Be Proud of that Grey-Hair

Of all the unwelcome milestones, The First Nose Hair must be the worst. When you feel the need to trim, that's when it really hits home that your body's ageing and doing peculiar things off its own bat. And don't think it's only men who suffer from body hair gone rogue – this morning, dear reader, I snipped my first white nose hair. I am disproportionately upset about this. More so than the long white curly eyebrow hair, or the solitary white whisker that lies flat under my chin and then suddenly pings out and gets tweezered. I'm SO not ready for the full walrus, not yet. Happily I'm not at all angsty about my greying roots (probably because hair on my head stays on my head and doesn't mysteriously move about) and in any case this year white and grey hair became a "thing".

I've flirted with the idea of embracing my inner grey but it doesn't suit everyone and my hairdresser insists it won't suit me. I can see the reasoning behind this. I'm one of those people who should avoid too much of a blue tinge in lipstick and employing that logic I think my naturally grey hair is too much "blue" to look good on me. I've been platinum blonde in the past and that did suit me so maybe 

I should just go from light russet to white in one leap – only then there is maintenance. It's not as simple as thinking "sod it" and giving up your normal hair care, because properly glorious and head-turning white/grey hair needs just as much attention as you give it now (I hope), and there are – of course there are – special products too. On this occasion I think it is worthwhile investing, because hair ages too and it's one of those things that matters, both to our appearance and to how we feel inside.

Frustratingly, it's a tad difficult to find mainstream specialist shampoos and other products. I don't know about you but I really don't want to buy anything with a picture of granny on the packaging. (How many more times do I have to say this, advertising people? Go out and find yourself some properly stylish older women – there are plenty of us about.) Thank heavens then for the recently launched White Hot Hair, which is whooshing up the image no end. Jayne Mayled, the founder, was also unhappy at what was available, or rather what wasn't, and has arrived at a simple capsule collection of products designed for use specifically on older grey hair. As Jayne says in her piece on the website: "This is not the white flag of surrender, I'm just choosing a new colour and it happens to be grey." I've seen the results of this range and you can forget about lank, ratty old lady hair – this is about body and shine and oomph. I won't normally recommend anything I haven't tried myself, but White Hot Hair is an exception I'm happy to make.