Gray Hair: You'll Like It until Your Turn 30

When supermodel Kate Moss stepped onto the red carpet for the launch of her new bag line in 2010, the Hollywood A-listers gasped in surprise. Considering that the LA crowd witnesses epic weddings, sham marriages and six-figure buying sprees without ever batting an eye, just what triggered such a stir in the world of celebrity gossip?

Kate Moss, the world's most popular supermodel, was sporting gray streaks in her hair.

Well, we say gray hair; the actual color itself is a fairly pale lilac. But nevertheless, the style took off. Gray hair streaks would be observed on essentially the most on-trend celebrities, hip music moguls and hipsters as they battled for the spot in line at the hottest clubs. Evidently youthful trendsetters were more determined than ever before to stand out from the crowd with graying hair, the ultimate tongue-in-cheek rebellion against an older society that employs just about every trick for the book to end gray hair in its tracks.

Contemporary Nielsen studies indicate that we spend a whopping $1.3 billion every single year to hide our gray hair, so it tends to make perfect sense that gray hair would out of the blue be embraced by youthful hipsters. After all, is there some thing edgier than the ability to rebel against one of the last taboos that exists within our image-conscious society? And if the fashion elite are embracing the trends - one fashion director at Elle Magazine said the trend was "more subversive than glamorous," while a NY stylist claimed that the look was "all about individuality - and something close to inaccessibility" [La Ferla, Ruth. "Young Trendsetters Streak Their Hair With Gray." New York Times 1 Apr. 2010]

So then what's stopping gray hair from turning into the new mainstream hair colour?... The response's straightforward: people start getting older.

The ageless Kate Moss aside, subversive gray streaks doesn't have precisely the same impact whenever you start growing them against your will. As younger hipsters start to age into their 30s and 40s, a vital shift happens - they become part of the $1.3 billion crowd. No matter whether it's because of professional motives or simply an aesthetic selection, the drive to stop the clocks is definitely an inherent part of the human condition. It's just an inevitable part of growing older. Although sporting gray hair streaks now may seem to be edgy and cool thanks to youthful skin and luscious hair, in only a handful of years time and a few natural gray hairs later, you'll start to look like everyone else. And in an image-conscious society that's wholly biased against gray hairs, it's enough to make even the hardest of hipsters reach for the nearest box of hair dye.

By all means, rock those pale platinum or lilac locks now - because once you hit 30, those gray hairs will start looking a little less "subversive" or "individualistic"...

...And a lot more like you've missed your latest hair appointment with your colorist!