I can't believe this I have over 2,000 subscribers! What?!!
That's amazing, I just I don't even know how that happened. If this is your first time visiting my channel, welcome!
My name is Erica Johnston and in today's video I'm going to talk to you about whether or not
Gray hair makes you look older.
So when I was first transitioning I
Googled this question I don't know how many times and
once in a while like in the past, you know, few months I've actually googled the question again, and that is
will gray hair make me look old? Many of you are just
so sweet, and you send me messages and you say oh
I think you look younger with your your silver hair and I really appreciate that and
you know when I google that question, I found a lot of the times that
The answer was yes, it will make you look older and here's what you need to do. And there would be like different remedies to
Reverse the aging process and all this sort of thing
And so that kind of kept me from taking the plunge for quite a while.
I had a comment from a woman who said that if I dyed my hair blonde, I
Would look 25 years old
so as you know, I'm almost 40 and will be 40 actually in two weeks, I think and
So it's kind of this sort of compliment, right?
Like oh if you did this you look 25 like that's a compliment I guess
But in the same token, it's like so then how old do I look?
Because I'm not doing that, right?
But the funny thing is the comment didn't bother me at all
It actually it made me laugh because maybe this person hasn't actually seen me with blonde hair
So I'm going to show you a picture before and after and you
Can judge for yourself. So this blonde-haired photo that I have was taken
I don't even know how many years ago like four years or something (8!) and
Personally, I think that I look older as a blonde
But I mean since that photo was taken I also am older right so we have to kind of account for that too
and I think that
You know, we wonder like oh, will, I look older when the transition is done
And the fact is is that you are older
Alright, so, you know like for some of us, I mean if you've got short hair then it's gonna be quick
But if you're growing out your hair
long that could be like two to four years of
Growth and that's two to four years older that you are right after the transition
So, I don't know I I think in the end it's your outlook on life
Will it make you look older?
It can. I find in the beginning stages when you first start growing it out
For myself, I did think that it made me look older so I went to an aesthetician
When I had first started growing out my hair and this was when I had dyed my hair blonde two years ago
So I had this little bit of gray
or silver here, and then I had the rest was blonde and I had my hair pulled back and it looked like
Disastrous it was just really ugly. And so I went in and this was for my
IPL treatments that I had done right to get rid of some of the the age spots
So I put my head into this
Cup and I had close-up photographs taken and
In these close-ups - what I mean, they're just ugly as it is
Like I mean, you can't get away from that when your face is like this, you know
Magnified face. It's not going to look good
But you could also see just around here where my growth was of the the silver so
It was funny because I looked at that picture and
I was like what the heck am I doing? Like it was just this moment where I thought oh my gosh
I really am trying like trying to make myself look older here and
Even the esthetician she was kind of...and I understand this like she's she's in the beauty business, right?
Like I get it it's fine and she said to me
You know, I don't know why you're letting it go because it did look awful right at that point
She's like, I don't know
You know
I think you should just
Just dye it I think it would look better and so her comment and Here I am
I'm trying to make myself my face look younger and so I
left there and pretty shortly after that
I ended up dying my hair brown again, which as you know, I was really really unhappy with
Yeah
So I guess just in the beginning stages like I think that is aging I mean it's like anything if you dye your hair brunette
and you don't get the right shade for your skin tone that's gonna be aging right if you dye your hair blonde and
You know, you're not you don't look good as a blonde, which I personally don't think I look good as a blonde
Unless you get that right shade perhaps
It's gonna be aging right so it doesn't matter what you do. I think in the end you just have to be patient
We have said that many times. You just have to let your hair do its thing grow out
I think my hair is looking better. It's
So healthy, it feels really really good. So really?
Going gray is a state of mind.
All right, so I got this message and this is going to be my comment of the week because I love it
It's by a woman. Her name is Carnley Carnley and
she says this if
30 year olds go gray and
50 year olds go gray, then we equalize age
The process is a difficult one
Because it's emotional
you have to make do with a reality that you have hidden for years, but isn't that the truth though, you know you think about
This
Stigma that goes with graying hair as being old. I don't know if her name is Carnley, but what she says is just
amazing. Think about it. If
20-year olds...
I was 16 when I started going silver and a lot of you comment and you were 16 or you were 20 years old and
if we all
Not all but whoever felt like they wanted to right and just had the choice
Like do you want to go silver? Do you want to dye? whatever you want to do
right, but you just have truly have that choice and
So many of us show the truth showed what we have hidden
Then it would just be normalized and I think that we're getting there. I think it's just...
Kind of a revolution in a way. Do you know? like I don't know
It's just nice and if we start to see that more then the the youth of today
you know these little girls that are growing up they
They can do whatever they want. Like they can I mean right now you can see they're already doing it. It's pretty cool
I want to have pink hair. I want to have green hair. I want to have whatever it doesn't matter
It's not - it doesn't define them. But if they want to have their natural
silver hair
They can and it's just that's okay, you know, so
on that note
I just want to leave you with that - that this is a personal choice and
it doesn't matter what we do and we you know, I know the people that have subscribed to this channel are I
Don't even know what to say. You were some of the most lovely people
And you inspire me every day. So, yeah, so thank you so much. I
Right now where I'm at. This is the last week of summer holidays for us
My kids are actually at camp this week. I don't have any teaching job lined up. So we'll see what happens
I may end up just doing some supply teaching for a while
Which will give me more time to to make these sort of videos and my fitness videos
So, yeah, so we'll see what happens, but I'll keep you posted
Until next week. Bye for now
Hey ladies Hey ladies Hey ladies
Hi ladies, happy Tuesday
What am I trying to say? dermatologist? dermatologist? no esthetician. I love it. you guys you gals you guys
But what Carnley Carnley says... I'm sorry