Silver is the new status: Why natural grey hair may soon signal power, especially for women

For ages, people, especially women, have openly expressed how concealing grey hair is something they are willing to dye for. Capitalism has helped colour this view, persuading people that white hair strongly suggests non-hair fallibility of some kind. But it may shortly discover there is more money - and power - in putting follicular ageing out there as high-street window-dressing. Because #WhiteHairMatters. Status largely depends on scarcity. When everybody in the boardroom is dyeing, wigging or even balding - a satirical, AI-generated parody meme depicting bald tech leaders on a Time magazine cover with the headline, 'The Future is Bald', even went viral recently - the 57-yr-old person who looks 57 acquires instant distinction. Grey hair becomes not evidence of ageing but conspicuous confidence: proof that its owner can afford to look old.

For women, the signal is particularly potent. Men have long been permitted to become 'distinguished', while women merely became 'older'. Grey says: I'm not auditioning any more. A silver head implies its bearer has survived restructurings, recessions, difficult boards, and run-ins with powers-that-be. Which is why the next grooming boom may involve ambitious younger men and women actually artificially greying themselves. The truly ambitious will ask: how grey must I go to become a partner in this firm?