Now that the first signs of silver are threading through your hair, what's a man to do? Stay grey and distinguished or join the Kala Kola Klub? Steve Hill considers the options.
The story was a headline writer's dream. Former James Bond star Pierce Brosnan turned up for the recent European premieres of the movie Mamma Mia! with his natural grey hair replaced by a conspicuously darker look that was perfectly labelled... live and let dye.
Yet while a 55-year-old – who spends a lot of time in the harsh gaze of the world's media – can perhaps be forgiven for trying to reverse the ageing process and recapture some vitality and virility, what about us younger mere mortals who only have to deal with friends and families poking fun at our 'salt and pepper' hair?
Should we too be spending some time in the hitherto unvisited hair colour aisle at our local store, checking out those mysterious boxes and tubes of creams and potions? Or are we better off staying au natural as we go with the flow and settle for the distinguished look instead of taking on the risk of appearing ridiculous after signing up for highlights or a colour job?
It all boils down to a combination of personal preference, how comfortable you feel about your hair and also cultural norms.
I lived in Japan for three years and witnessed first-hand the pressure many men are under to cover up their fading locks. Standing on a packed Tokyo commuter train going to work each day, it was rare to catch a grey or white mop top in the inevitable sea of jet black, despite the presence of a good proportion of, shall we say, more mature salary men.
The quality of these colour jobs varied alarmingly. The only giveaway in some cases was the total implausibility of that colour on that wizened and wrinkle-lined face but it was also sadly all too common to spot bodged 'boot black' rinses that had simply failed to mask all the evidence.
In Pakistan, meanwhile, former cricket hero Imran Khan and President Pervez Musharraf are two pre-eminent members of what is informally and affectionately known as the Kala Kola Klub.
Named after the popular brand of black hair dye, sales are apparently continuing to soar while the Los Angeles Times reported recently that an increasing number of Pakistani men are now flocking to salons for professional dye jobs instead of fumbling around at home with potentially disastrous consequences.
It wasn't always this way. 18th century colonists in what became the United States put a priority on wearing grey or white powdered wigs because of the fashionable feeling that looking older was linked to power, prosperity and respect. Yet these days it seems that more of us have instead decided to roll back the years to help our job prospects, improve our love life or simply as a way to boost fading
self-confidence.
Clive, a 35-year-old salesman, began going grey in his early 20s. "It came as quite a shock the first time I looked in the mirror and saw the silver catching the light," he admitted. "I tried at first to pull out the grey hairs but that was a waste of time, there were far too many, so at that point I decided to colour and cover everything up.
"At the time I was working for a company that prided itself on its youthful image and 'thrusting' approach, and you didn't have to be a genius to work out that being grey and looking ten years older than you really were was a big disadvantage in my field.
"My mum helped me the first time I used colour but I found it all a bit fiddly to do myself and a bit of a worry in case I'd missed a bit. So after that I started going to a salon once a month, and that's what I still do.
"It's not quite so important for me now to have dark hair and I'm thinking about letting my natural colour grow out but I am a bit nervous about what's actually under the dye.
I don't think I'm quite ready to unleash myself on my family and friends as a white fox."
Roger, in contrast, has resolutely refused to hide away his platinum coiffure. "I was very dark until I was 18 or 19 when the grey really started coming through," said the 39-year-old housing surveyor.
"That's pretty young. I used to get ribbed quite a lot and I heard every 'Grecian 2000' joke going but it was never that big a deal to me and I never considered doing anything about it. The jokes would have been even worse if I had started to dye it.
"By the time I was 30 my hair was totally white but I would say it has actually helped me ... sometimes it was a talking point and I used to stand out in a crowd, and at interviews I probably stood out a little bit as well.
I never felt that it hindered me in any kind of way."
Some men do chose to wear their hair colour as a badge of honour, and there's little doubt that a striking haircut can play its part in extenuating the look, in much the same way as a lank, lifeless approach a la John Major can make you appear ready for cardigan and carpet slippers territory.
Pallid, pale skin and grey or white hair is also not the greatest combination yet add a tan – natural or from a bottle – and the difference can be strikingly chic. It turns out that Roger is having the last laugh on some of the people who used to make fun of his silver fox look. "Despite the colour, I've still got a good head of hair," he quipped, "unlike some of my friends who are now bald!"
Tips to dye for
- If you are tempted to try a do-it-yourself job, read the instructions carefully!
- Rub Vaseline into your skin along your hairline and on your ears and neck to prevent staining
- Use the plastic gloves that are often provided
Why do we fade to grey?
- Hair colour is created by melanin, a substance produced by hair follicles
- A human head has around 100,000 of these teardrop-shaped cavities
- Production of melanin decreases with age. Grey hair has low levels of melanin while white hair has none
- Men tend to produce their first silver strands at around the age of 30, women at 35
- Hair does not turn grey, it grows out of the scalp this way
- White hair becomes more visible as the dark hair around it falls out
- People naturally lose approximately 50-100 hairs a day
- Some scientists think that stress can affect melanin production
Why you should colour
- Do you want to look like an old man?
- Dyeing can boost your self confidence
- And appearing younger could help you at job interviews or on the dating scene
Why natural is best
- This is the colour Mother Nature has given us
- Do you really want to risk an unsightly grey parting if you mess up the colouring?
