The conversation took an unexpected turn.

I’d been catching up with a friend, just a few days before my official retirement. I was updating her on things that were happening – I was about to retire, we’d moved to Panama, I’d stopped dyeing my hair, we were in process of identifying volunteer opportunities to give back to the community.

“Wait, wait, wait a minute,” she said. “You’re burying the lede, here. You STOPPED dyeing your hair?”

That seems to the almost universal reaction to the prospect of not dyeing my hair, and the focus of many questions.

Early retirement? Oh, good for you.

Moving to another country? Sure why not, you’ve always been adventurous.

Not colouring my hair any more? OH MY GOODNESS YOU MUST TELL ME ALL THE DETAILS.

Even my hair stylist here in Panama, upon learning that I was not planning on covering up my (rapidly increasing roots) commented succinctly: “You’re very brave.”

I don’t get it. I just decided that retirement, for me, will likely involve a lot of travel. And much of that travel will be slow travel. I don’t want to start worrying about scheduling things every six weeks to get a touch up. I’ve been a redhead (or close to it), which is a notoriously difficult colour to maintain for well over 20 years. It was a pretty straightforward decision.

Some have asked if I’m worried that stopping colouring my hair will make me look old. I don’t know that I much care about that, either. Another bonus of retirement is that I don’t need to try to pretend than I’m younger than I am. But it certainly was a factor in my previous decision to keep those auburn hued locks.

It’s a conundrum that many women in the working world face: if you’re too old, you’re not as hireable. (Men, on the other hand, get “distinguished”. ) It’s the reason to make sure that your resume doesn’t show more than 20 years of experience. It’s why you have to make sure you have a solid, but not too flashy, work wardrobe, where men can wear the same pair of pants and a rotation of shirts and nobody blinks an eye.

My stylist, bless his talented heart, was not the first person to say that I was “brave”. It makes me laugh. I’m declining to continue to add chemicals to my hair, not running into a burning building.

As my hair turns brown and silvery grey, I do find that I’m getting impatient to meet my new hair. I’m tempted to have my stylist cut as much red hair off at my next appointment, meaning I’ll have a new hairstyle (in addition to colour) for the first time in over 20 years.

Now that would be brave.

(Graphic credit: RedReis1)