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I Do
I don’t usually make a point of reading of reading the Love section, but I had to click on one of the latest “mini-vows” when I saw the lead photo while scrolling through Twitter.
A young woman with gray streaks whose name I recognized from The Billfold? I was on board. And the love story was inoffensive–and maybe even a little charming–which is high praise for this section of the paper.
I imagine we’re going to see more and more gray brides as younger generations’ body positivity becomes more mainstream. In my experience, Gen Z are less traditional than millennials (who seem to get married relatively young) so maybe weddings as milestones will fall out of favor too.
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Hot 2020 Trend: Going Gray
You heard it here first. Ever since everyone has been housebound, I’ve been bracing for the rash of going gray essays. (Don’t even get me started on bangs-phobia. Bangs are perfectly good–they’re not indicative of internal turmoil– and I won’t stand for any argument otherwise.)
Ok, one short essay, “Embrace the Grays,” doesn’t exactly count as a trend, but I’m afraid the floodgates are now open. I’ll bet a $1,200 stimulus check (that I won’t even be getting because I made too much money last year, thanks to a heavily taxed severance payment–never mind that I was let go from two jobs in 13 months and have been out of work for four months.) the Style section is already on the gray-haired beat.
This really should be my time to shine. I actually got bored and used semi-permanent dye to color my very silver hair some light brown plummy shade that I’m afraid looks bad ’90s like I’m out of touch with fashion. On the other hand, it could be read as good ’90s in that I’m a confident millennial reliving her teenage style. (Never mind that I was a grown-up in the ’90s.) I have yet to re-embrace babydoll dresses, chokers, or Docs, though. I know my limits.
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Locks of Luxury
I may have alluded to this before, but there’s one form of media where women with gray hair are rampant in advertisements: wealthy people magazines.
I am very much not a wealthy person but I pretend with a few fancy credit cards (one which I have to cancel soon) and the very rare luxury hotel stay (which were paid for because I rented my house on Airbnb during the summer).
So, Departures, the magazine for AMEX platinum card users, almost always has an ad like above. (Anyone who watched Downton Abbey knows that upscale cruises, especially river cruises, are tailor-made for this genre of middle-aged human.)
And a quick skim through the Waldorf Astoria Magazine immediately turned up this ad for a pearl retailer with locations in Park City and Jackson Hole (no Santa Fe?)
The Four Seasons Magazine, however, disproved my theory and was far more youthful than I had expected. There was even an opinion piece about inclusive fashion, focusing on disabilities but also touching on race and size. No mention of age, though.
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Turning Japanese
In my limited experience, I wouldn’t say that Japanese women are looks-obsessed but they are pretty rule-oriented. Like I was always pleasantly surprised to see any women who were larger and love Naomi Wantanabe obvs, and Azusa Babazono, kooky stylish, not young, not tiny, is clearly the best Terrace House host.
This is just a long-winded way of saying I was surprised to find an Instagram account called grayhair_tokyo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a non-elderly Japanese woman in the US or Japan with gray hair.
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Interior Design Edition
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Naturally
I was served this ad in Seattle, which I assumed was targeted, but then saw a billboard with the same image. Needless to say, I like it though not enough to click through.
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Wayne Coyne Edition
Congrats to a 57 year old marrying someone who’s still fertile. -
Foxy Edition
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How I Quit the Bottle (the Hair Dye Bottle)
There’s been a recent barrage of going gray and loving it articles. I have many thoughts on the subject. One, is that these articles often mention how much money the author saves now that they stop coloring their hair. I’ve only had my hair professionally colored i.e. bleached, twice in my entire life because I thought maybe a professional would damage is less and get better results than when I would do it myself like four times in two days and still have apricot-hued strips. My hair did not become perfect platinum in one go even when I forwent d.i.y. and paid a good deal of money. My question is do average women really spend $200+ every six weeks to get their hair colored?
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Grombre Edition
Gray hair is still taboo for women. This popular Instagram account celebrates it.
“Am I going to lock myself into believing that my value has peaked in my early 20s and then the rest of my life is me trying to maintain this facade that doesn’t describe who I am and the life that I’m living?”
