Yahoo Movies The bizarre double standards of men dyeing their hair
When Liam Gallagher posted a selfie on Instagram last week, appearing to sport new blond locks, all hell broke loose. The snap, taken in Australia, where he’s on tour, and captioned, “Ey, blondie”, was quickly splashed across the tabloids and mocked on social media. It was as if the former Oasis frontman, now 49, was personally responsible for the hosepipe ban and the UK’s looming recession. The politer comments compared him unfavourably to Boris Johnson or a late-1990s Robbie Williams, and said he’d spent too much time Down Under. The next day Gallagher responded by calling his fans “lunatics” for even imagining he’d actually dyed his hair; it was, he said, “just the light n the sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine ffs”.
The fact remains that, in 2022, when you can choose your pronoun or change your gender, a man merely changing the colour of his hair still causes so much consternation. While men will, begrudgingly, discuss with each other the fact that they’re losing their hair, or turning grey, they won’t – unlike their female counterparts – comfortably discuss any potential solutions if they’re not happy about it.
Surely they should share experiences or tips about hair-loss medications such as Finasteride, reputable hair-transplant surgeons or colourists at their local hair salon? It’s this follicular furtiveness that has led to the commercial success – despite the very mixed results – of DIY dye kits for men. These off-the-shelf products tend to give men flat blocks of colour on their heads, like the plastic hair on Lego figures.
The problem is that we only notice a dye job when it’s done badly, and the fear of being mocked is too much for our fragile egos to bear. Memories of 78-year-old Rudy Giuliani defending Trump during a televised statement in 2020 with black hair dye dripping down the side of his face, for example, or Paul McCartney spending decades in search of a chestnut tint that didn’t look as if it was borrowed from Chewbacca can be off-putting. (Macca finally got it right at Glastonbury this summer giving his natural grey hair equal billing with his more recently acquired tawny.)
We’re lucky, of course, that going grey for men is sometimes seen as an aesthetic advantage. The terms “silver fox”, or “silver daddy”, are often used to describe guys who have gone more salt than pepper. We even have silver superheros: Marvel’s Silver Surfer and Gandalf the White (former Grey) in Lord of the Rings. And, of course, some of the world’s most high-profile heartthrobs are silver haired – look at George Clooney, Anderson Cooper or Barack Obama.
John Mulhern, creative director of Aveda, has been platinum-haired since his thirties, and he tries to encourage his clients to stick with their grey. “Trying to hide it altogether never looks natural,” he advises. “As your hair loses pigment, so does your skin and you don’t want your hair to look incongruous. If someone wants to colour their hair for a whole new look, however, I’m all for it.”
But not all men feel ready to grab the grey. One banker friend of mine – who, tellingly, wished to remain anonymous – told me he didn’t want to look younger than his age, he just wanted to look his actual age. He felt that, aged 34 and with grey hair fast encroaching, he wanted to do something about it. And he did, very successfully. I would never have guessed he visited a colourist once a month. Fortunately, there has been a huge turnaround in both the techniques and technology used today that enable men to colour their hair in an effective and subtle manner.
Mulhern uses a technique called “grey blending”, for which the trick is to do it subtly; you don’t eradicate the grey, just blend it in. This approach enhances rather than erases what you already have, and prices start at £59, depending on your hair’s length (which, in comparison to the cost of women’s highlights, is a snip, ha!). His other tip is Aveda’s Blonde Revival Purple Toning Shampoo (£23.50, spacenk.com) which kills the yellow tinge dull grey hair sometimes has (often caused by pollution) and gives it a richer, more silvery hue.
If you’re not trying to hide grey hairs, but just a desire to have a different colour altogether, or appear sun-kissed like Liam Gallagher, be warned. Many blond hair- dye kits, if handled badly, can leave you with a very odd yellow mane – more Tiger King than sun king – or an unexpected orange one.
When I was much younger, I tried to dye my hair blond with a kit I bought from Boots. Alas, it didn’t get anywhere near the delectable shade depicted on the packet, as I had been too nervous to leave it on for long enough. Instead, I emerged with a head that was a flat, rather iridescent, orange colour. I looked like a human Berocca.
The truth is that your natural hair colour is the one that’s most likely to suit your skin tone. Nature is the world’s best colourist. And if you’re starting to go grey, just be happy that, at your age, you’ve got any hair at all.
