It’s a decision every woman is faced with at some point: to dye or not to dye.
And after years of colouring her hair, journalist Tracey Spicer has decided to stop and embrace the grey.
However not everyone is as happy with her decision..
“It will be extremely ageing,” Spicer recalls a TV hair and makeup artist warning her after she confessed her plans to let her grey grow, starting with streaks at her temples.
“I feel like yelling, ‘Our cells die each day! Why do we live in denial? Ageing is better than the alternative’,” the 48 year old wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“But I stay schtum. It’s uncomfortable confronting our mortality: no one wants to look death in the face.”
However it’s two unlikely subjects that have proved the most strongly opposed to her decision – her children.
“‘Mum, if you go grey, you cannot pick us up from school,’ 10-year-old Grace says to me. ‘Yeah, Mum, please don’t embarrass us in front of our friends,’ 11-year-old Taj adds,” wrote Spicer.
“One of their teachers is a gorgeous woman with olive skin and long silver locks. ‘She looks cool,’ I say one day. ‘She looks like a witch,’ the kids reply.”
Ouch.
Despite the growing trend of “granny hair” and celebrities like Rihanna, Ellie Goulding and Zosia Mamet, Spicer argues that there is still a stigma surrounding grey hair if you’re over 40 years old… and a woman. (Post continues after gallery.)
“We need to reassess the words describing men and women as we age: Why are grey-haired men regarded as distinguished while women are witches?,’ she wrote.
Citing a recent survey that found that nine out of 10 women who had ‘dared’ to go grey actually didn’t want to change their hair, she’s calling for a social change in attitude.
She’s kicking it off by embracing rather than fighting the inevitable.
“As I said after my 2014 TEDx Talk, The Lady Stripped Bare, I’m not anti-beauty, I’m pro-reality. One of the legacies of the Spicer family (aside from heads like wing nuts) is premature greying: The antecedent appeared – frizzy, like a pube – in my early 30s,’ she said.
Watch: Staying blonde is no easy feat. We speak with Deborah Grevett, blonde expert. Post continues after video.
“I’m following in the footsteps of those silver foxes Jamie Lee Curtis and Helen Mirren, and the countless folks who watch TV.
“Last week at Sydney’s ABC headquarters I saw a tour group, all of whom were women with white or silver hair. There are few female television presenters who reflect this large tranche of the audience.” (Post continues after gallery.)
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Stylish or not, Spicer is looking forward to reclaiming the “skunk stripe” typically associated with villians like Cruella de Vil.
“I like to think of the grey streak I’m growing in the front of my hair as a lightning bolt,” she wrote.
“And if I look older? Well, who cares? I’ll relish being a free radical.”
Image: Instagram/@traceyspicer