EMBRACE THE GREY

Libby’s tips for growing out your grey:

● If you’re not ready to cut off all your colour, make the change slowly

● Be prepared for others to comment — positively and negatively

● Embrace the fact you’ve lived a life and earned those greys!

● Play with bright lipsticks or funky earrings and necklaces that will put some extra colour into your skin

● If opting for a shorter style than before, why not experiment with something funky!

● If choosing to keep hair long, ensure you take the time to style it — blow wave, or learn how to do a chic chignon

● Your grey can be a real talking point: embrace it! 2020 meant no more salon visits for a while. That was “the catalyst to let go and get started” growing her colour out.

Unable to touch up even her roots, the 57-year-old was able to move through what she describes as the first few hard months until the regrowth got to the stage where it was obviously intentional.

“Being in the supermarket I could feel eyes on me,” she says. “Society’s made us feel inferior for wanting to go grey.”

Needing motivation to keep going through her brief periods of doubt, she started an Instagram account detailing her journey. She uploaded a photo a day, tracking her progress.

In just over a year, some of her reels were gaining millions of views and she has now amassed nearly 37,000 followers. Growing the grey has connected her with a worldwide community of like-minded women who use the hashtag #silversisters on their posts. Their support and friendship have been incredible “and if my journey inspires somebody, then that’s fantastic,” she says.

“I get a bit embarrassed [posting] but it feels important too, because it’s making a difference for others.”

She didn’t anticipate the “extraordinary internal growth” that would come through embracing her natural beauty. She sees ageing as a privilege and is proud to play her small part in helping to change society’s perception of age.

On a wider scale, the celebration and appreciation of women in all seasons of life is slowly growing.

A fashionable head start

Australasian model agency Silverfox Management has captured this wave and proudly champions models aged 30 and over, with the agency stating

“Beauty is ageless”. Rebecca Swaney, managing director of the New Zealand branch, says its youngest model starting her silver journey is 40 and the eldest is 79.

Where once only youthful, line-free images peered out from magazines and advertisements, Swaney has seen an increase in fashion brands wanting to include a mature model in their shoots. The agency’s second-topearning model last year was 75-yearold Lesley, who has appeared in campaigns as diverse as the Auckland City Mission and fashion brand Moochi.

With 26 Silverfox models embracing their silver hair, the agency sees age positivity as a “win-win for everyone in a community” and that it should be wholeheartedly encouraged. It says people don’t want to be “boxed in by their age”, whether that’s in lifestyle, brand or style choices or as a customer.

“An older person is more likely today to lead a rich, fulfilling, independent lifestyle than ever before. Rich not just in the fruits of their hardworking life, but rich in family, friends, new adventures, new creative outlets, they chase the new,” Swaney says.

“I have many silver foxes that are having total life changes in their 50s, 60s, 70s [piercings, tattoos, marriage/ divorce/studying etc]. The growing years certainly do not always equate to the slowing years.”

A word from the wise

Libby Whaley, premier stylist and founder of Epsilon Hair in Mount Maunganui, says the salon has seen an increase in the number of younger women embracing their grey. Clients making the change used to be in their 50s, whereas more women in their early 40s are “choosing to stop covering their grey as much”.

For those not yet prepared to fully welcome a hard regrowth line, Libby suggests a transition time of 12 to 24 months for a move from permanent colour to semi-permanent.

This allows greys to be blended in softly, rather than fully covered. This works really well for darker or red hair.

For those with blonde or fairer hair, applying fewer highlights each time and extending the trips to the salon between colours allows the incoming grey to integrate beautifully with the colour.