CONTEMPORARY IDEAS FOR THE HAIR SERIES
There is no singular description for the choices of hair styles. Hair is as difficult to categorize as it is easy to change. It takes dye—or doesn’t take it in funny ways. The choices are harder to describe than any other category because “hair”, is not easily categorized. Just like so many other descriptions within the realm of “fashion and styleâ€, there are more options, and possibilities for everyone when it comes to the design and maintenance of hair. I note that the options are greater than ever and covers a wide spectrum of age as well as gender.
Color in your hair comes from melanin, which is produced by a melanocyte at the bottom of each hair shaft (in the bulbous bit that is rooted in your scalp). During the process of aging, whether because of aging, which I guess is acceptable, or not. It seems as if it has nothing to do with aging. this color-producing bit stops working, meaning no pigment goes into the shaft at all. Hair is made of the same stuff as nails. What color are your toenail clippings? A whiteish shade of pale? Exactly.
The Gray Hair Series of individuals you see here is an ambition to include as many variations that I can conveniently find of this regal and honest indicator of time that can show as grace, style, sophistication, class and age. Beauty is expressed in all kinds of ways and at all ages. I hope that these images indicate that. I continue to learn as I photograph the subjects with a lot of anecdotes and information that have helped me to learn more as I photograph members of this huge segment of the American population.
Gray hair is not really gray but a variation of several shades of a gray spectrum as well as silver, platinum, smoke, metallic, bronze and golden grays. There is no set pattern that is absolute to the graying of the world. The loss of pigment in the hair follicle can take place as early as the teenage years and some hardly show a touch of gray at their latest years. This contradicts the idea of one gray generation.
Just as there is that loss of pigment to produce gray hair, there is also the diametrical shape of the follicles that produce straight or curly hair. This is a physical range of the relative round to oval to flat sided hair follicles.
The concept of gray hair is another one of the great equalizers of the world. Another way to illustrate that people are more alike than different is a large part of a world philosophy. It knows no boundaries of gender, race, class, religion, or attitude. Even heredity can contradict this characteristic. When the hair is dyed, it is just a covering of the outer shell of the follicle thus it is a cover-up. Even Osama Bin Laden was affected enough to believe that he needed to dye his gray hair in order to appear younger when it was not necessary.
The ages and the generations that we all represent appear and are probably younger in attitude and maturity than ever compared to our parents’ generation and we may be younger than they were at our age.
