Having been topless on public beaches and even spending a vacation once at a clothing optional venue in Tulum, Mexico, I used to feel pretty comfortable being naked in public. The pleasure of having your body kissed by sun and surf without the confines of even a string bikini trumped whatever trepidation I might have had about being ogled.

Aside from a regrettable attempt at a cut-it-all-off “hair dare” when I was in my late 20’s, I have always had long, curly dark hair. When I imagined myself as an old woman, it was with this same long hair, only gray. I would own the aging, but not the loss of a certain wildness of youth that the length alluded to. My adult son even encouraged this vision, assuring me that I would look ‘awesome’.