Glad to be grey? Well, some women of a certain age certainly are. Veteran actress, Zeenat Aman, made her Instagram debut recently, rocking her grey shoulder-length bob, and immediately went viral. Gen Z could not get enough of her pewter hair (and her pithy aphorisms drawn from many decades of toiling away in Bollywood).

This came as something of a surprise to Aman herself, who wrote on one of her Insta posts: “I didn’t intend for my grey hair to be a statement, but a statement it has become. In fact, yesterday I read a tweet by someone who said they know at least three people who have been inspired to stop colouring their hair since I made my Instagram debut! I thought this was a wonderful compliment. If embracing my natural hair is encouraging others to do the same, then I’m all the happier for it.”

Aman is not the only yesteryear actress to embrace her natural grey hair. The ever-graceful Sharmila Tagore has also stopped dyeing her hair, rocking a salt and pepper head that looks both elegant and appropriate for her age. Dimple Kapadia also went grey during the lockdown, saying that it was “so empowering” to stop hiding her natural hair colour.

And this is far from being an Indian trend. In the West, such actresses as Jane Fonda, Andie MacDowell, Helen Mirren, Jamie Lee Curtis, and countless others have cancelled their three-weekly colour appointments and decided to proudly let their natural grey show. Needless to say, all these ladies — both in India and abroad — look truly magnificent.

Looking at their pictures, I began to wonder if all this palaver involving monthly colour appointments was actually worth the bother? While I am not as old as any of the women listed (though, with a bit of luck, I will get there eventually) maybe it was time to bite the bullet and let my natural hair colour — whatever it may be; I genuinely no longer have a clue — emerge in the fullness of time. After all, many of my friends had stopped colouring their hair a decade ago, having decided to embrace their greys, and they looked pretty good.

But being of a cautious bent of mind, I decided to do a dress rehearsal of sorts first. So, I duly downloaded an app that allows you to upload your pictures and change your hair colour to see how you look. Well, I did just that, turning my hair grey in one of my selfies — and got a bit of a shock. I didn’t look either elegant or magnificent like the ladies who had inspired me. I just looked ten years older and — dare I say it? — as if I hadn’t slept in a week.

Clearly that certain something that allows some women to carry off grey hair and look amazing in the process is completely missing in my DNA. I need a pop of colour — be it burgundy, chocolate brown, auburn; whatever my mood dictates that month — on the top of my head to make my look work.

So, I guess those colour appointments will continue to be a part of my life. The grey will simply have to stay hidden. And I will live to dye another day.

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