Grey haired or blonde

I was away in Italy for a week. I went to see my mother who is getting more and more forgetful as  Alzheimer tightens its grip on her, so much so that it took her two whole days to really remember who I was. Ever so polite, she greeted me and pretended to know me, only to ask my sister repeatedly whose daughter I was when she thought I was not close enough to hear. It was so bizarre I could not help laughing.

Photographer: Alan Bassett Postprocessing by Jade

But I am not writing this post to discuss the joys and sorrows of Alzheimer. I loved being with my "Deedee" - we call her that, I can no longer remember why - and that's all there is to say. While I was in Italy I went shopping with my sister and my niece and to my great surprise everyone I met seemed to believe my hair was platinum blonde. Somehow it is unusual to see long grey hair these days and the fact I went round with an unkempt mane - my hair is very thick and to my waist and I often wear it loose - meant that it could not be grey or I would have hidden it, not worn it with such nonchalance for all to see. Lady Gaga has dyed her hair white, so presumably it is a fashionable colour. Therefore anyone sporting silver/white hair must have artificially obtained the colour, so the reasoning goes.

self-portrait

Even more amusing was for me to find myself among the models featured on deviantArt yesterday by the group DAFemmeFatale. It is a wonderful group and I am truly honoured to have been included in the feature.  I particularly love the picture selected by the curator as it is one of my first self portraits.  But the point remains I am not a blonde, I am grey haired (and by the way, it is not so rare for Italian women to be naturally blonde, Lucrezia Borgia was not exceptional, but that's another story).
I belong to the FB group "Gray and Proud" (gray =American spelling; grey=British spelling). Sometimes I think it is a bit silly to have to make a big deal out of the fact some of us do not not dye their hair. Grey is just a colour, I'd say...but apparently, no, it is not. It is the colour of old age. Who wants it?
The funniest thing of all was when my mother, who is nearly ninety and sports one of the whitest hair I have ever seen - short, of course - said to me " Oh yes, it is you! But why have you dyed your hair blonde?" I honestly did not know what to reply. All right, long grey hair is just like blonde.