To dye or not to dye, that is the question

updated 7:29 p.m. ET March 29, 2005

CHICAGO - Gray hair seems like a silvery career asset to 56-year-old Dan Vnuk now that he’s given up dyeing his, hoping to improve his job prospects.

Not so for Aliza Sherman Risdahl, 40, who has felt unspoken pressure for years to color her prematurely gray hair. “I don’t actually mind them, but ... no one takes women more seriously because we have gray hairs on our head,” she lamented.

Opinions about the impact of gray hair in business remain conflicted as the work force gets collectively older, with the first baby boomers set to turn 60 next year and all 78 million members of America’s largest generation now over 40.

Does gray add gravitas for those seeking to be hired or promoted, or is it a drawback that is best disguised?

Even with demographics tilting in older workers’ favor, experts say the answer depends on the circumstances.

Twenty years from now, one in every four adult Americans will be over 65. As a result, “this way of evaluating older Americans by their gray hair will have to change,” said Dr. Robert Butler, an expert on aging and chief executive officer of the International Longevity Center in New York.

Gray hair once was considered the ideal in business and politics — white or gray powdered wigs were all the rage in the 18th century among U.S. colonists, who gravitated to gray because they equated older age with respect, power and prosperity.

Today, gray hair is common for men at the CEO level. But whether other executives, rank-and-file employees or job applicants benefit from gray is another matter.

Certainly the message conveyed by TV networks is less than pro-gray, particularly among women. Spotting a female anchor or reporter with gray hair is about as likely as, well, having a boss who wears a powdered wig to the office. And not a single one of the eight women who are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies has gray hair, based on recent photographs.

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