I'm torturing my husband. With my head.

Not actual physical torture, of course. More psychological. Because my lovely husband really adores my hair. His nickname for me is all about my hair. I'm pretty sure he married me just for unlimited access to my coppery curly mane of hair. My hair, you understand, is red.

But I keep, you know, messing with it and it's freaking him out. Although he's doing his level best to be brave, I can't help noticing the flash of fear that crosses his face when I tell him I'm off to get a haircut.

Phase One of the torture happened in 2006. I cut it all off. It was becoming dull and thin and bedraggled for a whole bunch of reasons. We were living in France at the time so I ran away to Australia and cut off all my hair, thinking distance would soften the blow. Yeah. Not so much.

My husband, being the most loving and diplomatic soul that ever walked the face of the Earth, told me he still loved my hair, provided it was really short or really long. At this point, to get it really long again would involve running away to Australia and hiding there for five to ten years. So, really short is how it stayed.

And then it happened. The grey. The odd gnarled grey twig of a strand became a forest of petrified wood sprouting out of my head in all directions. One minute I was all "Yes, grey pride!" followed by "Does L'Oreal do a semi-permanent in copper-gold?". Does that grey flash make me look old? Arty? Mysterious? Worldly? Indifferent to personal grooming?  Enter Phase Two of the torture. I headed to the salon and had a proper semi-permanent a couple of times. The most recent one was two days ago. They do an amazing job, getting very close to my original colour, if a shade darker.

My man loves the cut. Very short. But he took one look at the colour and plaintively asked where his flame-haired girl had gone. And I'm a total sucker for plaintive.

The next morning I'm kickin' around the web and I come across this
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/beauty/it-pays-to-be-grey-20101201-18ftj.html

Helen Mirren is a sex goddess, so I go and look at this
http://goinggraylookinggreat.com/
and this
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article6948640.ece

and I've pretty much decided to see how I can rock the ashes-of-flame look.