Brush Stroke

Going Gray is Subversive: An Interview with Louise Pendry

katie goes platinum

Brush Stroke
Brush Stroke
Brush Stroke

I was sixteen. It was just a solitary grey hair poking up in my parting. I was, quite frankly, appalled. Grey hair is what old people have, right?

Brush Stroke

My mum had dyed her grey hair certainly as long as I’d been alive, and I was well-used to the ritual of home hair dye kits. My dad used to don the plastic gloves and do it for her in our kitchen.

Brush Stroke

I fooled around with those wash-in wash-out toners initially, maybe from the age of sixteen. I then progressed to the odd box dye or semi-permanent.

Brush Stroke

I experimented with a range of colours, different shades of brown, even a kind of carrot orange colour for a spell at uni. Once I got my job as a university professor I decided to get my hair coloured professionally.

Brush Stroke

As I hurtled through my late thirties and early forties, I found myself needing to touch up my burgeoning grey roots at home every fortnight.

Some days I’d ask myself “Why am I doing this?” “How on earth did I find myself stuck in this endless merry-go-round of maintenance?”

Brush Stroke

WHAT SHADE OF EYEBROW LOOKS BEST ON YOU?

After chatting with my hairdresser, we decided to let the grey grow for a few weeks to see what it looked like, then she would tint my dark brown hair as light as she could go without bleach, cut it sorter (to a long bob length) and then we’d see what happened.

Brush Stroke

I was, as I promised myself, transitioned in time for my 50th birthday in April 2016. So around sixteen months. I must admit the bob had to keep going shorter and shorter to reach that target!

Brush Stroke

Swipe Up to Read More