Mark it in your calendars, ladies and gentlemen: I officially found my *first* grey hair.

I have nothing against grey hairs in general and would actually welcome a hot streak of them in my hair (à la that chick from What Not To Wear and my sister, Wenz). However, one solitary, wiry, and really short grey hair sticking straight out from my head, which is otherwise filled with demure and longish brown hairs? Not exactly the classy ’silver fox’ look I’m going for…

I noticed the offending hair right before heading off to work the other day. It was so far from what I expected my first grey hair to look like (short! wiry! bent!) that I actually assumed it was a cat hair or something equally non-attached-to-my-head. It wasn’t until I went to pull it away and felt the telltale pinch on my scalp that I realized this alien grey hair was mine! Eep!

Now, I am a firm believer in many old wives’ tales. Against all reason, I still cut a little piece off the end of any long english cucumber and ‘rub the bitterness’ out of the rest of it before tossing the little piece into the compost. I’m also concerned about my eyes staying crossed if I ever make a funny face. However, I decided in this instance that a wives’ tale was just a wives’ tale– and that I was unlikely to grow 3 or 5 or 10 (or however many) grey hairs from that single follicle if I did something about it. Hence, I proceeded to pluck my single, crooked grey hair out.

Had I owned some mascara to subtly paste the grey hair back into its place, I might have used it. Alas, because I broke out in a rash the last time I wore mascara, I no longer have any mascara or mascara wands handy at home… (Plus, one of the primary reasons cited against plucking grey hairs is that they will grow back all stubbly and crooked. Mine was already like that, so it’s not like plucking it would have changed anything. I think. I hope…)

So I am officially getting old(er)! I even have had evidence of it. Oops. What grey hair?