It Wasn't Always This Red
03 December 2013
Because reasons, I started turning grey at age 16. Yes, in high school.
Early on in my software engineering career, this helped me because it made me look more experienced than I actually was.
A few years into my career, I was seriously dating a younger man, and it made him insecure because of my older appearance. He asked if I would consider coloring my hair. Note that it wasn’t a demand, just a request.
My natural hair color was a dark taupe, and I was never really happy with it. My skin color has a lot of red in it, and the lack of red in my natural hair color made it look odd. For a while, I tried to change my face color with makeup, but that looked even stranger to me. So I picked a random temporary dye color that I happened to like most. I didn’t think a lot about it, just grabbed a box.
He hated the color. Worse than the grey in his book. However, I happened to like it more because it went better with my coloring, and I’ve pretty much stuck with a similar hue ever since, though I do mix it up from time to time. Needless to say, the relationship didn’t last, though it wasn’t because of the hair color.
A few years ago, I decided to grow it out, then did a purple temporary color for a while. Here’s a picture of me after that had mostly washed out.
But here’s the look I prefer: 
(I don’t always get to go to my favorite salon, Shear Perfection in Hollywood, but I did that time.)
Note: This is my reaction to one of Jenny Trout’s tweets.