The Silver Revolution

Women are embracing their true (hair) colors

Our society puts women under huge pressure, and this is a reality that if anyone denies it, they should receive a good slap in the face. With an open hand, right on the cheek. A typical example of such pressure is, or are aesthetic canons. For example, the fallacy of having to eternally look way younger than you actually are and take all the “Oh, but you look younger!” as compliments.

Of course, men have every right to have their midlife crisis. They will buy an electric scooter — or a Porsche Cayenne — and fool around with them in the street, endangering lives. And while doing this, disguised as youngsters, they are told they are aging well, that gray hair makes them look interesting, worldly, and that their “wrinkles are beautiful.” Women, on the other hand, must remain slender, behave modestly, have plump lips and glossy, and brightly colored hair.

What happens when a woman goes to the salon and says she wants to stop coloring her hair? The hairdresser will more than likely say, “But you’re way too young!” and will try to get the idea out of the woman’s head. Because a woman must always look young.

Unlike men, who just want to be young to continue playing around, women seem to not be allowed to evolve. When they reach a certain age, and they stop being fertile, they have to cut their hair short and stop coloring it, they’re forced to “stop caring.” They become invisible and accept that society, as a whole, will make them invisible. Mature women do not exist. You’re either a Lolita or a Grandma. I believe this is due to deep mental issues on the part of men, and this must be said loud and clear.

As we mentioned above, a woman who, long before she’s fifty, expresses that she wants to stop burning her scalp and hair with colors and chemicals, — which, by the way, can cost an arm and a leg at the salon — is told to be too young and that it is not yet the time to “let themselves go.” That is, it is actively manifested that “you’re not, you don’t want to be, a grandmother.”

Being a mature woman means going through massive stress and discomfort, mental health issues. Also being a young woman, with menstrual discomfort — beware of everything, the smell, the stains, the pain, will they notice? am I complaining too much? Will they think I’m too hormonal? Will I be able to pay for the tampons I like? And don’t forget the discomfort imposed by clothing: you’re showing too much, you look like a nun, you have small pockets that hold nothing, or no pockets ever!; discomfort imposed by having to use acne creams, eye creams, SPF, anti-wrinkle creams, anti-redness serums — if you’re not the queen of the Prom, you don’t matter, nothing matters, not even that there is no Prom in your country; discomfort imposed by having to buy specific products for women — pink taxed, of course — , and 50% more expensive than the male equivalent; forced discomfort by centuries of ill-treatment and imposed guilt for suffering sexual violence on their minds and bodies. This, I’m afraid, could go on and on.

But of course, we’re talking about women, and they get angry too quickly — in the end, you know, it must be because of their period or because they are hysterical… When a woman thinks of doing something as simple as showing her natural hair color, she is warned that she is no longer going to look like a woman. And she must be vigilant. She is asked, “Hey, you’re not coloring anymore, aren’t you? How come? Are you ill? Did something horrible happen? How old are you?.” The pressure increases because, for this sick society, the woman who «wants» to stop being Lolita inevitably becomes her grandmother.

When a woman is finally able to overcome all these psychological barricades and decides to show her natural gray hair, she may take some pictures and, proudly, post them on social media. Then she will start receiving messages from macho-bots. Accompanied, sometimes, by the ubiquitous dick-pic.

My wife — in the sense of marriage, not belonging — is one of these bold women. Thanks to her, I’ve discovered the global silver sisters movement. Lots of women around the world are starting to kick aesthetic social conventions, and they are starting to show their natural hair, in public and with pride.

Silver white, snow white, grayish-white, white with bluish undertones … It’s amazingly silly that we must be surprised that women want to show their natural hair, with its natural color. And that they don’t have to be seventy years old to do it. They haven’t let themselves go, they have finally let themselves be.

Last week, while walking down the street in the morning, I saw a young woman. She was in her early thirties. She had long, reddish-brown hair, and silver roots of about two inches long. I smiled under my mask. The silver sister revolution is already here. And it’s very welcome.

A. Hillel Fuentes lives and works in Barcelona. He understands, speaks, and writes in Catalan, Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian, and a little Hebrew.

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