When Olivia Colman stepped out at the Zurich Film Festival with newly silver waves swept to one side, she looked sensational, and the all-white Celine look made it a real moment.
On the junkets that followed for her latest film, Wicker, she was radiant: glossy-skinned, brimming with confidence and looking at least ten years younger than when we last saw her with a dark brown pixie cut.
© Getty Images for ZFFAnd then...her catwalk debut for Miu Miu at Paris Fashion Week. Talking candidly on The Graham Norton Show about walking for the luxury fashion house she said she'd simply thought: "52, grey hair, f*** it!"
© Getty ImagesWe used to be told that once you hit 40, long hair was off the table. How ridiculous is that? It makes me so happy to see glamorous women in their 40s, 50s and beyond giving up the battle with the dye bottle altogether and letting their hair grow freely.
And Olivia is in fine company. Jane Fonda, who last month walked in the L'Oreal Paris fashion show; actress Salma Hayek Pinault; Lisa Bonet, who was also at Paris Fashion Week this season; and American supermodel Kristen McMenamy - are all embracing long silver manes, and completely owning them.
Also, Sarah Jessica Parker has recently debuted her new grey, soft silver woven through her trademark bright blonde waves; while Jennifer Aniston is championing the 'quiet silver' approach.
© GC ImagesIf only I'd had role models like these when I spotted my first white strands at 22. I definitely wouldn't have bothered with the dye.
Of course, we all go grey at different ages and to different degrees. What I love is seeing so many younger women embracing a "grey hair, don't care" attitude, some with an impressive silver mane, others with just the odd strand.
Thankfully, grey hair is no longer shorthand for ageing. It's just that people used to wait until they were older to let it show.
At first I plucked them out, until there were too many and colouring became the only option. By my late 30s and early 40s I was touching up my roots every two weeks to keep the grey at bay. I was curious about how it might look grown out, of course. I just couldn't face the process.
Then Covid hit, and lockdown handed me the perfect excuse to stop: no hairdresser, no social life and, crucially, no one to witness that rather alarming in-between stage. I had no idea what would emerge at the other end. As it turned out, I was pleasantly surprised.
Like Olivia, I think I look younger for letting the grey grow through. Years of dye upon dye upon dye had left my hair a flat, dry mass. Now it's thicker and shinier, and the natural shade is so much softer against my skin.
