Move over George Clooney. From Paul Mescal to Jeremy Allen White, there’s a new gang of pin-ups with salt-and-pepper hair and they’re under
Move over George Clooney. From Paul Mescal to Jeremy Allen White, there’s a new gang of pin-ups with salt-and-pepper hair and they’re under 40
Tuesday August 13 2024, 9.00am BST, The Sunday Times by Richard Gray
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With the first wisps of silver comes wisdom, they say, but while many men of a certain age choose to turn back the clock by reaching for a box of dye, a new wave of younger men are simply refusing to colour theirs in. The truth is that grey hair has never been so cool — just look at the red carpet. “There’s a handful of relatively young actors who just don’t care if we see them with grey hair or not,” says Paul Toner, deputy editor of 10 magazine. “Look at somebody as successful as Paul Mescal: when he’s not dying his hair for a new role, he lets his grey grow through and doesn’t mind one bit.”
He’s a silver fox? “More a silver fox in training. Let’s call him a silver fox cub instead,” Toner says. At 28, the Normal People star is one of several celebrities who, according to Toner, are “reframing” what it means to be a man approaching his thirties.
“We’ve had ‘zaddies’, those older, strapping sugar daddies with wallets to match — and we all know a silver fox when we see one — but these men, up to and around that 35 mark, understand that with salt and pepper hair comes a certain authority, a sort of superpower,” he says. As one of the four horsemen of the middle-age apocalypse (see also the pierced ear, the leather blouson and a sudden interest in cycling Lycra) the first sight of grey hair is no longer considered the over-the-hill omen of old age it once was.
At 33, arguably the world’s hottest chef who’s not actually a chef, The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White has a cut that cleverly blends his greys (on the temples and at the front) with his medium-length fair and wavy hair. At 30, the Quiet Place actor Joseph Quinn isn’t afraid to let his buzz-cut greys grow out. And at 36, the actors Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton) — with his Mallen streak — and Nick Sagar (Shadowhunters) — with his all-over grey, natural curls — have cuts that emphasise rather than disguise their salt and pepper hair. A little grey — and its associated characteristics of wisdom, experience, authority and “been about a bit but you still definitely would” — represents, for these men at least, a chance to redefine themselves as they gear up for middle age.
Not that everybody is on board with grey hair. When Louis Tomlinson, of One Direction, turned up at Glastonbury (he’s 32) with — brace yourselves — more than a few wisps of white in the front and sides, social media went into meltdown. From a disapproving “[he’s] making me feel 500 years old”, to “my man is getting more SEXY!”, his natural, dye-free hair caused quite the stir.
“Louis’s hair hovers around the 20 per cent salt to about 80 per cent pepper, mark,” says Mads-Sune Lund Christensen, a colourist at Josh Wood Salon in London. “I have men, and these are successful men, who come in for a colour and ask specifically for some grey to be left in — and that’s a new thing,” he says. “In the past, clients always wanted full coverage to remove it.” So now they want to look their age? “They want the salt and the pepper to show — and its authority.”
“It’s everywhere you look,” Toner adds. “You only have to watch something as hugely popular with men as Match of the Day.” Older chaps, yes, but Alan Shearer, Roy Keane and Gary Lineker — three of the most watched and, certainly, admired men on British television — all have grey hair or grey in their beards. Keane’s salt and pepper Grizzly Adams number is an absolute belter. Forget Succession, it’s these men (see also Graeme Souness and Jamie Carragher, the list goes on) who are influencing how younger millennial males wear their hair and, indeed, how they dress.
A quick walk down the men’s aisle in Boots confirms that products for salt and pepper hair have never been so effective, or popular: Control GX Grey Reducing Shampoo (which sounds as if it should be on Top Gear), for example, maintains that all-important seasoning mix. Meanwhile, what’s surely the best bit of man-kit since the reclining chair, Just For Men Moustache & Beard Brush-In Colour Gel will tone down any of those comedy pirate beards in bingo-marker black.
