Looking one's age

I have blogged about this several times, but people are catching up.  I'm talking about hair.  As I always say, we are our hair.  If you dye it blonde you morph into a "dyed blonde".  Your personality actually changes -- crazy I know, but true.  Think about all the women you know who dye their hair blonde and you will see it.  Obviously, they're not content with the hair God gave them, so they dye it.

London's 'Daily Telegraph' ran a piece on this phenomenon, but they talked about "Looking the part in the workplace".  The woman who penned it said, "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 hair, I was the one asked to make tea," the author wrote.  "As Melanie Griffith realized in the 1988 film 'Working Girl', 'You wanna be taken seriously, you need serious hair.'"

So true.

"Grey hair will be the status symbol of the nineties," my hairdresser had said when I had decided to go natural.  I was 45 and standing in front of the mirror, with the bottle of dye in my hand, when I said, "What the eff are you doing?  You've earned every single hair, so stop it."  It took about six months to get rid of it all, but the day the last strands finally hit the floor, I felt so liberated!  However, some cultures seem to dictate the dyeing of hair, such as the Asian, Filipino and East Indian.  How many times have you seen these women with harsh, black hair and white roots.  What an ugly look.  And by the way, the men do it too?!??

"The new bob looked smarter -- made me look smarter and older.  I was offered two new jobs in the next two months," says the columnist.  "I was promoted and I don't rule out my hair as one of the reasons."  I would agree -- so would Melanie Griffith.

I also believe that letting your hair go allows for more wardrobe flair.  Instead of being seen as some old broad who dyes her hair and tries to look young, you're seen as a mature woman with grey hair who can still pull off a pair of pink high heels.  I prefer the pink heels to the dyed-hair-with-grey-roots look. 

You're not kidding anyone, ladies.  Here's IMF director Christine Lagarde with a very cool pink jacket, statement earrings and a grey bob.  Love it all.