Silver Spotlight ~ Marianne Kobie

My name is Marianne Kobie, I am 54. I live in Philadelphia, PA in the summer and Port Isabel, TX in the winter. I am a tarot card reader, Mystic Mare, which works well living in two different places, I take my business with me wherever I go.

My first inspiration on being my authentic self was my Grandmother. She was 26 before she married, at that time, she was considered an old maid and she told me her family worried for her. But she was not worried, she was out having fun, she had her own motorcycle, she was a flapper (no bra for her), she never shaved her legs (and I remember there was really no hair to see), wore no makeup nor did she dye her hair, and she was gorgeous and very feminine looking! I think she has been in my head all along saying ‘be yourself, not what others want’. So thanks GrandMom.

My hair journey started about 7 years ago , I was 47, when we purchased our winter home. Even though the community I live in is not for seniors only, many of the people are older. I watched with envy at the women who did not dye their hair. Every winter when I would return, there would be a few more who went natural. Each year I would say to myself ‘ this is the year to stop’. I would come home to Philadelphia with roots showing, and get verbally attacked from my friends and family to ‘color my hair, stop acting like the old women you spend your winter with, you are still young’. Even my hairdresser would tell me you are going to look so much older if you let it go. Sadly, I listened to everyone, but myself.

This past March while still in Texas, right after I dyed my hair, hating the color it turned out, decided right at that moment this would be last time I put any dye into my hair. I googled letting your hair go natural, and found the GGLG site, joined and met some wonderful women going through the transition at the same time as me. I then found the Gray & Proud group; what a great place to go to each morning and check in with like minded folks.

I feel so much more myself now. I love MY color, silver in front, black in the back, with silver streaming through the dark. I am now on the path of letting it grow long. Again the same friends/family are already telling me how old this will make me look. I just smile and remember what they thought about me letting it go natural. I went to my hairdresser yesterday, really the last time I will go to her, and told her to just thin it out, I was letting it grow, and she went on to tell me how I will not look good in the longer hair. She did admit that she liked my natural hair color - but that I was lucky, ‘not all women can wear this color’ - oh boy, I wished at that moment I had a photo of all the ladies on G&P!

The lesson I have learned since March 22, 2011:
Listen to your inner guide - not others.

The wise man, gathering it little by little, fills himself with good. -Buddha