MY VALUABLE HAIR.

MY VALUABLE HAIR. My hair turned white sometime in the 1980’s. I remember visiting Colonial Williamsburg then and being singled out at the wig shop. The actor in charge of the shop looked at the tourists in the shop and announced that my hair would have been the most valuable in Colonial Williamsburg for two reasons. The first was that at that time people had respect for the wisdom of older people. The second was that white hair was scarce because people didn’t live long. In the July 27 Wall Street Journal, Candace Jackson had an article about Richard Mawbey, whose London studio is a leader in making theatrical wigs. Mawbey says that there is no such thing as gray hair; a gray wig consists of a mixture of white hairs and hairs of other colors. I was gratified to see that white hair is still scarce. Candace Jackson writes that: “Mr. Mawbey said that he can’t remember the last time he was able to get true white hair.” When white hair is available, it is usually in bundles of very short hairs. Mawbey estimates that the price of white hair would be “many multiples higher than typical dark hair.” Maybe I shouldn’t consider myself retired.