Chapter 14 - Gray Hair

"Only the good dye young." Barbara Stanwyck frequently turns a cliché when asked why she prefers to polish her silvery locks rather than to bleach or tint.

But, it's the rare stylist who would agree with the popular actress. Most believe there are few mature women with faces youthful enough to carry gray or white hair.

And come to think of it, they do have a point. Why does everyone mention Barbara Stanwyck when the subject of gray hair comes up? Because she's the one generally known woman who looks so well in it.

Then, too, what woman doesn't have sincere admiration for her determination to face the silvery facts of life?

The average woman has a number of very important decisions to make before she decides to go gold or gray.

And she usually starts thinking about them long before the first gray or white hair appears.

CAN SHE AFFORD IT?: White hair is no help in this highly-competitive, white-collar world. In an era when career women are made to feel superannuated at thirty-five, it is better to bleach or tint. And with more and more women returning to work after their children are in school, they need every youthful weapon at their command.

CAN SHE TAKE IT?: Drab, yellow-white or gray is a state of mind. You know how a gray day can dampen your spirits. Why let an all-over gray look depress you completely? If you don't feel a day over twenty-nine, don't let your mirror constantly reflect your discontent.

CAN HER HUSBAND TAKE IT?: Many a woman has gone all-out blonde, redhead or brunette because she knows her youthful-looking head makes her husband feel younger. Children, too, like to think they have young mothers.

CONSIDER THE COST OF BLONDING: You're never going to fool anyone, even yourself, unless you do a good job. While silvery shades can be paid for in silver, gold costs considerably more.

Your job is secure? Your husband is emotionally secure? And you're secure in your husband's love? And, anyway, yours has always been the disarmingly direct approach? You've lived your golden years to the hilt and now you're prepared to do the same with your silver?

Silken, shining, silvery hair can be the most flattering shade you've ever worn. Gray, white and salt and pepper hair can form an attractive frame for sophisticated beauty.

But, first, haven't you wondered why hair turns gray? Gold or bronze is transmuted into silver when the mel-anoblasts in each hair shaft decide to retire.

Gradually decreasing enzymatic activity is usually the answer. But melanoblast activity may also be reduced by consumption of arsenic or bismuth, coal tar products, exposure to ultra-violet light, x-rays, radium, vitamin deficiency and chronic malnutrition.

Too YOUNG TO GO GRAY?: Even though everyone knows you are in your twenties, you don't want to be the only gray head among your peers. Hide uninvited gray hair with a long-lasting (one month) rinse especially designed to bury gray. It adds highlights and conditions, but does not leave brassy top notes.

APPROACHING FORTY, BUT YOU WANT TO KEEP YOUR AGE SECRET?: Tint your hair at least two shades lighter for flattery as well as anti-gray security. Fading hair and eyes require a softer background. Tint lighter whether you're dark-haired and going gray dramatically, or blonde and going gray in the dullest of all possible fashions.

GOING TO LET NATURE TAKE ITS COURSE?: Just because your hair is graying is no reason to let it go dowdy, too. There's no need for depressing gray heads anymore, thanks to modern styling and the wide spectrum of gray glamorizing rinses.

STYLE: Rome had a glorious Silver Age. So can you. Inaugurate it with a new style. Don't coast along on the same old hairdo you've been wearing for years.

Keep it short. Long hair automatically draws eyes down to the wrinkles you've acquired along with your character lines. Keep eyes up by wearing hair up and away from the neck. Concentrate on soft, eye-level fullness. Create eye-catching attention above the brow with height, bangs or soft tendrils. Cheek waves also seem to raise jawlines.

Keep it simple. Avoid elaborate, hard-to-keep styles. Beware harsh lines. Gray hair should depend on soft lines for effect rather than curl. Banish frizz. And stress grooming more than you ever have before. Curls should be soft tendrils rather than masses of ringlets. Delicate open curls turned toward the face minimize age lines.

Age cuts are passe". Your face, not your chronology, should determine your hair style. But do avoid the longhaired pageboy of your youth which looks ludicrous after the early twenties. And skin-tight hairdos are just about the worst of all. Mature faces need more softness.

PERMANENTS: You'll need a body perm whether your hair is coarse or fine. Straggling curls pull the eye down. If you are a do-it-yourselfer, select a home permanent for gray or white hair to avoid the danger of yellowing. These kits also contain after-shampoo beauty treatments.

Shampoos: Color is not all that changes as hair matures. Texture changes too. First white hairs are usually coarse and wiry, becoming, in many cases, after the passage of years, soft and silky.

Pamper coarse white hair with hot oil treatments, gentle shampoos, and cream rinses. Handle fine white hair as you would any fine hair: body perm, short layered coif to create the illusion of luxury, and, in this case, an iridescent silver rinse to further the illusion of shadow and substance.

Remember, if your hair was dark before it went silvery, gray and white hair must be shampooed more often. Use special shampoos designed for your new light shade.

Conditioning: There has also been a decrease in your hair's natural oil supply. Condition with non-greasy hair-dressings and faithful brushing. Avoid drying effects of sprays and overexposure to sun and salt water.

Rinses: Sun, too many permanents and the wrong shampoo can put yellow if not gold in your hair. Today, fortunately, yellow may be disguised with rinses far more natural looking than blue, lavender and metallic silver.

Designed to silken as well as banish yellow, they last one month. Platinum is particularly helpful for banishing yellow. In general, the lighter the shade the more lustre it adds; the smokier the shade, the more it evens tones of salt-and-pepper gray or conceals gray with rich, smoky tones. In-between shades burnish silver.

If your hair is pure white, choose a sparkling white rinse, or a platinum with a mauve shimmer. You can experiment with practically any shade of toner, when you feel it's time for a change, too. If your hair is gray, polish it with gleaming silver or lustrous gunmetal. If your hair is pepper-and-salt, choose a deep, smouldering smoke tone to conceal gray, or a pearly black to even out uneven tones. If your hair is drab gray go lighter or darker, just as long as your hair looks brighter and livelier.

Note: Different hair-rinse companies mean different things by the words "blend in gray." Some mean covering gray, but most mean darkening it or blonding it so that it blends more attractively with pigmented hair.

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