Anyone Out There?

It seems like in every article I read, and every chain pharmacy I walk into, the headlines read on creams to fight aging skin. They’ve got it all figured out: Neck creams, face creams, serums, night-time routine products, and the list rambles on.

Thank god for these, let me tell you, because they have undeniably helped my skin through the years. However, now 52, I’ve been noticing changes in my hair, and it seems like no one else finds them relatable. Where are the products for aging hair?

Am I alone in this, or can someone else relate?...

The bad hair days of my teenage years were occasional, and I remember those days waking up for school and looking at my hair, thinking that a bad hair day would be the start of a bad day, and, in my mind, the end of the world. Now I look back at those moments with fondness: The couple strands of hair in my hairbrush have become a lot more than a couple, and by the age of 45, I began to notice concerning dryness.

As I write this, my hair is by no means the same, and the transformation has not been in my favor. The dryness at 45 developed into flyaways and an utter lack of control at 52. My grey hairs have me running in and out of dying appointments at the salon (only worsening the problem), not to mention the stiffness that surrounds my hair, making it look less like luscious locks and more like… Cinderella’s old broom?

Coming full circle, if my hair hasn’t changed, what are the products I’m putting in it doing? How is it possible that an industry that is constantly reinventing itself has shut out such a critical sign of aging? Let’s be clear: Old age will be old age, no matter what secret beauty potion you sugar coat it with. And while I know that most of the hair and consistency I’ve lost is not coming back, I wish the industry was being more productive on how it is possible for me to take care of the hair that I have now, without giving me a flat and greasy mob.

So, I ask myself, why do I have more control over my husband than I do over my own hair, and is someone out there willing to lend a hand?