Ladies of a certain age, we are tackling the topic which is almost as divisive as the Chancellor’s budget cuts: grey hair.
The reason we are returning to this topic is because Professor Mary Beard, the distinguished Cambridge academic who presented a series of TV programmes on the Romans, recently fronted a BBC Radio 4 documentary called Glad To Be Grey. In the documentary, Prof Beard investigates “a growing reluctance to embrace grey hair” among men as well as women.
SoSensational would like to make it absolutely clear that we are not opposed to grey hair. But neither are we in favour of it.
We say, if grey hair truly suits you, go grey or silver or white; if it does not suit you, do not go grey. These days, with the amazing advances in colouring products and techniques – both in salons and for home use – we only need to be grey if we want to be.
In Prof Beard’s documentary, the debate was mainly about ageism and acceptability; about the need to look younger in the work-place, etc. But SoSensational would like to throw a different factor into the debate – whether grey hair is right for your colouring. Here’s the thing: if you have warm colouring you will look infinitely better maintaining your “natural” hair colour (i.e. the colour you probably were in your 20s and 30s); if you have cool colouring (and we’re talking “cool” in its original meaning) you will look sensational with grey, silver or snowy white hair.
At this point, Cyndy and Jan would like to say they both regularly visit the hair salon to maintain their hair colour because they both have warm colouring and would not suit being grey.
Poor Prof Beard has earned a lot of criticism for her hair and in our view, she deserves it – not the horrible Troll comments; nobody deserves those – but to go in front of the camera with that long, grey, un-styled (frankly unkempt) hair betrays a certain kind of arrogance. There is a certain type of Englishwoman, particularly found in Academe, who thinks that applying make-up, having your hair done and dressing carefully are foolish fripperies in which the will not indulge.
And there are also those women in and out of Academe who were so drop-dead gorgeous at 18 that they did not need to wear make-up, didn’t need to style their hair or to worry about wearing nice clothes – their natural good looks were sufficient. The problem with being drop-dead gorgeous when you are young is that not making an effort becomes a habit. Whereas those of us with fewer natural advantages, learn early on to make an effort with make-up, hair and clothes – or, at least Jan and Cyndy think so and both of them have always made a big effort!
Prof Beard was not drop-dead gorgeous at 18, but she is a high-flying academic and she was more than passably nice looking when young, with long, wavy brown hair and those expressive brown eyes. We admire her as a historian, a scholar and an academic and also as a TV and radio presenter. But we still say, she would look sooooo much better with a great hair cut. As for the colour, that is a matter for Professor Beard and her mirror… And, yes, we realise that looking good is not the alpha and omega of Prof Beard’s life. But in SoSensational’s view, we all owe it to ourselves to look as fabulous as we can for as long as we can. And if that means six-weekly visits to the hair salon for a cut and colour, we think that it is worth the effort.
If you are still not sure, do take a look at our blog, Grey Can Be Gorgeous
What do you think? To grey or not to grey?
[su_button url=”http://www.sosensational.co.uk/blog/” target=”blank” background=”#6c20b1″ size=”7″ center=”yes” radius=”0″ icon=”icon: arrow-right”]See more great blogs like this[/su_button]
9 Comments
I quite like the idea of being white, as opposed to grey (which I would be now, with a white streak at the front if left) and have been looking forward to reaching that stage.
Now I’m not so sure as I have warm colouring (and look great against gold tones, but drained with silver). Maybe I’ll stay the way I am…
Oh dear, Shelley, our blog seems to have given you a dilemma about whether to go grey/white or not. We feel sure that with all the right information, you will make the right decision. Thank you for taking the time to comment. Best wishes from the whole team at SoSensational.
Hello Shelley, Us warm skin toned women do have a quandary, don’t we? And I totally empathise with your dilemma. Like you, I look so much better against gold tones so plan to carry on assisting the bit that nature forgot and dying my hair ginger! It’s all about the way you feel, isn’t it. Best of luck with your hair decisions and many thanks for sharing your thoughts. Cyndy
I am 65 years old and my hair is mostly still my natural dark brown with a few grey strands and I have pale skin. My hair is naturally wavy so I only get it washed and cut when I go to the hairdressers as it doesn’t need a lot of looking after.
What a wonderful position to be in Linda! If your skin tone is cool and looking better with silver jewellery rather than gold, then your hair is likely to go a lovely shade of silver grey. But as you don’t have to worry about it, that’s marvelous. Long may it continue! All the best. Cyndy
Like you, Cyndy and Jan, I greatly admire and respect Prof Beard’s academic prowess and media success and enjoy hearing what she has to say. It is unfortunate that Prof B’s hair is the subject of debate and attention rather than anything that she says in her programmes – I can’t recall that happening with any male presenter. My personal opinion is that if the appearance or mannerisms of a presenter is distracting attention from what they are saying or doing within the presentation then the matter should be addressed. If viewers are more absorbed by flying hair, wild gestures or a style of delivery which gets in the way of what they have tuned in to see then it does a disservice to the viewer, the presenter and most importantly the content of the programme being made – which is what it is all about in the first place.
I am not a hairdresser but from what I have seen of Prof Beard, her hair appears to be of great quality, healthy and luxuriant with many tiny colour and shade differences. Any one of these fantastic attributes would be a blessing to anyone but altogether they have tremendous potential. Again, C&J, I agree that an easy, simple style would be Prof B’s friend and hopefully silence her critics. I imagine it must be frustrating for her that so many comments are made about her appearance as opposed to engaging with the information/ideas/theories she is putting forward but the answer lies in her own hands.
Just so you know, I LOVE grey hair as it can look very striking and elegant and I look forward to a time when mine gets to that point. At the moment, my hair is very dark brown with most of the grey hairs coming through at the front which can be cut and styled to show them to advantage.
Sounds like you have your grey hair properly nailed Elizabeth! And your thoughts on Prof Beard’s hair being a distraction are really interesting. Somehow, I think she is now famous for the way it is and wonder if it’s become her ‘trademark’… Very many thanks for letting us know your thoughts. All good wishes. Cyndy
Why is it only ladies of a certain age? I started going grey at 23 and now at 30 it’s getting rather expensive to keep covering the roots. I’d love an article about how to make the change (especially from a brunette to grey) rather than looking like a reverse ombre/blonde with dark roots.
Hi Lauren, Thanks for taking the time to comment. It’s “ladies of a certain age” because, in general. it is ladies of a certain age who worry about going grey. Going grey at 23 is not that common (actually not that uncommon, either, if you have dark hair). We acknowledge it is expensive if you have to keep having those roots retouched. Our advice to you would be the same whatever age you are: if you have cool colouring, let the grey grow, be sensationally silver or “wow” white, but if you have warmer colouring (i.e a bit more warmth to your skin tone) you should consider splashing the cash on keeping your colour!