By Caroline Bock/DPA
US celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Kelly Osbourne have been prominent in setting a trend for grey hair. But now the trend has become a bandwagon - especially in the world of social media.
Enter the hashtag #grannyhair and you will see page after page of young women who think having grey hair is cool. Not surprisingly the hype surrounding grey hair has led to one or two comments undermining the trend such as: “I started the granny hair trend. In 1980.”
Right on cue, the fashion industry has also discovered the grey look.
Fashion label Celine chose 80-year-old American author Joan Didion as the star of its latest ad campaign, styled with a pair of cool sunglasses. Dolce & Gabbana chose three women of a certain age paired with ornate jewelled handbags, tiaras and jet-black skirts.
But don’t expect advertising campaigns like that to overturn ageism any time soon.
Male celebrities like George Clooney feel more comfortable sporting a touch of grey hair than the majority of women, who sigh at the sight of just one faded strand. At least that’s what hairstylists say.
But the fashion director at The Times of London recently made what some might call a startling revelation: Anna Murphy explained she had stopped dying her hair at the age of 40 and embraced her natural hair colour.
“Would I have gone grey if I had been single? Possibly not,” she admitted.
German photographer Katja Wassermeyer says she likes “that certain something” in young models with grey hair.
“It’s because it’s different. It’s surprising for anyone who looks at a picture of a young girl or a boy with the same hair colour as an old person,” she says. It helps make an image stand out.
For young women, the granny hair look is not to be taken all that seriously and is more of a fashion gag. The important thing is their “grey hair” doesn’t look like an old woman’s grey hair, but is something classy instead.
The trend crossed the Atlantic from the United States to Europe and is currently totally in Germany.
“It’s definitely a fashion trend,” says Marion Bayar, a hair stylist at Die Pauls Sisters hair salon in Berlin. To achieve the look you need to add nuances of blue and green that shine and reflect light.
“It looks great in all variations,” says Bayar who believes the look is here to stay. “It can only get more vibrant and colourful.”
Udo Walz, a hair stylist who often appears on German television talking about hair and life, has also recognised the trend.
“Young women love it,” he says. Walz thinks it looks great with short hair. “But with long hair it can look rather tired.”
As part of his patter with young clients Walz likes to joke about the impending hair-greying process as he pours the dye from the bottle: soon they will know, he says, how they will look when they are much older.
Lady Gaga: setting a trend for grey hair.
