It’s not just men who sizzlein grey. Of late, silver hair in women, too, is considered sexy and many are endorsing itin style, finds out Sharmila Chand.
The old cliché that grey-haired men look sexy, while grey-haired women just look old is depressing. Men sizzle in grey; they always have. Can you imagine George Clooney with dyed hair? Or Richard Gere? Or Milind Soman? Preposterous!
“My female colleagues are very excited about my salt and pepper look,” says
Abhinav Sharma, a business development manager at a software company. “I was initially conscious about my specks of grey, but then after receiving such great reactions from my friends, especially females, I pretty much like my hair now. Besides being trendy, it is easy to pull off and requires little maintenance.”
Vijay Govind, too, swears by the many benefits of grey. “Believe me, my grey hair has never interfered in the success of my dating scene. Not only does my girlfriend find my grey hair sexy, but my colleagues also take me more seriously. And my boss doesn’t scream at me easily. What more do I want?”
Thankfully, the coveted ‘salt and pepper look’ does its magic on men and women alike. The society is gradually changing its attitude towards grey hair in women. Scared to let your silver shine through? Meet the women who never say dye. Letting their grey mane show is hipper and bolder than women ever imagined.
Hema Shastry, a vivacious PR professional, first noticed her grey strands at the age of 28. It disturbed her quite a bit and she ran from pillar to post checking what hair colours she could immediately start using. “My marriage was barely three years old. I was scared how my husband and in-laws would react. I would be the centre of their jokes. They may even think I hid my age; maybe, I am older to my husband,” she recalls.
Hema went to the beauty parlour and got her hair dyed in black. In ten days, she noticed that her greys were multiplying and the ones dyed were also losing colour. Before she could disappear for the next round of hair colouring, her husband remarked, “Wow, you are ageing so beautifully”. For Hema, who had never been too fond of artificial makeovers, this came as a big relief. Bidding goodbye to colouring, she went in for a stylish short hair style. And, lo and behold, she became the centre of attention in her workplace and friends’ circle. “All that matters to me now is that my husband finds me attractive,” she confides.
If you love the unconventional approach to life, then grey hair is an asset. For Shalini Nanda, 26, flaunting grey hair is “like kicking back against the pressures on women to conform to societal ideas of beauty and grace.” She feels elated when a shopkeeper is extra helpful or small kids say “That’s a cool daadi!”
So, what do the fashionistas say about grey hair? Passé or trendy? Well, have you seen Helen Mirren’s gorgeous silver locks lately? Or Nichelle Nichols’? Even the rebellious singer-songwriter Patti Smith now has a head full of silver, and that really rocks!
For Gunjan Verma, a 26-year-old banker, it isn’t really about rebellion. “I decided that I was going to let nature take its course. My motto in life has always been ‘What will be, will be’. I have always been comfortable in my own skin, so why not in my own hair?” she asks.
Given the increasing pollution levels, poor quality of water and unhealthy lifestyles we lead, premature greying is an issue that many of us have to deal with. Priya Tandon started noticing flecks of grey appear in her late 20s and was truly upset about it. She started using hair colours, but was never happy about the effect.
“It made my hair very rough and flat!” she rues. One fine day she saw a friend who'd allowed her hair to go grey. She actually looked better than she had before. “It felt like a bold step to embrace the ageing process full on and it was so liberating to be free from the woes of hair-dyeing. I decided to throw away my hair colours then and there,” says Priya.
Once, when a male colleague came up to her and commented that she would look so much better if she dyed her hair, Priya promptly retorted that he would look better too if he lost five kgs! “Well, my boyfriend loves my greys; he says I look wise. Perhaps he is scared of me. If yes, that’s another benefit of greying,” she jokes.
Why go grey?
It saves time. Life is short and grey hair is easy to manage.
It saves money. The amount you save can earn you a splendid vacation!
It is real and nature friendly.
It is sexy and sophisticated. Just three words: Jamie. Lee. Curtis.
It is powerful. Think. Would Meryl Streep’s character in the movie The Devil Wears Prada be taken so seriously without that snowy mane of hers?
Some names have been changed on request