Monday, October 06, 2014

Gray Matter

I'm going to change the subject today.  To a degree.  Instead of writing about the never ending war in the middle east I'm going to write about the never ending war on aging.

This week end seemed to be filled with too much FOX and while doing so I noticed something really weird.  Considering I'm never going to see 70 again, perhaps it's because I've learned over time there are some things that need not be changed because if they are it's not always for the best. It's self defeating.

Hair.  What's wrong with gray hair?  Especially on television personalities? Some of the most distinguished people in the world have gray hair.  President Obama does.  As with most Presidents it comes with the job. There's nothing wrong with that except one tends to age faster than normal. Stress and all that.

Lets, however, look at news anchors and reporters.  Forget about the women.  Dye is in their DNA and with modern technology it looks pretty natural.  But the men!  Wowser! Bad toups and even worse color jobs.

Fortunately there are some who haven't fallen into the trap.  Perhaps they have more progressive management.  Take Anderson Cooper. He's been gray as long as I can remember. Scott Pelly certainly looks good.  Even Brian Williams has a touch of gray showing.  You know, the distinguished kind.

But the FOX fellows. We'll do bad toups first.  George Will is letting the gray peek out below his not-a-hair-out-of-place topper.  Then there is the worst of the worst, Pat Cadell along with his dyed to match facial hair.

John Roberts used to be a nice salt and pepper then nearly white and now back to dark something or other. Bob Beckel is more often a red head then not. Even Shepard Smith shows up at work with a decidedly red tinge to his hair.  What is about men's hair coloring that turns it red?  Women got rid of the laughable blue look years ago!

Why do they do it? Do they realize it looks so unnatural it's laughable? Do they think they'll lose their jobs if they look their age?  Actually with the falsified color they do!

I don't mean to come down extra hard on FOX.  It's just they are the ones I was watching as this observation penetrated my conscious.  I'm sure there are many, many others.

It used to be it mattered more what was in your head than what's on it.  That should include what color it is too.

As for me, I'm one of the lucky ones.  With dishwater blond hair what gray I have is pretty well intermingled. The  biggest changes I've noticed is that it's thinning and getting curly.  Please, don't let that give the media moguls any more ideas on tonsorial splendor. There's no shame in hair today ~ gone tomorrow.  To which my other half will attest.

2 comments:

marlu said...

In my forties I started to get gray. This was when women were going to beauticians to wear a cap with holes in it and letting their hair be pulled through and lightened in those few spots! Many at work thought that was what I was doing. Nope. Just regular old age. My mom did the blue thing that was all the rage in the 1960's.

Word Tosser said...

Which proves that men are more vain than women....even though it was women who started dying their hair years ago.. It is nice to see them be comfortable in their white hair.. now called the new blonde.. lol