Ladies – it’s time to do away with the stigma around grey hair!
There is and has always been a stigma around women having grey hair – natural grey, that is. Grey is seen as ageing and dull to the point that when we see our first grey hair, we pluck it out because we don’t want to look old. But in my opinion, that is as out-of-date a notion as when women couldn’t vote.
Why is it that a man with grey hair is called a ‘silver fox’ but when we see a lady with grey hair we think ‘you need to colour your hair’? We give men that confidence to embrace their greys, so why don’t we as women have the confidence to be our own ‘silver goddess’ and reflect that same confidence on our friends?
For me, grey can be made to look fresh and young looking – and grey can be glamorous. You only have to look at the ‘silver’ screen to see that in the modern world grey is literally stunning and beautiful. Judy Dench, Jamie lee Curtis, Diane Keaton, Glenn Close, Helen Mirren to name a few celebrities are rocking it as silver goddesses. We can too.
Nowadays people are living for much longer and that means many of us are going to live a proportion of our lives when our hair is naturally grey. So, let’s change this stigma attached to grey hair.
I honestly believe this. At the moment I’m all about natural grey, to the point where my team have said “Sam, STOP! You’re going to do yourself out of a job.” I genuinely feel natural grey can be really pretty. So many of my clients have grey hair, and in some cases it looks like natural highlights.
In fact, where people try to cover up their grey, it can be more ageing because of their skin tone. The reason why we go grey is because our hair loses its pigmentation. This means that people who are grey but put in blonde highlights, for example, can get a yellow tone to their hair. That’s because they have lost the pigment in their hair and the highlights attach to pigments. To counter this we have to first put a warm colour in to disguise that loss.
To be honest, as stylists we can work with natural hair tone far easier than going against what is happening naturally.
I mentioned skin tone. This is important because our skin colour changes as we get older. This means our skin and grey hair naturally complement one another. But colouring our hair at that time can make it look at odds with what our skin is saying.
If you think you’re ready to take the plunge and go ‘silver goddess’ grey just ask and I will let you know if your skin tone is ready.
Embracing our grey
So, are you that lady ready to embrace what’s happening naturally but don’t want to go fully grey? Don’t worry, we can work with it.
Grey really can be stunning when done the right way. There are so many processes we can use to suit you. More and more we are helping our clients to embrace their natural look and tweaking it to their personality or the style they want, for example by using toners and highlights or introducing darker highlights to blend.
Some clients are having real fun with their grey. I recently had a client who had streaks of grey running through her hair. We talked about what she wanted and we put purple highlights through to inject fun into her hair. It was with a semi-permanent which stains the hair but will wash out within 10-20 washes. Another client of mine I weaved through pink, green and purple (picture inserted). Grey is certainly not dull and ageing for these ladies!
My advice for any lady who finds she is going grey: Embrace it. Come and talk to us – we’re here to help you.
Attached are different pictures from clients with different grey hair. See what you think.