Word: grayness
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...Electoral politics is a professional area in which maturity and gravitas would seem to be among the most important attributes for the job. What better way for a woman who might otherwise be viewed as a girly lightweight to convey her experience than by having gray hair? Yet of the 16 female U.S. Senators - the highest number ever - who range in age from 46 to 74, not a single one has visible gray hair. Of the 70 female members of the House, only seven have gray hair. Political professionals say that the double standard is a great unspoken inequity...
...Ironically, it's feminism's success that has driven today's widespread, virtually obligatory camouflage of gray hair. Meg Reggie, 49, a public relations executive in Atlanta, believes having dyed hair is essential to advancing in her career. "Since I am in the image business, it is very important that I look as current as my clients and the products and services they sell and I promote. If I stopped, I think my confidence level would drop, and I would feel at a disadvantage competitively. In the South, if [a woman] is not well maintained and current, one will hear...
...makes sense that gray hair might be a no-go in the public relations industry, but women in all kinds of professions report feeling similar pressure. Dr. Lillian Schapiro, 43, an ob-gyn in Atlanta, deconstructed the calculus very clearly in her consideration of hair color and professional edge. "People want their physician to look mature but also professional. My male colleagues gain respect with gray. If I kept my hair past my shoulders, as I wear it now, and went gray, I would look like a more alternative doctor. Most people want a conventional doctor. Gray hair...
...Interestingly, women apparently aren't as fearful of the negative professional implications of gray as the personal ones. Clairol research reports that the 71% of women who dye their hair do so in order to "look and feel more attractive." Another powerful motivator for gray-haired women to dye, according to Clairol's in-house creative director of color and style, Marcy Cona, is to live the fantasy that they're still 30 or 35 instead of 45 or 60. But rather than sell it as a fantasy or a lie ("Is it true blonds have more fun?"), the postmodern...
...Emmylou Harris, the 60-year-old country-rock singer, who has worn her hair gray since her 30s, makes a great case for the real me being just that: real. All men find a "certain attractiveness to being natural," she told me when I interviewed her for my book Going Gray. "When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, when people start getting to know one another and you get into the realm of real human interaction, people want to be interested in the person whom it is comfortable to be with and who is passionate about life...