{"id":7073224,"date":"2026-10-02T18:36:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:36:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073224"},"modified":"2026-10-02T18:36:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T18:36:16","slug":"more-celebrities-are-embracing-grey-hair-for-other-women-it-can-come-at-a-cost-womens-hair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7073224","title":{"rendered":"More celebrities are embracing grey hair. For other women, it can come at a cost | Women’s hair"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

To dye, or not to dye. That is the decision many people, particularly women, face when their hair starts to grey.<\/p>\n

This week Olivia Colman joined the growing ranks of women embracing grey hair and ditching the dye. Appearing at Zurich film festival, Colman had swapped her dark signature pixie cut for a grey, curly mane swept to one side.<\/p>\n

Online, Colman was swiftly lauded for her new look, with Vogue describing her as a \u201csilver hair muse\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old joins fellow actors including Andie MacDowell and Lisa Bonet who have embraced the salt-and-pepper or all-out silver look.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Lisa Bonet has long embraced her natural grey locks.<\/span> Photograph: Matt Winkelmeyer\/Getty Images for the Annenberg Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, for women outside Hollywood, escaping the tyranny of the hair dye bottle is not always so easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to embrace your grey hair proudly is a privilege,\u201d says Stacey Duguid. In June, Duguid, a former fashion editor, began documenting her struggles to find a job aged 52 despite her decades of experience. She told her followers that she had downsized her house and was now on universal credit. She received thousands of messages from fellow middle-aged women also struggling to find employment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a reluctance for women who are trying to get back into the workplace to go grey,\u201d Duguid says. \u201cTo do it, you are most likely already in a senior position in the workplace. As an unemployed, broke, single parent it wasn\u2019t an option for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Andie MacDowell\u2019s silver hair has become part of her signature look.<\/span> Photograph: St\u00e9phane Cardinale\/Corbis\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Grey hairs start to emerge, on average, in the mid-30s for white and Asian people and around the mid-40s for Black people.<\/p>\n

Louise Chunn, a former editor turned founder of the therapist-finding platform Welldoing, first stopped dying her hair when she became the editor of InStyle magazine in the UK.<\/p>\n

She says: \u201cI didn\u2019t fear how bosses would view my grey hair, because the editor\u2019s job offer came from New York. It was more important that you were well groomed, somewhat sophisticated.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Black people typically begin to go grey in their mid-40s \u2013 later than other racial and ethnic groups.<\/span> Photograph: Cultura Creative\/Getty Images\/Tetra images RF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chunn began dying her hair again in her 50s because she worried it made her look older, but stopped in her 60s.<\/p>\n

Colman\u2019s new look was created with extensions by the London based hair specialist Inanch Emir. Using four shades of grey, Emir mirrored Colman\u2019s natural colour while adding volume and length.<\/p>\n

Duguid describes Colman\u2019s hair as \u201cspectacular\u201d but has all the trademarks of a much younger woman. \u201cIt\u2019s a sort of fetishised version of grey hair,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>For many women, the decision to stop dyeing their hair is tied to concerns about ageing.<\/span> Photograph: Andreas Kuehn\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sarah Bower, a grey-blending and colour specialist at Larry King salon in London, says clients considering embracing their grey hair are most concerned about looking older.<\/p>\n

Bower says going grey isn\u2019t as simple as calling it a day on hair dye. Much of her work involves blending the demarcation line \u2013 the visible difference between someone\u2019s natural colour and dyed hair \u2013 to \u201ctry and make it look like they\u2019ve already got their natural hair colour\u201d. She says it can take up to three years to fully grow out grey hair.<\/p>\n

According to the Office for National Statistics about 3% of people between the ages of 50 and 64 are unemployed in the UK. Despite the state pension age rising to 67, a recent study by the Centre for Ageing Better<\/a> found that a job applicant is perceived to become undesirable<\/a> to recruiters on average at the age of 55.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Age discrimination in the UK affects women earlier than men, official data shows.<\/span> Photograph: Trevor Williams\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Research by Ian Burn, an economics professor at the University of Liverpool, found that age discrimination in recruitment against women in the UK starts at least 10 years earlier than it does against men<\/a>. Once a woman hits 40, her chances of being called for interview begin to decline. For men, the decline does not start until their 50s.<\/p>\n

Recent catwalks have been more age inclusive. In January, Stephanie Cavalli, a 50-year-old model, whose hair is peppered with greys, opened the Chanel couture show. Fifty-nine-year-old Evelyn Effrim-Botchey, who stopped modelling in her late 20s after work began to dry up, has spoken<\/a> about how her grey-streaked hair has helped her comeback.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n