locks (does it even exist anymore?); we’re talking
about them going to the hair salon, on a regular
basis, to professionally eradicate the gray.
Of course, lots of other WMDs (Weapons of
Mass DISTRACTION) are in the arsenal if you
want to look younger, the most significant ones
offered by doctors (collagen, botox, surgery). But
many of these measures make people look, as the
expression goes, “yold.” Yep, try as you may to
turn back the clock, you could end up “youngold.” Not a wrinkle on your face, not a gray hair
in sight, and yet not convincingly youthful.
And guess what? Even if you look
stupendous—after all the time, energy, and
expense you’ve poured into looking young—when
you pose for a photo with your kids, their aging
visages act as time markers. The only remedy is
to refuse to acknowledge them as your offspring.
I have a friend who, when her son turned 20,
said, “I no longer have a son; I have a brother.”
Being my mother’s daughter, my solution
is to try to live healthfully (eat right, exercise
daily, get some sleep, keep engaged) and take
modest pains to look good (dye my hair, get it
well cut, use a little makeup sometimes, have
age-appropriate clothes). There’s nothing wrong
in wanting to look good—even wanting to look
emphasize his point, he posted a stock photo of
younger than one’s age—but it’s more important
a woman’s feet in the surf on the beach. This
to be good.
is a new category of appearance pressure: you
So what do you think I did when a friend
have to be appealing from your head to your toes, recently said to me, upon viewing a Facebook
literally.
photo of me with my children, “I didn’t spot you
Whenever I mention to a friend, in passing,
at first. I thought you were one of the kids”?
that I’d like to let my hair go gray, I am met with Reader, I giggled.
a tirade of disapproval. No, don’t even consider
Alice Scovell is a NYC-based
it. No, you’re crazy. No way. NO! At least hair
author of two children’s
dye has lost its stigma. It used to be a best-kept
novels (Engraved In Stone,
a secret so that “only her hairdresser knows for
The Spirit Of Chatsworth
Mansion), Alice has three
sure.” Now women young and old flaunt their
grown children. The good
dye-jobs, some with al Y[