Introduction
Let me introduce you to my mom, Liz.This is us as we finished up a photo shoot the other day where she - a beauty (and good sport) at 77 - is modelling a couple of products for Silvering.
Liz embraced her silvers in her 40s, at a time when it was almost unheard of not to dye your hair. She was my model even then: a role model showing that silver could be chic, sophisticated and a real beauty option.
Her approach to beauty and body positivity made it easy for me in my 40s to embrace my own hair as it evolved. This simple intergenerational knock-on effect inspired Silvering's mission to change the way that all women see silvering hair by showing more women that choosing to silver freely is not just possible, but beautiful.
If you can see it, you can be it.
Body Positivity
Body positivity. It's a term being used more and more in the beauty space. It's an inclusive term that encourages women to feel great about themselves and shrug off pervasive and antiquated societal ideals. We love that.
Embracing silvering hair falls squarely into this category.
It's real hair: perfectly healthy, normal, beautiful hair. What's to hide? Most women who have ditched the dye wish they had done it sooner. Never mind the money and time lost or the chemical exposure, they report feeling closer to themselves and more authentic. They are freed from the anxiety and sometimes shame of having to chase their roots to maintain a look that has been standardized for women.
Why would we keep women from all those good feelings?
Millennials
Fun Fact: the median age of the Millennial is around 35. That just happens to be the same age that women on average start to silver. That means half of the millennial population likely has some silvers they are beginning to deal with.
For Millennial women, these are also the years of juggling motherhood and careers, school pick-ups and business meetings, and there is a real anxiety around how to show up at work, on the playground - in life - as the body grows up out of its 30s.
This new generation of women is now stepping into what those of us over 50 are swimming against: the anti-aging rhetoric in beauty and the issues of gendered ageism in the workplace.
Can we make it a little bit easier on women to grow up? I think we can.
There is a whole inspiring army of women pushing against the stereotypes associated with a woman's age and revealing what is true and beautiful.
Millennials are in a prime position to help move this rock even further uphill.
Millennial women have made remarkable inroads already in changing beauty and marketing norms. Their demand for clean beauty and demands for images of body-positivity has already shifted the beauty landscape.
How this generation approaches their 40s and beyond can continue to shift the stereotypes. More importantly, there is an opportunity to normalize healthier ideas of beauty after 40 in the eyes of their children.
Mothers
As mothers, our beauty choices contribute to how our children feel about themselves; to their sense of body positivity. Our behavior contributes to the complicated ideas of beauty that our kids are fed by that outside world.
The kids are paying attention.
We can point at tween girls reaching for anti-wrinkle creams and my own silvering story as proof.
I count myself lucky to have seen my mom confidently silver in real time, looking fab in her big hair and shoulder pads as she went off to work -- not giving up on beauty, but owning her own.
The Millennial moms are primed to do the same.
A Mission
So here she is again, my mom: being a model.
This time helping to spread the Silvering word on purpose.
We want to make it easier for the next generation of women and girls to see and love their natural selves as they grow up. We want them to be encouraged to silver if they want to with gorgeous products that amplify the beauty of silvers.
If you can see it, you can be it.
(Thanks mom.)
Wisdom. Is. Beautiful.
Liz wears the True Expression Brow Duo (Cool Duo with a light touch) and the Border Line filler (in Salt & Pepper adding dimension and depth to her roots)