Is white hair good for business? （631 words）

By Sarah Gordon

Three weeks ago, I went white overnight. Not through shock, but by choice. After a quarter of a century of dying my hair brown, I felt compelled to embrace the real me. Or at least my real hair.

The decision was not an easy one. Women in the west may have better career opportunities, better reproductive choices and more of our own money than our peers half a century ago, but when it comes to hair it's as if the 1960s never happened. Look around a room of middle-aged women (as I did recently at a screening in Chelsea of the new Absolutely Fabulous movie) and a uniform palette of ash-blonde greets you. It's a colour that most women are still dyeing to achieve.

We try to maintain our youth in many ways — but most of these now come with modern excuses. We keep fit for strength and health as much as beauty. We use make-up to look smart and professional, as much as to look young. But we dye our hair because we don't want to look old. The sexist illogic is baffling on this topic — as on many others. Men are allowed to go grey — but not bald — and still be considered sexy: think of George Clooney (as I often do) or other silver foxes of his ilk. Yet my canvassing of friends and colleagues over the decision to go natural elicited some powerfully negative comments. Several were so dumbfounded — or appalled — it took them several seconds of obvious reflection before asking why “on earth” I would want to take such a step. “Why would you want to look old?” said a female friend. “It's not your age bracket,” said another.

Sexist social expectations apart, there are other powerful reasons not to go grey — or white in my case since, although (only) 51, my grey days are well behind me. There is little research to back it up — probably given the paucity of grey (or white-haired) women in the corporate world — but it's difficult to avoid the feeling that, just as short men get promoted less often than tall ones, so women with grey hair are seen as somehow less dynamic. Christine Lagarde was quoted to me so often as a woman who looked fabulous with white hair it only emphasised how few obviously successful, silver-haired women there are out there.

The late lamented author Nora Ephron once wrote: “There is a reason why 40, 50 and 60 don't look the way they used to, and it's not because of feminism … It's because of hair dye.”

Although feminism has made progress in the workplace and the home, the trends in women's hair colour have been comparatively reactionary. Indeed, the craze for colouring is comparatively new. While the ancient Egyptians are understood to have used henna to disguise grey hair, the zeal for hair dye only picked up in earnest with the arrival of readily available hair colour in the mid-20th century: only 7 per cent of housewives in America dyed their hair in the 1950s. Things changed fast. Clairol launched a home-colouring kit in 1956, and colouring became so ubiquitous thereafter that, by 1968, Americans were no longer required to put their hair colour on their passport.

……

Despite my nerves, the reaction to my white hair from friends, family and colleagues has more than justified my decision. Even those who cautioned against it were uniformly, and surprisingly, positive. Several women friends have even voiced admiration at my bravery in trying out the new look.

Changing one's hair colour is not the stuff of bravery. But it was a big decision for me. Once taken, I do not just feel empowered, I feel more confident, even, dare I say it, younger. I just wonder why it took me so long.

請根據你所讀到的文章內容，完成以下自測題目：

1．Which is not right about the differences of modern women compare with their peers half a century ago?

A．better career opportunities

B．more tired and stressful

C．better reproductive choices

D．more of own money

答案

2．How old is the author now?

A．45

B．50

C．51

D．57

答案

3．Why did Nora Ephron say that women in elder years don't look the way they used to?

A．feminism

B．hair dye

C．efficiency

D．capacity

答案

4．In which year that Clairol launched a home-colouring kit?

A．1950

B．1956

C．1968

D．1970

答案