I’ve had this thought running through my head for quite some time. Gray hairs in the sideburns is a memory that I have from back in my forties.

I was at work one day when I got up and wandered off to the bathroom or “head” as it’s called in the military. Oh, I work for and with the Navy in a medical facility. I did my business and proceeded to the sink to wash my hands. When I looked up into the mirror I saw the tell-tale sign of age. It was the dreaded gray hair. Just one, but that was all it took. In a sort of panic I reached up and grabbed it and pulled it out, returning my sideburn back to its only color. Whew! What a scare.

Of course, over time I found myself pulling more of them out realizing all the while I would either have no sideburns left or I would lose the battle and find no color left in those tufts of hair in front of my ears. True to form, the signs of age slowly overtook me and now years later I find that there is no other color than gray for my sideburns.

On another note, I’ve been bald since my late twenties and have only had one fleeting moment of fear of the lack of hair and surprising to me it occurred in the same bathroom at the hospital. That moment had me not wanting to go back into the hallway. For God’s sake I was bald and people would be looking at me. Then rationality came back. I’d been like this for almost twenty years and people already knew I was bald. So what.

I’m staying out of that bathroom, though. No telling what I might be struck with some future visit.