It's Over

A friend of mine, C, tells the story of being prescribed orthopedic shoes. There she was in the store, with the salesman making suggestions to her, looking around in dismay at the ugly selections available. She asked the salesman, "Do you have anything that looks a little nicer?" Whereupon the salesman laid his hand sympathetically on her arm and said, "Madame, it's over for you."

Well, my recent move has made me come to terms with a few things that I've been lugging around with me. More than just through the last three years of moves, lugging with me for the past ten or fifteen years, or even longer.

Those of you who know me well know that I have always had issues with makeup. I don't like how it feels on my face, even the expensive stuff. I never feel that I can get my face totally clean after wearing it, no matter how rigorously I scrub, buff and polish.

I hate the time it takes to put on makeup - even just five minutes annoys the heck out of me.

So I have now, at 54 years of age, officially retired the makeup bag. Let it gather dust and grow mould. I've had it with makeup. This is what I look like - deal with it.

It's over for me.

The next thing to get tossed was hair color. I've dyed my hair every color of the rainbow over the years. Red was my favourite, but red is the color most likely to cause cancer. Even the newfangled dyes that are "organic" leave me cold.

My Grandmother started dyeing my hair when I was eight years old. My natural color is a dark grey. I once had a hairdresser compare my natural color to her color swatches, and she confirmed this. "If your hair was woven into a fabric, it would be a dark grey fabric," she informed me.

Eight years old. Fifty-four years old. Enough is enough. No more hair color for me.

Interestingly enough, the day after the last of my blonde was trimmed off, I went out to a movie with Hubby. I asked for two tickets, and the girl gave me the "Ainés" rate. That's right, I saved five dollars because she thought I was a senior! My Daughter laughed at me and said maybe now I'd rethink putting some color into my hair, but no-go. I've had it with hair color. I've done enough damage to the environment and my scalp and my bloodstream.

It's over.

The last thing to go in the garbage bin was my nail polish. I gave away the last bottle of polish remover and threw my (unused) bottles of polish away. What a relief!

The money I spent, over the years, getting fake nails! I shudder to think how much food that money could have bought, how many Caribbean vacations I could have enjoyed, had I not been spending money on nails, hair color, and makeup!

As a cute little song goes,

"I know just how ugly I are.
I know that my face ain't no star!
But still, I don't mind it,
Because I'm behind it!
It's folks out in front get the jar!"