Aging Gracefully...

I remember when I was a kid & there was those Oil of Olay commercials that talked about aging gracefully and I think L'Oreal Preference commercials banning the notion of graying hairs... I mean the HORROR!!!

I realize now, as I have officially come to terms with saying I am 31, that my mother was my age when I was 2 and it was just a different time. Their ideas of aging and graying were mild acceptance & assistance will get you along just fine... Nowadays??? Oh my! Who in their right mind would go gray at such a young age... I mean I haven't seen my natural since I was 13, maybe 14 years old, but I do know that I can never go back. Thanks to my father (who was salt & pepper by the time I came around - which put him at 26 then) I have a decent amount of gray hair. Of course my lovely hairdresser Trish is always so kind in the "pfft, it's not nearly as bad as you think" but it's still something I go to have covered every 2 months now - up from years ago when I could go 3-4 months without getting my hair done. Maybe I can blame owning my own place on it, or work, or well anything... It's an easy cover up though & do to the rising trend in having your hair colored anyway - no one is exempt from hair color.

But then there is the face. I have been watching some of the new shows that have started & they all have these women that I remember watching in the early 90s, or women I have never seen before that are clearly have had a little work done. Not that there is anything wrong with that... I mean I am sure if I have the money when the time comes that I might contemplate it, not sure if I would go through with it as I do have a HUGE aversion to pain, but who knows right? Well I have to give my guilty please Gossip Girl credit for calling out one lady on their show - Blair mistakenly tells her boyfriend's mother that she is showing the side effects of bad Botox (she thought that it was her ex's date). I know that it was scripted but it was nice to have someone drop the "B" word. It makes me wonder what happened to the days of Calgon, Oil of Olay & a little bit of Avon to make a woman feel natural & beautiful. Now it's what can get nipped, tucked & shot.

I know that I don't look 31, and I am exceptionally grateful for that considering the amount of smoking & drinking that I did for years & the effects that it is supposed to have taken on my skin by now (consider that I was 13 when I started doing both bad things). But I do find myself sometimes over analyzing my skin up, freaking that this might sag, or those circles are too dark (damn Italian side), or that's not smooth enough. I am happy to grow old gracefully as long as it's in the progression that is has been for the past 30 years.

For now I guess I will just have to trust my O of O & Trish to have my back...