Looking the part comes with age
First sign of grey means acting, dressing, styling hair that looks mature
At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Christine Lagarde chose a raspberry pink bouclé jacket, paisley silk scarf and hoop earrings for her appearance on stage. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund looked chic and poised — and with her well-styled bob of white hair, she also looked her age: Lagarde is 62.
A month after I turned 27, I cut my hair. Falling past my shoulders, it was that clichéd signifier of femininity and, I realized, youth. With long brown hair, I was ID’d in the supermarket, asked to make the tea, and greeted as a stranger by peers I’d met multiple times. As Melanie Griffith realized in the 1988 film Working Girl, “You wanna be taken seriously, you need serious hair.” The chinlength bob looked smarter — made me look smarter, and older too. I was offered a new job — two, actually — in the next two months.
Six months after the cut, it was highlights. Very expensive to maintain, but then, that’s the point, or at least the one you want to project. I was promoted — and while I like to think my work clinched it, I’m not ruling out the hair, or the smarter wardrobe I embraced to go with it.
Looking one’s age has become not the done thing — and certainly not in the workplace. Grey hair is a sign of distinction or even virility for men: for women, to be seen to be aging is still, in most boardrooms, to be seen to be less capable.
“What felt like my serious commitment to colouring (every four weeks) coincided with starting at Vogue,” says Anna-Marie Solowij, the magazine’s former beauty director, “and believing that I ought to look ‘the part,’ whatever that was. In my mind, it certainly didn’t include grey roots.” Now the co-founder of e-tailer BeautyMart, Solowij has embraced her natural grey. “The hilarious thing is that as I’ve become known for my grey hair — rather than making me
invisible, and less relevant, it’s made me stand out more.”
That being said, “I had my first offer of a seat on the (London) Tube the other week and that felt weird,” Solowij added. “It was a younger woman who had seen the back of my head, and when I turned around and thanked her but declined she looked shocked and embarrassed — mixed messages, an 1881 moment, who knows?”
With grey hair currently deemed trendy, it’s become acceptable, at least within the fashion and beauty industries, to look older: so long as it’s the right kind of older, and the right shade of grey.
“Over the years, I have created a couple of intense silver platinum
colours for high-profile businesswomen and they really stand out from the crowd; it’s a brave move if you feel you work in an environment that is ageist,” says Josh Wood, catwalk and celebrity colourist and global colour creative director for Redken, who launched a new range of silver glosses to enhance grey hair this month.
“I know that a lot of my clients who work in the city really do feel that grey is not an option, which is a shame. I personally love grey hair and it’s not about letting go; it’s just about wearing a different colour.”
Wardrobe has a huge role to play in looking the part. Brigitte Macron may have the legs for those mini skirts, but that doesn’t make them
chic or elegant on her, when paired with stilettos, a perma tan and a helmet blow-dry. “Anything too short or long, too tight or big, too complicated or trendy — extremes don’t look youthful,” says Annabel Hodin, wardrobe editor and personal stylist. At the other end of the spectrum, a 20-something can go too far in attempting to age-up for the office — but there are changes you can make.
“Look at the people you work with — the ones doing well, the leaders — and see how they dress. Do this all the way up and even down in your company, and you’ll see what’s needed. Add accents of your own style to be individual, but understand that small details are enough at first.”