I was out on my morning walk with Nike the other day, my hair uncombed, my face unwashed, when out of nowhere this young man looks directly into my eyes and tells me "I love your hair!" and than adds "You had to earn that". I loved the phrase, I had never thought of my gray hair that way. But he was right, I did earn it. It took 62 years to get this way and every strand has a story. All the stories that have made me who I am today, all the stories that have given me the confidence and the strength to go on even when things seem to be falling apart.
When I was growing up it was a fact that graying men were distinguished and graying woman were just plain old. In my early 40's my hair started going grey and with that I had a decision to make. I thought about my options; should I become a slave to my hair, subject myself to a time consuming exercise to keep up the pretence of youth? Many of my friends would tell me, "Color your hair and you will lose 10 years, easy". It was a difficult decision. There had been incidents; one where a man thought I was my then life partner's mother, and another when a woman took me for my youngest daughter's grandmother. I asked my little Sidney if it bothered her that her friend's mother thought I was her grandmother, and being the wonderful little encourager that she was, looked up at me and said, "Mommy, you don't look old. It's just that people see the white hair and most of the time only grandmothers have white hair. I like your white hair."
Today 20 years later I am so happy to see, that women 50+ in Hollywood are changing the image. Women with grey hair are not only distinguished, but also sexy, beautiful, and secure. Helen Mirren, Judy Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Glen Close, and many others have earned their grey hair.
Because Kelly Osbourne, Pixie Geldorf and many more are sporting their grey hair, I have been noticing lots of young women on the NYC streets following the trend by dying their hair grey. Grey has become the new fashion statement. If you are a young fashionista grey hair is what's in. These woman in their 20's are choosing to go grey. Much more subtle than the green, orange, blue and purple of past days.
I would never have thought this day would come. A big step for women, we have gained the right to vote, we have burned our bras, we can be single rather than spinsters, we can be mothers without being wives, and now we've gone grey. I love it.
