As Andie MacDowell and Sarah Jessica Parker showcase gorgeous grey hair, and Pamela Anderson goes make-up free for Paris Fashion Week, Angela Kennedy asks, is society finally accepting women’s natural ageing process?
WORDS: ANGELA KENNEDY. IMAGES: LESLEY HUNTER BY GEORGIA HUNTER @SOLARMEDUSA; SUZI GRANT BY ALEX BAMFORD PHOTOGRAPHY; #ILOOKMYAGE IMAGE BY JENNA SMITH; JUSTINE MASTERS BY FIONA FREUND.
The Big Debate
Tick-tock, you’re getting older – and so what? Ageing is a natural process that happens to everyone who is lucky enough to live a long life. It used to be that the first streak of grey hair or a wrinkle or two sparked a feeling of panic over lost youth. Ageing was something to conceal – or risk becoming the invisible woman.
Today, the idea of women becoming irrelevant post-fifty is laughably old fashioned, with even women in the public eye no longer trying to hide the natural ageing process. Just look at the luscious silver-streaked locks of Andie MacDowell, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Sarah Jessica Parker or the fabulously make-up-free Pamela Anderson at Paris Fashion Week. Now, businesswomen, social media influencers and even us ordinary folk recognise ageing is a positive evolution rather than something to fear – and we’re looking all the more fabulous for it!
EMBRACE EVERY AGE
‘Why on earth should we be anti-ageing? It’s an absolute privilege to be ageing and to be alive and healthy,’ says positive ageing influencer Suzi Grant (alternativeageing.net and instagram.com/alternativeageing). ‘That’s why my positive ageing message has always been to seize each and every day. I am a very positive person and my age (74) doesn’t make me any less so. OK, I can’t do some of the things I used to do in my youth, like staying up all night, but I enjoy going to festivals, gigs and dress up for fun.’
Meanwhile, model and pro-ageing influencer Lesley Hunter, 62, is signed to Silverfox MGMT Group (silverfoxmgmt.com.au), an agency that represents mature models who are not defined by their age. Instead, it’s about mindset, common values and a “generation-less approach”, not your age bracket. Lesley certainly personifies this ethos. ‘It’s engrained in western society that women are not worth anything after the child-bearing and rearing stage. Society likes to prevent us from believing in ourselves. What better way to be controlled than to make us feel embarrassed and lessened by our appearance? The emphasis should be on ageing well and living in the moment. You can’t be happy if
