For millennial men, grey hair is welcome
On two magazine covers the singer Zayn Malik has graced in the last few months - for Billboard and L'Uomo Vogue (as well as the racy video with his girlfriend, Gigi Hadid) - he looks every bit the young brooding pop star. The requisite smouldering stare, perfectly manicured stubble and bad boy tattoos are all in tow.
And then there's the hair.
Malik, 23, a former member of the musical group One Direction, peers out in both images from beneath a silver mane. This isn't a case of a young man going prematurely gray, but a premeditated decision by the performer, who has a penchant for dyeing his hair and then broadcasting it to his 6.5 million Instagram followers.
Gus Kenworthy, the Olympic freestyle skier who came out as gay last year on the cover of ESPN magazine, debuted an ashen dye job in December on his Instagram account, thanking Anderson Cooper, the CNN news anchor, for the inspiration, adding the hashtag #50shadesofgay.
They're not alone.
Gone are the days when guys would actively avoid greying hair. For a new generation of adventurous men, dyeing one's hair grey is gaining traction, appropriating a naturally occurring phenomenon from older men and giving it a millennial twist.
"Men are embracing colour more in a general way," said Amie Rau, a stylist at Matthew Morris Salon in Denver, who dyed Kenworthy's hair. "This is an extension of that."
Both Malik and Kenworthy declined to be interviewed for this article.
Rau said that since their first session, Kenworthy had brought in an image of a young woman with dyed grey hair as inspiration. "He kept asking me, 'Is it crazy that I want to do this?'"
After the ESPN cover, Kenworthy, 24, went to Rau to go platinum blond. "I said: 'You know, you just came out to an entire nation. You should do what you want to do,"' she recalled saying.
Grey and silver hair has definitely been trending, said Aura Friedman, a senior hair colourist at Sally Hershberger Salon in New York. "The demographic of guys who come to me to go grey are doing it more as a fashion statement," she said, as opposed to a more natural look.
Interest definitely seems to be up. A representative from Amazon said it had seen a threefold increase in the last year in customers searching for grey hair dye.
"It's kind of an ironic statement, especially when the wearer is noticeably young and probably years away from natural greying," said Michael Fisher, creative director of men's wear at Fashion Snoops, the trend forecasting agency. "It's just another bold way to stand out from the crowd."
Tyler Oakley, 26, the social media personality who parlayed his online cachet into the documentary Snervous and book Binge last year, has experimented with his hair colour, adopting many shades, from purple to green.
"Grey is the favourite colour I've ever had," he said. "It was unique and fun, but it's not eye catching in the way that like lilac or mint was. When I had those colours, I felt like everyone was looking at me. With grey, I felt like I was trying on a new look but it was also relatively natural."
Celebrities aren't the only ones to take the plunge. "I've always been confident, but now I feel more fun and cooler," Michael Vasquez, a 30-year-old senior business analyst, said of his artificial gunmetal hue, now several months old. "I really love it. I feel sexier." Admittedly, part of that is because of the positive response he received from friends and on social media, getting 90 "likes" on his Instagram account.
Achieving the silver fox look is an involved process. "In the industry we call it a bleach and tone or a double process," Friedman said, referring to a two-part procedure in which the hair is first stripped of its natural pigment and then coloured, an undertaking that can last eight hours and is often costly.
"When you've got grey hair, every move you make seems 'young' and 'spry,'" Andy Warhol said in his 1975 book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again) to explain his decision to dye his hair grey in his early 20s, a look that became his calling card. "It's like you're getting a new talent."
Fisher, however, isn't so sure of its sustainability as a stylistic movement. "It's just a fad," he said. "It's just another part of personal expression like bleaching, mermaid hair and man buns."
And then there's the hair.
Malik, 23, a former member of the musical group One Direction, peers out in both images from beneath a silver mane. This isn't a case of a young man going prematurely gray, but a premeditated decision by the performer, who has a penchant for dyeing his hair and then broadcasting it to his 6.5 million Instagram followers.
Gus Kenworthy, the Olympic freestyle skier who came out as gay last year on the cover of ESPN magazine, debuted an ashen dye job in December on his Instagram account, thanking Anderson Cooper, the CNN news anchor, for the inspiration, adding the hashtag #50shadesofgay.
They're not alone.
Gone are the days when guys would actively avoid greying hair. For a new generation of adventurous men, dyeing one's hair grey is gaining traction, appropriating a naturally occurring phenomenon from older men and giving it a millennial twist.
"Men are embracing colour more in a general way," said Amie Rau, a stylist at Matthew Morris Salon in Denver, who dyed Kenworthy's hair. "This is an extension of that."
Both Malik and Kenworthy declined to be interviewed for this article.
Rau said that since their first session, Kenworthy had brought in an image of a young woman with dyed grey hair as inspiration. "He kept asking me, 'Is it crazy that I want to do this?'"
After the ESPN cover, Kenworthy, 24, went to Rau to go platinum blond. "I said: 'You know, you just came out to an entire nation. You should do what you want to do,"' she recalled saying.
Grey and silver hair has definitely been trending, said Aura Friedman, a senior hair colourist at Sally Hershberger Salon in New York. "The demographic of guys who come to me to go grey are doing it more as a fashion statement," she said, as opposed to a more natural look.
Interest definitely seems to be up. A representative from Amazon said it had seen a threefold increase in the last year in customers searching for grey hair dye.
"It's kind of an ironic statement, especially when the wearer is noticeably young and probably years away from natural greying," said Michael Fisher, creative director of men's wear at Fashion Snoops, the trend forecasting agency. "It's just another bold way to stand out from the crowd."
Tyler Oakley, 26, the social media personality who parlayed his online cachet into the documentary Snervous and book Binge last year, has experimented with his hair colour, adopting many shades, from purple to green.
"Grey is the favourite colour I've ever had," he said. "It was unique and fun, but it's not eye catching in the way that like lilac or mint was. When I had those colours, I felt like everyone was looking at me. With grey, I felt like I was trying on a new look but it was also relatively natural."
Celebrities aren't the only ones to take the plunge. "I've always been confident, but now I feel more fun and cooler," Michael Vasquez, a 30-year-old senior business analyst, said of his artificial gunmetal hue, now several months old. "I really love it. I feel sexier." Admittedly, part of that is because of the positive response he received from friends and on social media, getting 90 "likes" on his Instagram account.
Achieving the silver fox look is an involved process. "In the industry we call it a bleach and tone or a double process," Friedman said, referring to a two-part procedure in which the hair is first stripped of its natural pigment and then coloured, an undertaking that can last eight hours and is often costly.
"When you've got grey hair, every move you make seems 'young' and 'spry,'" Andy Warhol said in his 1975 book The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B & Back Again) to explain his decision to dye his hair grey in his early 20s, a look that became his calling card. "It's like you're getting a new talent."
Fisher, however, isn't so sure of its sustainability as a stylistic movement. "It's just a fad," he said. "It's just another part of personal expression like bleaching, mermaid hair and man buns."
©2016 The New York Times
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First Published: Feb 06 2016 | 12:02 AM IST