So I’m standing in front of the mirror shaving this morning when I happen to notice a rather distinct patch of grey hair at the base of my short sideburns.  Surprisingly my first thought was not “What’s the best grey hair coloring for men?” as it would have been a few years ago… no, my first thought was “Hey that looks kind of distinguished!”

Being a Distinguished Gentleman is a State of Mind:

I credit my relatively new outlook on turning grey to my training as a Strategic Intervention Coach which involved a lot of exercises where we learned to reframe negative thoughts and experiences into positive influences in our lives which we can grow and benefit from in terms of experience.

I have to admit that there was a minute or two where I pawed at the grey hair and indulged myself with a few justifications as to why my hair was suddenly turning grey… “Well my good chap, you did lose a daughter to a terminal illness in 2004 and a wife to suicide in 2005 and then there was 5.5 years spent in litigation with her family as a result of their greed… it’s really no surprise that your hair finally began to turn grey; I mean really, it’s kind of surprising that it didn’t happen years ago… in fact, it’s kind of surprising that you have any hair at all…”

But then I snapped out of it and returned to pondering the possibilities that came with looking like a more distinguished gentleman… like Harrison Ford. He looked pretty damn good as a guy with a light dose of grey hair playing Indiana Jones, or at least that’s what my girlfriend at the time told me.  So there you have it, I’ve convinced myself that being 46 years old with hair that is beginning to grey is pretty cool; in fact, it’s rather distinguished.

The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step:

Truth be told, I’m pretty happy with the state of my life right now and I suppose that is what enabled me to come to grips with my newly discovered patch of grey hair so quickly.  Rest assured that this was not always the case, I’m pretty sure that if I’d found this patch of grey hair a few years ago that I would have rushed down to my hair stylist and blurted out “What’s the best grey hair coloring for men?”

Even though I know that in my particular instance, the best solution would be to add some blonde highlights to my already blondish light brown hair because my late wife owned hair salons at one time.

As I stepped into the shower, I found myself pondering the observation of Lao-Tzu who said that “The Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” and realizing that in terms of the average longevity of the men in my family, I’m more or less at the halfway point; so I’m glad that I decided awhile back to live each day outside of the traditional corporate and small business environment… to work from home, to take time for myself each day, to go for long walks with my dog, to try different types of food and experience a diverse range of cultures on a regular basis, to truly experience life and not drudge through life like the average worker bee.

Getting Struck by Lightening in the California Sun:

As I stood in front of the mirror again after my shower, I began to apply the sunscreen which has become necessary since moving back to California last month and suddenly I realized that I wasn’t looking so distinguished anymore… the patch of grey hair seemed to have magically disappeared while I was in the shower. And as I stood there staring at myself in the mirror experiencing just a bit of confusion it dawned on me that perhaps I need to be a little more careful about applying sunscreen along my hair line.  My hair had not suddenly turned grey overnight, it had merely been lightly dusted with sunscreen.

I suppose that I’m going to have to wait a few more years to be as distinguished looking a gentleman as Harrison Ford played in Indiana Jones, but after careful examination of the hair on my head I did find a few individual grey hairs here and there.  Perhaps I’ll make an appointment at the hair salon to add a little more in… Ha! Not. The Leo within will never let that happen, but at least I know that I’ll be good with turning grey when it occurs naturally.

Let’s Stay in Touch:

Please feel free to leave a comment below and to Contact me to schedule a free introductory session if you’d like to learn more about how to use focus, language and physiology to shape your perception and control your emotions.  Please also take half a second to sign up for my newsletter to receive updates and more tips on how to improve your life! It’s full of tips for Personal Development and Personal Growth and I promise not to bombard your inbox nor spam you.