It is official: my gray hair is now considered trendy. Apparently, it’s all the rage on the fashion runways, and younger women are making a statement with silver and white highlights in their hair.
I was born a redhead, but over the years, it has darkened to an auburn shade and now is filled with natural silver highlights provided by age, daily dosages of stress, and a few golden highlights thrown in courtesy of the sun. Much to my hairdresser’s chagrin, I’ve never dyed my hair and never will! I know it would make me look younger, but I figure I’m saving lots of time and money. I don’t have to worry about showing my gray roots or having a bunch of chemicals seeping into my scalp. And I just feel like we shouldn’t be ashamed of getting older—my motto is “Go with what you got and work it!”
So, imagine my delight when I opened the Sunday New York Times yesterday to read an article titled “Gray: No Longer Premature,” by Ruth La Ferla. The article is about younger renegade-type women who are requesting silver highlights in their hair and making quite a fashion statement in doing so. If you have the time, definitely read the story, and also check out the comment highlights below the story.
Evocative, subversive, inaccessible, cachet … wait a minute, these are all words being used to describe gray hair! Young women are seeking out this color, and older women are paying $1.3 billion each year to cover it up. Wow, I’m feeling kind of special for sticking to my guns and not covering up my beautiful trendsetting silver streaks!
Is this a nod to their older, wiser sisters or perhaps a wish to be more cougarlike? Or are they mocking me? I don’t really care … I’m just going to choose to believe that I am making a fashion statement.
I absolutely love this comment from plt brooklyn and had to repeat it here:
“My colorist’s name? ‘Father Time.’”
It is the nature of youth to wish to seem older; it is the nature of the older, to wish to appear young; it is the nature of humans to wish to alter nature.
Young people’s silliness is part of their charm. And my well-earned gray hair is part of my charm!
