Thanks to Joanna Sykes who cast grey-haired models for her show (older women buy fashion too, you know) one of my seasonal stresses has been alleviated. Along with the pressure of what to wear during LFW, for a beauty journalist there’s the added burden of presenting a well-groomed front. A mani, pedi and blow dry are mandatory and for the more mature of us, add a root touch-up to that list. But not this season because thanks to a growing gang of grey stalwarts on fashion’s front line, grey is good.

Harper’s Bazaar Creative/Fashion Director and Editor-in-Chief of 10 magazine, Sophia Neophitou, who started going grey in her early 20s, attributes her look to “sheer laziness, but that doesn’t go down well with a lot of people,” she laughs. Surprisingly, Neophitou’s Greek community is more critical than her fashion peers: “at home, a woman is still expected to be a youthful brunette in her 70s.”

Vogue Fashion Features Writer Sarah Harris has accepted the greying process without a fight. “I guess I look young enough to get away with it,” she says. “But I realise part of that is self-delusion: I think that my hair is still brown, then I catch sight of it in the mirror…”

Florence Torrens who scouts for Neiman Marcus acknowledges the power of grey: “My most high maintenance New York friend told me it gives me authority,” she comments.

Broadcaster and journalist Caryn Franklin has become known for her signature Mallen streak, but it wasn’t always considered a positive attribute. “When I was presenting a tv show with 30 million viewers, BBC bosses told me to dye my hair as it looked too old!” Franklin refused and acknowledges her white streak is something of a militant statement. “I’m sick of the cultural hysteria surrounding women ageing,” she says. Bravo to that.

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