Grey Hair The Undiscovered Jewel
"Sail on silver girl Sail on by. Your time as come to shine. All your dreams are on their way. See how they shine." Singer/Songwriter, Paul Simon.
Grey hair is generally assumed to be something that everyone wants to hide. Could it be that the beauty industry and society as a whole is wrong? Isn't the idea that grey hair is something that needs to be covered up an odd way of looking at a natural beautiful stage of the aging process?
So, let's pretend that glorifying grey hair would be profitable for the beauty industry. And, after all, it could be profitable. Grey hair could be adorned by having contrasting shades of low-lights woven into the hair. Grey also provides a neutral palette for accessorising the hair with colorful barrettes or ribbons. Older women could celebrate their age and adorn their hair with jewels which would look great with grey.
Younger woman might even want grey hair. A whole new color challenge for beauticians could be born by streaking hair with grey or taking someone from brown, black or blonde to grey and covering the regrowth. I can envision a whole new world of possibilities for grey. It could be "the" new fashion statement.
Not all women will look good with grey hair, but this presents yet another opportunity for the beauty industry -- developing makeup palettes that are specially designed for women with grey hair. And, consider toners designed to enhance grey hair and give it a different look without covering up the grey. The possibilities are endless.
The biggest dilemma is how to grow out the grey hair once you have colored it. Every hairdresser I have ever consulted has always told me the same thing "you don't want to let your grey hair grow in, you'll look older". This is yet another creative challenge for hair colorists and chemists. Come up with a product to color hair grey.
The other argument I have heard is that grey isn't really a color. Grey isn't a color? Blonde isn't really a color either but somehow the beauty industry is able to create an endless spectrum of shades of blonde to suit just about any woman who fantasizes herself to be a blonde bombshell. Speaking of blonde, it seems to be the most often suggested solution for covering grey hair. I can say without a doubt that blonde is not suitable for all greying woman, especially those over 50 with wrinkled skin. I would argue that grey looks more suitable on older women than does over bleached, dry, dull blonde hair.
Will it take a rebellion or just the wit of a creative marketing genious to let the cat out of the proverbial bag. Grey hair is really quite attractive. It doesn't make a woman look older than she is, it makes her look her age. If she is young and grey, she will look young and grey. If she is older and grey she will look older and grey. And what is wrong with that?
