Gray Is the New Black

The title phrase is a play on “Brown is the new black.” I read this edict in a fashion magazine one fall, promoting the idea that the color brown was so popular in fall clothing that it would replace black as the basis of a wardrobe. Tell this to all the chic women of New York and Paris—“As if.”

My idea is that in hair color, “gray is the new black.” I am basing this on the idea that black is probably the most common hair color in the world. Now that Baby Boomers are aging, the new style is to go natural instead of trying to dye one’s hair the shade that it used to be. NBC LA reported “In a world obsessed with youth, something strange is happening among trendsetters. Flashes of silver can be seen streaking across the hair of the hip and glamorous more and more often.” Also in “Going Gray Gracefully,” Cary Moss wrote, “It’s a movement that’s gaining traction…as more high-profile women are embracing their silver streaks: Helen Mirren, Jamie Lee Curtis, Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), and Blythe Danner.

My sister-in-law and I decided to wage a two-woman campaign for making gray hair popular with retirees in South Florida. Did we succeed? Not hardly. In my over-55 community in Florida, I am probably one of the youngest women, definitely one of the tallest, and also the grayest. As I looked around my exercise class at the Pines, I saw very few gray heads. Most were blond, a few brunettes, fewer reds, and an occasional jet black dye job—yikes! Black is most assuredly a fashion “don’t” next to aging skin.

Truthfully, I had been curious for quite some time to see what my own true hair color had become after years of color treatment. The catalyst for “growing out” the color-treated hair and going gray was my 40th college reunion in Maine. In a group photo with 7 classmates, I was the only one with dyed hair. Three of my good friends from college had never dyed their hair. Two are now snowy white, and the third is a brown pleasantly fading to gray. One of these friends asked me, “Why do you dye your hair?”

Why, indeed?! The time and expense of this high-maintenance beauty issue were only increasing as I got older. Several of my local friends had stunning silver gray hair that was very flattering. They looked fantastic. I was wondering if I might look that way too.

Months later when all the previously colored hair grew out, I was left with pewter-colored hair, definitely whiter in the front. It is not stunning; it is not terrible. It’s rather boring. Not anything that would make me stand out in a crowd. Maybe I should try coloring my hair maroon…

What are your thoughts on coloring hair?


A Natural Woman