42 Part 1 Basic Communication Processes
can get pretty riled up talking about it! Some find the show offensive, per-
petuating stereotypes about individuals from the rural southern United States
(especially after cast member Phil Robertson was taken off the show tempo-
rarily after making anti-gay remarks); others find the show empowering with
positive portrayals of family interactions and the possibility of socioeconomic
mobility.Perceptions of Hair Color: A Gray Area
Anne Kreamer took at close look at a photograph of herself standing along-
side her teenaged daughter and suddenly came to a realization. She didn’t
look, as she imagined, as her daughter’s “faintly hip older friend,” but rather
as a “a schlubby, middle-aged woman with her hair dyed too dark.” Inspired
to authenticity, and with a bit of curiosity about what she really looked like,
Kreamer decided, once and for all, to ditch the dye. She documented the
long, arduous process of growing out her natural gray hair for More Maga-
zine. “I had never thought closely or critically about what the color of my hair
was communicating to the world. It was simply what I had done for 25 years,
and what I assumed looked good and right” (Kreamer, 2006).
Kreamer estimated that 75 percent of American women dye their hair—
and in our youth-obsessed culture, it’s likely that a good portion of those in
their thirties and older do it to cover gray hair. Gray hair is fraught with cultural
meaning: for a woman, it might imply that she’s past her prime. Many women
worry that going gray will harm their careers (and there is some evidence that
they’re correct) (Sixel, 2011). And although gray hair on men has long been
considered “distinguished,” the number of men choosing to cover their gray
is rising (Daswani, 2012).
Women typically begin dying their hair because they feel they’re too
young to be gray; but at some point, like Kreamer, they might feel that they’re
ready to embrace their authentic color—and with it, their authentic age. And
that, too, can imply meaning. After Kreamer grew out her hair, she tried a
little experiment. She went to an online dating site and created a profile that
included a photo of herself with her new silver locks. In three weeks, the
silver-haired profile garnered three hundred looks and seven winks. After a
three-week hiatus, Kreamer posted again, using a different name but an iden-
tical profile—except this time, her hair color in her photo was digitally altered
to look darker. The brown-haired version received a mere seventy looks and
two winks in a three-week period. She tried the same experiment in different
cities, and although total numbers differed, the gray-haired image always
drew more attention than the brown-haired one. Kreamer theorizes that her
natural look sent a specific message: “I was beginning to think that gray hair
might actually be an advantage in a dating situation, a signal that says I’m not
hiding anything from the get-go” (Kreamer, 2007).COMMUNICATIONACROSSCULTURES THINK
ABOUT
THIS
❶ What do you think is
the “appropriate” age for
a woman (or a man) to go
gray? What message does
it send if a younger person
opts not to cover his or
her gray?
❷ Do our perceptions
of gray hair change with
age? Does gray hair carry
the same meaning at age
30 that it does at age 40?
At age 50? At age 60?
➌ Why might more men
be opting to cover their
gray? Have perceptions
of age and masculin-
ity changed, or are men
simply more comfortable
at a salon than they used
to be?