It started as a bet. My boss dared me to dye my hair bright red, like Leeloo in the movie "The 5th Element". One of my heroes. She, more than Bruce Willis' character, draws me back over and over again to see the movie.
Of course, I cannot be Leeloo, the beautiful young alien who just arrived on Earth. That isn't my intent. My main concern is that if I do the dare, I do not want to be the brunt of a public joke. To do such a radical act could be a breach of contract with myself. For decades, all I have ever wanted was to be me inside and out.
Yet, over the last few years, when I have travelled to the east coast of the States, Dubai, and Singapore, I have seen many women stemming the tides of time: older women trying to look younger. All of the plastic surgery, hair extensions, facial peelings, botox, hair dyes, and make-up seem, in my eyes, to etch away the life experience engravings from their faces. I question why they spend so much money and effort to slow down the inevitable. 30-year-olds try to look in their 20s, 40- year-olds 30, 50-year-olds 40, etc. Doesn't all that stretching, taping, and tucking masquerade the beauty of who they are evolving into? What does that feel like?
So, as an experiment, I take the dare. The transformation is an enjoyable experience. Two hours of creating a "before and after." My young hairdresser has the same hair tone. She has worn it for four years now. She says it has become who she is when she looks in the mirror. It has become a part of her identity.
It has been fun to see the reactions from colleagues and friends. They understand it is a lark. But, it is the loving looks in the eyes of my family that make this experiment worth the discomfort of being an older Leeloo for a few weeks.
Even now, only a week into this transformation, I have learnt a valuable lesson. Looking in the mirror at who I am today, I do not want to see who I wanted to be back then or never was. Instead, I want to see who I am today, naked and vulnerable, being one day closer to becoming old. It is a gift... time to age.
(This post is part of my "Growing Up & Growing Old" project.)
