COMMUNICATIONS

For a long time now, I have been dying my hair black. In reality, I am gray through and through. And recently I have started to go bald.

I decided to dye my hair over thirty years ago now. Around that time, I often took my daughter to nursery school, and I would pick her up again afterwards. On one occasion, I was witness to children making fun of her. “It is your grandad again!” My daughter would counter vigorously, weeping as she said: “He is not my grandad; he is my dad!”

That is when I made up my mind. My daughter is now an adult, and I am a real grandad with grandkids of my own. I have been thinking it is about time I stopped dying my hair.

But if I turn up at work with a head of gray hair, my colleagues may well be surprised. Allow me to take this opportunity, then, to give advance notice. I shall shortly be appearing with gray hair! There is a possibility, though, that I shall change my mind.

Illustration by Inoue Shōichi