BoomerGirl Diary

Editor's note: BoomerGirl is excited to introduce "Kiwi Chronicles," a Travel series written by Linda Frost. Linda, Boomer Girl and empty-nester, will be spending the next three months in New Zealand with her husband. She's agreed to send us stories from "down under" so that we might live vicariously through her adventures.

Six months ago my husband decided to take a sabbatical leave from the University of Kansas and teach in New Zealand. He has been on the faculty at KU for 25 years, so he is a bit overdue for this change of scenery. Minutes after agreeing to his appointment at Canterbury University, he began writing class notes and preparing his lectures. I get to tag along on this adventure, so after arranging for someone to live in our house and care for our pets, I began my preparations for my leave of absence, too.

I stopped dyeing my hair.

This may not sound like a big step, but as someone raised on Clairol's "Only your hairdresser will know for sure" advertisements, it felt like a huge step to me. I’ve been washing that gray right out of my hair for quite a while.

New Zealand travel guides are filled with descriptions of bright beaches and sunny mountains, neither of which sound friendly to artificially colored hair. They say the air is wonderfully clean and clear over those islands, and that the ozone layer is unfortunately thin. OK, OK ... I am certain there are many New Zealanders who are successfully hiding their graying hair, but somehow, keeping up with those pesky white roots did not seem to me to be a good way to spend valuable time in paradise.

I hated the thought of fresh dye rubbing off on sun visors and hats, or campus provided pillowcases. It is summer down there and if there is one thing I hate, it is brown tinted sweat. This seemed like a good time to Get Real!

Six months have flown by, and we are starting to drag out luggage and stack up essentials. The progress on my personal preparation has been wonderfully effort free, unlike resolutions to get physically fit. The colored part of my hair is nearly all gone and I am almost at the goal.

Unfortunately, I think it has aged me a bit in appearance ... maybe more than a bit ... maybe a lot. Feeling a little desperate, I went out and bought a new pair of jazzy glasses. I'm not sure they help. Are there support groups out there to help me resist grabbing that last box of Natural Instincts "Tweed" that is sitting in the back of the medicine cabinet?