Grey is the New Black

Does Noel Fielding ever worry about grey hair? There must be a few grey strands creeping in to his tousled mane surely. As I sit here watching ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ it occurs to me that outside of (male) newsreaders, it’s pretty rare to see anyone under the age of 40 on TV with grey hair. It’s not as if the general public only start to grey the day after hitting the mid-life milestone so why is this the case on TV? I think the under 40 demographic need more grey haired role models in the public eye.

The tragic cause of my position on this subject is the creeping realisation that the occasional grey strand I noticed a year ago is gradually morphing into clumps. And not only am I under 40 – I’m under 30! I initially approached the problem by pulling out the offending hairs, going so far as to have my long-suffering boyfriend seek and destroy the ones I couldn’t see at the back. We would sit together like a couple of grooming monkeys, competing for who could find the longest one. While this kept the grey at bay for a while, it only increased the number of white hairs in the long run. If I were to pull out all the grey hairs I have now, I would be left with bald patches instead of grey flecks.

Dying my hair would be the obvious solution to this problem but I’ve always been fond of the natural dark brown colour of my hair. Other than a few ill advised home dye attempts in my teenage years, I’ve never dyed my hair before and I’m sceptical that any dye would look natural.

Men my age do not face this dilemma. One friend has been going grey since we left high school and it has only served to make him look more like the serious economist he has become. My boyfriend has a multitude of white hairs but as he was a reddish blond to begin with, it is difficult to see them without examining his head at close quarters.

So rather than pulling out the greys, dying my hair or having a sex change, I’ve decided to start campaigning for more young, glamorous grey haired people in the public eye. Imagine a world where grey was linked to adjectives such as stylish, sexy and alluring instead of merely distinguished at best. So go on Noel, let go of the dye dependence, grey is the new black.