Do you know who Jeff Chandler is?
Unless you are a hard-core movie fan you wouldn’t know him. He was one of the leading men of the fifties and sixties who looked equally good in uniforms and cowboy boots. And he had great salt-and-pepper gray hair. That was his distinguishing mark.
In his later years Cary Grant also got the movie goers warm up to the idea that gray hair could be a cool thing indeed, suggesting experience and maturity in a man.
The evolutionary imperative selected dark hair without a single gray strand in it because gray hair subliminally signalled “old age.”
However, within an urban environment, gray hair could also translate as “money” and thus could appeal to the nurturing instincts of young females of child-bearing age.
Looking at the matter from Edward Wilson’s “Sociobiology” perspective, gray hair put the young females in a bind by broadcasting two conflicting signals simultaneously -- “damaged genes” and “wealthy protector.”
These days, in this age of international terrorism, nuclear proliferation, outsourcing, downsizing, bird-flu and global warming, perhaps the “nurturing” aspect of gray hair is winning the subliminal argument.
Here is Taylor Hicks, the winner of the fifth round of American Idol contest, and his prematurely gray hair.
Did you know that a total of 60 million viewers voted for him? That also means 60 million votes for gray hair, hurray! It’s in for sure.
And then there’s Anderson Cooper of CNN, a very energetic and serious young (38yrs) professional with a “nurturing” signal.
There are a lot of brainy creative women who for quite some time showed up in public with prominent gray hair as well. Writer Susan Sontag, for example. Or the singer Emmylou Harris, 59. It did not hurt their career one tiny bit.
If your hair is graying, celebrate. You’re in.
Ugur Akinci, Ph.D. is a Creative Copywriter, Editor, an experienced and award-winning Technical Communicator specializing in fundraising packages, direct sales copy, web content, press releases, movie reviews and hi-tech documentation. He has worked as a Technical Writer for Fortune 100 companies for the last 7 years.
In addition to being an Ezine Articles Expert Author, he is also a Senior Member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), and a Member of American Writers and Artists Institute (AWAI).
You can reach him at writer111@gmail.com for a FREE consultation on all your copywriting needs.
You are most welcomed to visit his official web site http://www.writer111.com for more information on his multidisciplinary background, writing career, and client testimonials. While at it, you might also want to check the latest book he has edited: http://www.lulu.com/content/263630
