do like color on my toes, but I’d rather do it myself, and I like my fingernails short. But can’t bring myself to care about other things like hair style or make-up or spending hours in the morning getting ready for the day. I put on lipstick if I have to go teach, I brush my hair, and that is the extent of it.
Which bring me back to coloring my hair. I always said that I will color it after 30, but now that I am 30, I don’t want to yet. And I can’t explain it adequately to my friends who are so into the culture’s idea of what a woman should do. I’m just trying to figure out why that comment bothered me.
“The Young Victoria” A nice movie. I do like historical movies but I can’t decide if this movie shouldn’t be called “Victoria and Albert” instead, because the story is pretty much all about them meeting and, despite the arrangement of it, falling in love. And this movie has a bit of pre-Albert stuff. But the movie ends with the show of the two of them, not Victoria by herself. She realizes that she can let him help without losing her strength, which is a nice idea but the implication that he would be a solution and fix lots of things is a little uncomfortable. At least, she has a fight with him in the movie about that. I do love the actors in this, and both actors who play Victoria and Albert do such a marvelous job. I love the scene where Victoria proposes to him.
After I watched the movie I was looking over the geneology of Hanovers and Windsors online and it was fun to discover that there are over 600 living descendants today of Victoria and Albert (pretty much all nobility in Europe). And there are about 5,000 descendants of George I.