‘My wife is going to hate it’: What has George Clooney done to his hair?

No one serves the salt-and-pepper look quite like George Clooney. Since he started going grey in the 1990s, the actor quickly became one of the world’s favourite “silver foxes”. But after dyeing his hair black recently for a role on Broadway, no one seemed more put off by it than he.

“ My wife is going to hate it because nothing makes you look older than when an older guy dyes his hair,” the Good Night, and Good Luck star told The New York Times in February. George Clooney hates his dyed hair. Should more men embrace their grey locks too? Credit: AP/Supplied Other Hollywood celebrities are similarly smitten with their silver fox status , including Steve Carell, Patrick Dempsey and Hugh Grant.



Locally, there’s Eric Bana, rugby coach Ivan Cleary and Ben Mendelsohn, who’s currently showing off his salt-and-pepper mane in season two of Andor . If the likes of Clooney and Mendelsohn are championing their naturally greying hair, should other men follow suit and ditch the dye? Loading The silver fox allure The term silver fox has been used to describe attractive, grey-haired men since the 1920s, when American baseball player Jesse Petty earned the moniker “The Silver Fox”. However, it goes beyond having grey hair.

Dr Sarah Bonell, a body image researcher at the Bolton Clarke Research Institute, says the term is usually reserved for men with greater power and status, including actors, politicians and chief executives. “Usually, they’re men who were sought after when they were younger, and now they’re pivoting to this older phase of conventional attractiveness,” she says. “The silver fox is revered because it’s generally assumed that with age comes more power and money.

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