Earlier this week, the world stopped turning when a woman by the name of Alexandra Grant stepped onto a red carpet.
The 46-year-old visual artist, who made headlines after her attendance at the LACMA Art + Film Gala in LA on Saturday night, also happens to be dating Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves.
As Mamamia’s Managing Editor Melody Teh pointed out in her op-ed, the frenzy surrounding this story made Hollywood look ridiculous. I’ll go one further and suggest it also made us look a bit ridiculous, too.
Whether we meant to or not, many assumed Grant was older the Reeves, simply because she has grey hair. Never mind the fact she's actually nine years younger than her actor partner. No.
When a man goes grey, he's a silver fox, but when a woman does the same, she's old.
Yes, greying hair is a physiological thing that happens to our bodies as we age, but it's also a growing hair trend.
Pinterest searches for 'going grey' have increased a whopping 879 per cent in the last year, and you only have to search 'greyhairdontcare' on Instagram to see there's a growing community of women (and some men) embracing their natural hair tone and texture. An 'eff you' to conventional beauty standards, if you will.
Side note - The Spill podcast unpack the media coverage of Keanu Reeves' red carpet debut with Alexandra Grant below, post continues after audio.
The fact is: everyone will go grey. A lot of us already have.
Only, no one knows what that looks like because we've been conditioned to cover our greys up. To be clear - there's nothing wrong with wanting to dye your hair or cover grey roots, but it's important we see what going grey looks like, too.
As Grant showed us on the red carpet, it's hot. But what about in real life?
From 'grombe' silver highlights to a full head of grey hair, here are 33 images of women with all shades and styles of grey hair.
Have you gone grey? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!
Top Comments
I have embraced the grey/silver fox look
Beautiful women with beautiful grey hair definitely look beautiful.
Women should always do whatever they want with their appearance - it's their life.
I only have one reservation though.
We live in an ageist society and that's not going away just yet.
If you work in an ageist environment it might be wise to cover that grey for a while yet.
I'm talking about industries such as the TV & Radio industries for eg.
It's still a struggle for women in those industries to prove that they're still relevant, on topic, on trend, still "potent" blah, blah blah.
Pain in the arse - but a sad fact that actual ageing still says "OLD" to most people.
You might want to protect your livelihood - for now anyway.