Thursday, August 5, 2010

Flint, I hope you dye!!!

As I hit another birthday I look into the mirror and ponder my grey hairs. I don't really have a lot. Not as much as I though I have. Then I remember the first time I dyed my hair and why.

I never dyed my hair until I went to Korea. In past posts I have mentioned how Koreans, both adults and children, freak out when they notice you have grey hair. or as they call it white hair. Koreans will have the offending hair yanked right out of their heads.

Now you are probably thinking that I dyed my hair because of Koreans pointing out my "white hair". You would be wrong. It was actually my foreign co-workers who drove me to do it.

I only had a little grey on the sides and a touch in the back. Even though I have more now it really isn't a lot, and I have stopped dying it. Hilda and Matt used to drive me up the wall going on about my grey hair. Matt, well he was a snot nosed kid of 23 or so and god only knows what his natural hair colour was. He would dye it bright colours and wax it into fine spikes. Hilda, she had more grey in her hair than I did, and she is 4 years or so younger than me. Dave, well his problem was more losing hair than having it turn grey so he didn't care as much.

Hilda and Matt would drone on about how I should dye my hair. Hilda once actually said I was making all of them look old by not doing it. When I finally did dye my hair it was just to shut them up. Not a good reason. At that point, I kind of liked it and kept it up.

Funny side note. I actually wanted to dye my hair light brown once and was told no. The owner of the hair place I frequented was great. A nice person and a fantastic barber. She always did a great job at what would be an insanely low price back in Canada. when I told her I wanted my hair light brown or blonde she told me no. She was adamant it would not look good and she would not do it. In the end I figured she knew more about it than me and I went with something darker.

Getting your hair dyed, at least for me, is much cheaper in Korea than Canada. At Blue Club, and the one in GaGyeong-dong, Choengju is GREAT. Owner brews up FRESH coffee, good coffee, while you wait. But I digress ... at Blue Club it costs 20,000 Won for a cut and dye. Here in Canada it costs over $20 just for a cut and wash. But I digress again. Dyed hair ... grey hair ... white hair ... Koreans freaking out.

Spock pretty much has a full head of grey hair. He never dyed it and probably never will. (Much to his wife`s chagrin.) The first time Koreans meet him it might be mentioned. It might not. Then it is forgotten. I think the reason Koreans seemed to freak when they saw some of my grey hair was because they just weren't used to seeing it. As the dye came out it was like BAM! Grey Hair! Of course they would comment, it was something they weren't used to see. Now they sometimes did get too in your face about it. Which can be ... disconcerting. Nay annoying. :)

Now that I am home I haven't dyed the hair. I did buy some "Just for Men" but it sits unused in my bathroom. As I think back to why I started dying my hair the reasoning seems stupid. If I dye it again it will be for me, because I want to.

If I never dye it again it will be because I want it that way. I was foolish for my reasoning. Matt was shallow, which I always knew. God damn that boy is the definition of shallow. Hilda was shallow, which for some reason I ignored.


2 comments:

  1. Although my students do comment on my baldness and grey hair, no-one has ever suggested that I dye it.
    Every once in a while I will shave it all off. I thought about staying completely bald, rather than have that pathetic fringe, but one of my directors claimed I was frightening the children.

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  2. Director's have that way of saying anything out of the norm scares the children don't they? One director even claimed another teachers beard scared the Korean teachers and parents. |Bloody wankers!

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