Even though I write on health for a living, I find it difficult to keep track of which chemicals are kind-of harmful, which ones will cause instant death, and which ones scientists say are safe now, only to come clean a few decades later on how they’ve messed up our internal organs.
So I refuse to dye my hair. Also, it is difficult to read the fine print, considering manufacturers really do take that phrase very seriously. Ingredient labels for hair dye should really be in font size 14, considering their target age group.
I’m not alone though. So many women in their 40s and 50s simply don’t care that their hair is turning white. We’re not making a fashion statement. For one, we have too much to do and the thought of ‘wasting time’ colouring one’s hair black does not seem top priority. And really, is it worth adding more chemicals to our bodies?
ADVERTISEMENT
But I suspect it goes deeper than that. In an ironic generational twist, we live in a world inherited from our children. The body-positive movement wasn’t around when I was growing up. The 80s and 90s were the supermodel and Miss India years, and we all aspired to be leggy and narrow, waif-like.
Millennials have freed us. Over the last few years, it’s become okay to wear shorts with unwaxed legs, don a bikini with stretch marks, go make-up free, not be a size 6, and, if you’re a guy, wear a skirt or jewellery. They’re redefining what beauty — either male or female — is supposed to look like. (This is of course a problem when, in the office, both the men and women want to use your handcream, and it’s over before you know it.)
Now, this does not make us less vain. We still want to look younger than we are, but in healthier ways. We’d rather exercise, for instance, or eat more antioxidant-rich foods, or try and cut out the excesses. There’s a conversation about internal ageing as well. But it has made us less hateful of our bodies, and more accepting of other people just the way they are.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s also made beauty deeper. It’s no longer about putting on foundation or concealing lines; it’s about taking care of the skin so the lines are postponed for as long as possible, in much the same way we make sure we eat enough calcium-rich food to postpone osteoporosis.
Earlier this year, Vogue , UK’s Deputy Editor, all lissom and lovely with long, all-white strands said in an article on accepting hair the way it is: “I can’t deny that I like the rebelliousness of silver hair. I like that it’s non-conformist…”. White is no longer associated with a down-shift in activity or the ‘Ma syndrome’ that gets women to surrender their lives to their children.
It is about the freedom people have today, to make choices, whether in careers, personal lives, or about their own bodies. It hasto do with the identification of ageism as a problem and a whole generation of people saying, ‘We will not be put down or set aside because our hair is whiter than yours’. You decide to go white not because your partner died or you’ve ‘retired’. You decide to go white, because you are happy in your skin.