Being A Trend

It was bad enough in the late 80's/early 90's that everybody was all crazy about Asians (THANK YOU Tia Carrera!). Someone would become interested in me because of the way I looked, namely "Asian", and be very interested in the exotic young woman named Tracie. Then they would hear me speak - and THAT was decidedly NOT Asian.  And then inevitably, they began to see the real person. And, inevitably I became un-exotic.

Now, it's all the rage to be gray. I stopped dying my hair back in my late 20s early 30s because I really got tired of doing it. My hair grows at a rate that would make dandelions jealous. One day I would dye that white strip down the center of my head a nice shade of brown or black, and then five hours later I would have a new stripe of white - no kidding it's almost that fast.

So, eventually I just let it go. I cut all my hair off and let it grow out natural. Over the years I've had many many comments:

"That can't be your real hair!" It is.

"Oh my gosh, how did you get your hair so white?" (I might be tempted to say teenagers.)

"Who is your stylist, I can still can't seem to get that color of gray without damaging my hair." And I sigh and know if I tell them they can't they'll argue with me.

And then in whispers I hear, "that's not really her hair color, my stylist can get that exact same color out of a bottle." (No, you can't)


I want to tell people the only thing that turned my hair white was time and DNA. But they never really believe me. I think it's great that these young ladies want grey hair! I suppose it's a nod to us that had it before it was cool - they're trying to be like us. (At least that's what I'm telling myself).

However now I find them looking at me in sort of a "welcome to the club" kind of look and I want to look at them and go, "No b!tch, I had this first stop copying me!"

But I don't. I just smile back and I nod as if I'm grateful to be accepted into the Cool Kids Club. Even though when it's no longer cool, I'll just go back to looking like a really young grandma and they have no idea that I was one of the thousands of women that actually helped create it.

You're welcome yunguns!